Overnight, his brother and successor Raul announced the death of the former longest serving non-royal head of a state. While we must condole with those who mourn, we must also recognise his very mixed legacy, as a Communist dictator leading a state that — per fair comment — has been very un-free and hampered in its development.
Be that as it may, we must recognise this is the death of a former national leader and widely respected statesman. One, who will be mourned not just by family and friends or countrymen, but far and wide across the world.
The development also comes at a pivotal time, when the USA is undergoing its own leadership transition after a very polarised election, and is showing signs of deepening polarisation connected to progressivist ideologies. One issue is that there is a projection of dangerous “Alt-Right” “populism” which is being openly compared to Nazism (incorrectly, National Socialism is a form of Fascism — founded by a leader of the Socialist International — and as its name suggests, is a now dead ideology of the left). The populism smear, as presented by Bloomberg . . and, do not overlook, this is ordinary Americans responding to their National Anthem and/or Pledge of Allegiance:
(In fact, it was plainly the fed-up Rust Belt working classes who previously voted for Mr Obama in 2008 and/or 2012 who delivered the decisive blow to Mrs Clinton — the progressive candidate — in the US presidential election.)
Across the Atlantic, Britain is undergoing a very unstable post Brexit transition (with the decisive blow delivered by the English working class in Labour strongholds . . . a pattern emerges), and Europe as a whole is pondering its implications in light of upcoming elections:
Okay, let’s get some basic stuff on the table, news announcement.
[youtube lBV88edVd-c]
Added, Daily Mail’s bullet-point head and lead:
Also added, US President-Elect Trump’s brief tweet a short while ago [now being 1341+ hrs GMT]:
Now, on the focal matters for us here at UD.
A useful de-spinning and e-YES re-framing exercise for UD’s readers will be to take time in coming hours and days to observe coverage in the media and reactions of world leaders across the ideological spectrum (insofar as such a LEFT vs RIGHT spectrum has any objective warrant).
In this regard, let us understand that
Marxism presented itself for many decades as an undeniable — and in many contexts, the uniquely “legitimate,” “correct” and even “consensus” — scientific analysis of the world of man in society as determined by base line materialistic factors and laws that play out in a chain of social forms across history;
. . . leading to an evolving pattern of superstructures of economic, social, political, legal, and socio-cultural frameworks, with ideology and particularly religion seen as disguising and reducing the raw necessity of force to sustain oppression:
This of course bears a strong resemblance to how Cultural Marxist, critical theories (typically [Critical] Studies of X) approach their diverse fields of interest and it drives the use of oppressed minority identity politics to wedge apart a broad societal consensus into balkanised polarisation.
That polarisation is used, through Alinsky-style agit-prop activism, to discredit and destabilise those seen as undesirable oppressive leaders — yes, the emphasis falls on personal attacks and name-calling — and to create revolutionary conditions for fifth- column- already- in- the- gates subversion and/or overthrow of the regime in power. So, when such radicals attain power, they have never learned respect for others as made in God’s image, nor the roads of responsible, rational, genuinely objective analysis and reform by reasonable agreement. Consequently, communities and institutions under their domineering misrule tend to marches of folly, to attack and abuse or even murder dissenters, and ironically become just what they portray and project others to be in their base and superstructure analysis.
Yes, self-referential moral incoherence (cf. here) by way of being a mirror image of what such ideologues project unto others in order to supplant them.
Resemblance to the current course of our civilisation is NOT coincidental.
So, let us pose by contrast a much less loaded (while a lot is always wrong, much can be right also), seven mountains of influence perspective as a means of thinking through a more balanced approach to change:
Then also, let us look at [and link on] a model for law, government and leadership that draws out the inherent instability and desirability of a generally democratic, constitution based framework for governance:
. . . duly noting the need for stabilisation in democratic polities.
So, now, let us discuss these factors here at UD in the aftermath of a death that is bound to trigger a global discussion, and one that will turn in key part on the tendency of progressives to claim scientific legitimacy, imply intellectual superiority and insinuate that those who differ are morally illegitimate. Not only, on the onward path of government in general, but relating to governance of science issues tied to the design controversy and other similarly ideologically freighted studies and controversies such as climate debates.
In so doing, let us also take due note of the foundational issue of worldviews (with their roots and their expression in ideologies) and thus the cultural agendas they lend legitimacy to, with an eye to the significance of first principles of right reason as protective restraints on and guidelines for our thinking. END
Fidel Castro passes on, there is an agenda of issues we need to discuss not only relevant to ID in scientific institutions but also the wider onward path of our civilisation at a highly polarised time.
