Stalin Redux
By David Aikman
"If you thought the fantasy language of Communism vanished with the collapse of communism 16 years ago, think again. The latest megalomaniac to proclaim an entirely new age for humanity is Venezuela's leftist dictator, Hugo Chavez. This coarse strongman, who is so anti-American that one of his best friends is Iran's equally bombastic leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wants to dredge up a phrase cooked up in the torture cellars of Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao: the so-called "new man."
The idea is that, if the state controls everything, all human wickedness itself will be suppressed and a "new man," with a completely changed human nature, will emerge to turn our world into a sort of left-wing hippy commune.
Chavez may yet lose in a forthcoming referendum to determine if he should rule Venezuela virtually indefinitely. That would be nice. We could do without a new version of Joseph Stalin."
Update: Of course as we know now, it appears Chavez's referendum went down in failure. The referendum would have changed their constitution and allowed him to keep running asdictator "president" every 6 years for as long as he wanted.
One must fully recognize the distinct possibliity that in 4 years when this term his up, he will not relinquish his dicta ....er, presidency.
"If you thought the fantasy language of Communism vanished with the collapse of communism 16 years ago, think again. The latest megalomaniac to proclaim an entirely new age for humanity is Venezuela's leftist dictator, Hugo Chavez. This coarse strongman, who is so anti-American that one of his best friends is Iran's equally bombastic leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wants to dredge up a phrase cooked up in the torture cellars of Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao: the so-called "new man."
The idea is that, if the state controls everything, all human wickedness itself will be suppressed and a "new man," with a completely changed human nature, will emerge to turn our world into a sort of left-wing hippy commune.
Chavez may yet lose in a forthcoming referendum to determine if he should rule Venezuela virtually indefinitely. That would be nice. We could do without a new version of Joseph Stalin."
Update: Of course as we know now, it appears Chavez's referendum went down in failure. The referendum would have changed their constitution and allowed him to keep running as
One must fully recognize the distinct possibliity that in 4 years when this term his up, he will not relinquish his dicta ....er, presidency.
posted by HeavyHanded at
9:57 AM
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