No, there's little irony. I am just being honest. You all sound like you think you know what you are talking about, but, to be honest, I do not think that you do, and, as I said before, I am not going to pretend so I won't comment.

The cold War is over!

Finally those Capitalist pigs will pay for their crimes! Ey Comrade!

Austin WE won!

Oh Groovy! Smashing Yay Capatalism!

SD,

Stop and read. I said communism will NEVER work. We do not disagree there so the arguments are not going to change anything.

I never attacked Fascism and you jumped to defend it. So now I will include my .02. To believe in Fascism you must be an elitist. Otherwise you are on the outside. Fascism is only believed in by those who are in control.

Are you 6'2" with blond hair, blue eyes?

Are you Fundamentalist Muslim and only you understand the true nature of god?

Do you believe that only the Irish are the most intelligent group of humans?

What do you think determines the superior people who should have the privelege of running a Fascist Regime?

I agree that Fascism itself is not bad, but it will always lean that way. Who determines who gets to lead?

ummm, they are though. lol

DarkHorse: chill, man. I understand what you said. But, if you don't believe that it works, how can you consider yourself a true communist? You mentionned that you believe in equality of all... and I proceeded to discuss that equality of all doesn't really work. On almost any level.

> Are you 6'2" with blond hair, blue eyes?

6'0", black, brown. But I could dye my hair again and get contacts.

> Are you Fundamentalist Muslim and only you understand the
> true nature of god?

No. I don't claim to know anything about God, either:).

> Do you believe that only the Irish are the most intelligent group
> of humans?

Yes. Well, maybe an accolade. Why the Irish exactly?

> What do you think determines the superior people who should
> have the privelege of running a Fascist Regime?

Well, other than Canada and the US, most countries are strictly one race. In and of itself, that makes them the superior people, since there is no one else around. The germans should be allowed to run Germany, the brazillians should run Brazil, etc... it's not nice for outsiders to be welcome in a country, and then act as if they own the place, right away.

> I agree that Fascism itself is not bad, but it will always lean that
> way.

Hm. Well, it has a lot of flaws as well. However, it has and can work. It just needs tweaking.

> Who determines who gets to lead?

Pre-1933 Germany. Pre-44BC Roman Republic (before the Emperors). Today's Japan, Israel, and Switzerland.

Those are just about the 5 most fascist countries (off the top of my head). All of them have had a democracy (albeit fragile) that works splendidly. As little corruption in elections and government as you can possibly get. All 5 had an extreme interest in it's own people...

The leaders were very democratically elected.

Hitler had to defeat the fascist party currently in power in 1933, and it all went downhill from there. He did so with some clever and ruthless strategies. The punch-line was that he CONVINCED the german populace they needed him. So the germans abandonned the fascist German Republic. Bad idea.

Cicero, Pompei and a fella by the name of Julius Caesar had to do something similar (aided by the Spartacus revolt). They convinced the people that a single powerful leader was their only hope (Cicero's idea, Pompei's armies, Caesar's will). The romans abandonned the republic, and the empire was born. Bad idea.

I guess another problem with fascism is that when it fails, it does so spectacularly. In both cases, large scale wars followed, where many people perished.

As I told you before... well, I don't need myself repeating:).

Yeah, I am a bit all over the board here, DH. Hm...

---------------------------------

flying_moose: not quite. The goverment would convince us to give them all our Anunubs (for our own good).

Atilla: I loved that dialogue! One of those memorable AP parts.:)

Well for all you people that think communism is the way.....study economics!! If you have any grasp of this science at all then you will see that communism will never work. Without a free market prices are artifically low and there is an overflow of goods that no one wants while there are HUGH shortages of everything people need!!!!

Economics is not a science and it never will be!!!!

But you are right.

Ummmmm you are mistaken.........it's a science. Believe me it's classified on college courses as a science. lol

Public School strikes again. Or is that Publik Skol?

Communism is an economic model that has never ever ever been applied in any sort of large scale system. Ever.

It relies on a group of selfless individuals who put aside selfish goals for the betterment of the group. The basis is shared rewards out of the system. With each member contributing as best they can for the betterment of all. So if Joe Loser can best contribute by flipping burgers while you do brain surgery, so be it. Congratulate them for doing their part.

It's not welfare.

If you can tolerate the concept of "equal under the law" then you can (in theory) handle a communist economic system.

Communism does not (in theory) require any particular sort of government to impliment. It can be done under a dictatorship or a democracy. Please don't confuse the two.

Before you reply, remember. America is not a democracy. If you don't know why, there's no need to waste anybody's time.

Diomedes: Short and sweet. Nice:).

And Economics is a very powerful science. In fact, if people actually understood economy properly, they would view the world in a very different way.

Such as the economic trouble we are currently in.

As for my economics comment, Dilbert Joke, never mind.

Well put Arik, I wish I had said so in as many words long ago.

I am a very unselfish person. That is why I consider myself a real communist. I believe I could live under such an arrangement if all others were similar to me. I know that this is not the case.

I am also an economics major :) To implement Communism, I would pay everyone the same amount of money for each hour of work. Each person would do the job they are best at, test or do whatever is neccessary to put those with the best skills in the best job. I would make all information available to everyone (no
Enron debacles).

This is my ideal, but because of human nature and competition, it will NEVER work. I understand this 100%.

SD,

Fascism is control by a strong central group of people. Isreal has a lot of problems. The right-wing in Isreals started a terror campaign on their own country and ended by assasinating their own PM when he was working with the Palestinians on peace.

Sharon came in and started back pedling on the agreements and the Palestinians were again discriminated against and began retaliation (which brings us to today). Fascism brings hate and discord by it's very nature.

I do not think their are any long term stable forms of government. Because absolute power corrupts absolutely. Democracy offers the opportunity to reverse this process without bloodshed. That is its most redeming quality.

Nixon attempted to overrun democracy with hate tactics and threats to the media. He was finally caught. McCarthy fed on the fears of many and persecuted any he wanted. Both would have loved a Fascist goverment to control. Thank goodness freedom and democracy prevailed in each case.

Unfortunately democracy is shot now.

Our 'president' has been installed by the Supreme Court instead of by the vote of the people.

The 'War on Terrorism' has become a war on our individual rights, and has ushered in a new era of McCarthyism (You're either with us, or with the Terrorists!).

American citizens are now being arrested and held indefinitely without trial.


The economy is in the toilet, our allies are distancing themselves from us, where once we had peace we now have an open ended war against a nebulous enemy . . .

. . . and the president retains high approval ratings.

Gotta love it.

We don't have a democracy. We have a republic. That is why we have a president who did not win the popular vote.

We also do not have true information. We will never find out how closely the Administration and Enron are. I think they recorded over Nixon's tapes. It would be too difficult to record over the snoring of Reagan.

hey, Atleast Bush isnt president anymore!

Well, for a few hours anyway.