A lot of people are linking to the article in Reason entitled "Fools for Communism". One of my loyal readers sent it to me - thank you! If you haven't read it yet, you really should.
Glenn Garvin looks at the phenomenon of those who still hang on to the "belief" in Communism (and yes, by this point it is a religion, not a philosophy, or an economic theory) - despite all the evidence, and who refuse to adjust their views, despite the spectacular crack-up of the entire Soviet Union. I liked, too, how the article focused on the meaning of apologies, and the lack of apologies. What is that about?
Great quote:
Sometimes the refusal to confront errors is simple hubris. But often it masks a queasy reluctance to start down a path of self-examination, for fear of where it will lead.
Man, I KNOW people like that. Who never examine themselves, because they don't see the need because their views are so clearly right, who never allow change (God forbid), who are uncomfortable with ambiguity, and who NEVER take a look at their dearly held views and examine them. These people are not in process. They are done.
There's nothing more boring than talking to a person who has never changed his or her mind about anything.
But, on a deeper level, this fantastic article looks at that issue I pondered over, in utter confusion, in this post. There are people out there, still, who refuse to believe their own eyes. Why? Who are these people?
Definitely read the Reason article. Very good.
"When someone persuades me that I'm wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?" -- John Maynard Keynes
Posted by sheilaThe Soviets explicitly referred to these people as "useful idiots". At one time the KGB had a Department dedicated to coddling them. Most of them are still in academia, only older and more dogmatic in their ideologies. Their students and followers populate the government, particularly in the State Department and on Capitol Hill.
These are the people who refer to those who disagree with them as "neoconservatives", and conveniently forget that those who they deride with that label were precisely correct in their own analyses of the Soviet's true nature.
I agree with the Soviets that they are idiots, but to us they are not so useful.
Posted by: CW at May 6, 2004 1:49 PMI Told You So, You Fucking Fools What a great title for a book.
I loved that article. I have yet to hear any of the people that pleaded his innocence during the Cold War utter the following words: "I was wrong. Alger Hiss really did it."
Creeps.
Posted by: Emily at May 6, 2004 1:57 PMRobert Conquest is one of my all time heroes.
But make no mistake, the fucking fools are still in control in the West, only the enemies they now apologize for are homocidal freaking lunatics who want to kill us all to the last man, woman, and child. I really think they will destroy Western civilization in our lifetimes.
Posted by: CW at May 6, 2004 2:14 PMI read one of Conquest's books, CW - the one about the famine in the Ukraine.
What is considered his best? What would you recommend?
Posted by: red at May 6, 2004 4:21 PM