Well, there ya go -- redefinition of terms by waves of political foofara.

As with all theories, communism the philosophy and Communism the revolutionary force-fed fascist implementation are two very different kettles of fish. It is of course popular to say and write that the failure of the USSR's economy proved the flaws in the theory, and not differentiate between the very weird brand of communism that arose from the turmoil of Stalin's era, and other kinds, such as the good sister's mentioned above. The one thing that the fall of the USSR does prove, it seems to me, is that individual excellence and personal gain is a powerful social ioncentive, and just eliminating it for the good of all is a really stupid idea. When strong people who operate freely are also socially compassionate, balanced solutions evolve. When those solutions are predictaed instead on draining the best of the able for the support of the less able, serious problems occur.

For example, the USSR was masterful at intimidating people and suppressing their communications. The practices are not part of any theoretical communism, but they sure were part of the Bear's version!

It will be intersting to compare the degrees of socialism and individual intiative in Russia and the United States in another 10 years as it seems to me they ar eboth muiigrating toward some fuzzy center that combines parts of both theories.

A