Re:

Communism
Or
"A rose, by any other name, would stink the same"
(Willie the Shake)

A drunk was on his hands and knees at the base of a street lamp. the cop on the beat went over to him. "What's the matter, mac?"
"Dropped my keys," said the tipsillated one.
"Just a minute and I'll help," said the cop, but there were no keys to be found. "You sure you were here when you dropped 'em?"
"No," said the drunk, "I was at my front door over there," he pointed to a house about 200 feed away.
The copy said,"Then why are you looking for your keys over here?"
the drunk answered, "The light is better here!"

And so after 100 years of Marxism, and 70 plus years of absolute control over a great country, Communism had so utterly failed as a system of economy, philosophy, and every other way except some capable use of physical intimidation, that it collapsed from the inside. And what is left is so rotten and corrupt that recovery is not assured. This is where the accrual of certainty leads.

I had a chance to visit the Soviet Union in better times. Their economy was doing well, they were doing cutting edge space exploration, and the ice cream was terrific. But try to tell a joke on the street and a friend would shut you up. And if you asked what was wrong with political jokes you were fed a bunch of long-winded propaganda. In America the only problem with political jokes is when they get elected.

So for those of you who think it is merely a matter of properly 'labeling' the 'politics de jour' you can label every 'defeat' a 'victory' and really simplify matters. The folks who called themselves Communists in Eastern Europe and China created civil wars, massive population displacements, economic malfunctions, military industrial complexes, show trials, mass starvation, and doublethink. If you look hard to the east you can see that of the three remaining governmental systems, one has been able to starve hundreds of thousands of its own citizens while pursuing nuclear weapons, and the other two are CINO's, they are practising state sponsored capitalism after a fashion in maoist rags.

The existence of eurocommunism makes me think of the Santayana phrase about what befalls those who do not learn from history. But what it really makes me ponder is that poor drunk on his hands and knees looking for those keys where the light is better.