Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Mandelbaum
William,
I don't think you are understanding my point.
During 1918 in Russia there wasn't just one desire, one vision, or one Left.
***
"To reply once more and finally to the accusation of Utopia: for us, the choice is simple - Utopia or the war now being prepared by antiquated modes of thought.... Skeptical though we are (and as I am), realism forces us to this Utopian alternative. When our Utopia has become part of history, as with many others of like kind, humanity will find themselves unable to conceive reality without it. For History is simply humanity's desperate effort to give body to its most clairvoyant dreams." Camus
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Looks like my point may have been missed, as well. Probably my fault.
But just as a quick and friendly rebuttle: I was not impying (at least not intentionally) that there was only one Left, or one desire, or one vision. All I meant to make clear is that the 1918 Revolution was perpetated by those whose political views are considered leftist. Radical left, certainly.
I consider myself Left on come issues, and Right on others. I don't consider myself a political moderate because I don't ride the fence on most issues, like for instance civil rights. Militant police states and radical theocracies, in general, are considered Right, and don't give a fig for rights. Of course this makes them Wrong, not Right. I ride the fence only on certain few issues where rights and ethics are in conflict, as in abortion. While I'm, on one hand, all for the sovereignty of a woman's rights to her own body, I'm also conflicted as to the morality of abortion, in particular late-term abortions. I think it should be legal, but that doesn't necessarily mean I think it's ethical (save in the case of a woman who's been raped. In that case, should she decide to abort, no-one with a shred of decency should condemn her for it. If abortion of a fetus conceived in rape is an offense to God, then let God deal with it).
Anyway, I decide how I feel about things one issue at a time, and I could never imagine letting my faith trick me into feeling convicted about the rightness or wrongness of something out of fear of pissing off God. I figure God knows what I feel deep in my heart anyway. If my difficulty with the concept of damnation is an offense to God or Christ, then let come hell or highwater. It's just how it is. I've discussed this with Charlie, and I've been trying to make peace with major cognitive dissonance on that particular bugbear. I think execution by public stoning is a heinous disgrace, but it's condoned in the Bible. So what can one do? I certainly can't just shrug and say, well, it's scriptural so it must be okay. Just can't do it. And with that bugbear, I don't even bother trying.
I like the Camus quote, but I think Utopia is a pipe dream and as long as we have human nature to deal with, it'll be impossible. Unless some folks consider some kind of nightmare out of Orwell or Huxley to be an acceptable solution to humanity's endless conflict, crime, and warfare?
Sure, we can be like the famous Jose Delgado (before old age made him much wiser) and advocate for turning people into sheeple via direct intervention in the brain, but I'd rather I and my children were dead than live in a world like that. I don't know about you?
**I won't explain my defense of Charlie, as it would be a breech of privacy. You're all welcome to judge what he writes here, but he's been a complete gentleman in private, even after I wrote him a bunch of babble that was offensive to his beliefs.
**James, my point is simple, and totally noncontroversial: the 1918 Revolution was perpetrated by people from the radical Left. A discussion has been going on that tends to make the Left look like a bunch of sainted humanitarians. Of course, many of them are! But Trump's presidency has whipped
certain people on the Left into an irrational frenzy. Denying that my 1918 example of the potential danger of the Left "fits into all of this" makes
no sense to me. Please don't forget that I said the Right can be just as dangerous, and just as deadly. And it
has been, and no doubt will be again.
***One more thing. I'm willing to be educated. What do you all think of the French Revolution? What would you call the mobsters who beheaded all those people? And were guilty of such a bloodbath? Were they on the Left or Right? Or were they neither? I'm all ears.
Before I say anything more about that revolution, yes, I've read up on it, but am certainly no authority. Like I said in another thread, I'm teachable.