NYT retrospective on Castro: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11.....-dies.html
Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ed-90.html
kairosfocus,
I come to UD about once every two weeks now to see what people are saying and comment even less. I usually do not comment on your pieces because they are too long to read and very complicated. They are obviously very well thought out but it takes an effort to read all the details.
Today I read most of the OP and congratulate you on the effort it took to put such a piece together. It lays out a lot of the issues of our times.
I am sure there will be the usual nit picking of points here and there and the interesting thing is that belief in Darwinian evolutionary processes correlates highly with certain political behavior for those who comment here. Obviously not a perfect correlation but over times here I have seen that people end up in boxes that have similar views on a wide range of issues. I find this the most fascinating thing about ID and politics in general.
As far as political behavior, I will pass on this observation. I sat through a long tribute of Emily Dickinson about a year ago. I said to my wife afterwards that she was a good poet but an air head on thinking. Her main claim to thinking was to take what was the common belief at the time and espouse the opposite. She showed little insight or thought in what she advocated. She primarily opposed. But because she could manipulate words in a delightful fashion, one gave her credit as a thinker which she did not deserve.
If I comment on blogs at all anymore it is on economics and human behavior and not here. You have provided both insight and thought in this OP, something that is missing from many who write OP’s on current events around the internet. I will have to check out your links.
I am sure the “usual suspects” will appear to criticize. They are good at criticism, the bane of our time. I believe that Critical Thinking is the real corruption of our times.
PS – I would have added to Trump’t tweet, “Ding dong, the witch is dead!” Unfortunately there are too many witches to take his place. (I know witch is feminine but the meaning is clear.)
PPS – I love the “marches of folly” comment given what has happened in the US in the last two weeks.
What a horrible month for the Democrats. First Hillary goes down in flames, and now this.
Great for Republicans, though. Pretty soon we’ll be back to the good old days when only the rich could afford decent health insurance and education.
Severesky:
I had lunch a couple of months ago with a doctor who works at a health clinic. Obamacare was supposed to reduce their workload because everyone would have healthcare. She says the workload is the same.
Can you explain that?
My health insurance went up 3X because of Obamacare.
I’m not rich. I had to cancel it last month. I can’t afford it any more. No pre-existing conditions. Excellent health.
Waiting to see how thing go under Trump before I try to get new insurance.
Health care in Cuba stinks for the average person. I know people who live there. Good luck if you need major treatment.
The love the Cuban people. I hope to God they get democracy and a free market soon.
Sev,
It was also the middle class who could afford healthcare. Now they can’t.
KF,
“SUTAINABLE CENTRE:
Constitutionally Democratic, limited, lawful Gov’t & L/ship “requires “eternal vigilance” & a foundation of a literate public with a vigorous press)”
While we have a literate public, so does Cuba. The capacity to digest propaganda does not seem to me to be congruent with “literate.” Furthermore, our American press is not vigorous enough to differentiate between propaganda and news. I think therein lies our downfall.
Sev, one of my church sisters at one point was a doctor with a Grandmother living in Cuba — there are strong connexions between some Caribbean islands. She went to a conference, and needed a guide of some sort. The guide had what seems to have been a migraine, a bad one. Not even basic painkillers were accessible to ordinary people in the shops, things like acetaminophen or the like; things I routinely pick up in bottles of 100. Minor pain killers from her bag were most welcome and a blessed relief. A little later, I also spent a week there on the ground as part of a delegation, we drove coming on 1,000 miles on the ground to visit various facilities in connexion with a regional project. While I am very impressed with Cuban professionals, I cannot but observe how run down Cuba had become, and how obviously big Govt backed schemes often failed — a universal problem; and who paid the price when it failed. I will never forget the plight of the ordinary Cuban people, though I am not comfortable detailing, as I do not know who is watching and may add up two and two and harm people who are so obviously wonderful and needy. I saw team after team of oxen ploughing (first time in my life). I saw horse drawn makeshift “minibuses” in the provinces — put a 4′ x 8′ ply on top of an old axle or two, with two wheels each, set up planks and rebars, use old flour bags etc. for cover, don’t forget a drop cloth arrangement for the horse droppings; collect in bucket. Use a pony-sized horse to pull. (This seems to be an upgrade to what I saw: http://samisarkis.photoshelter.....bLZleu5BRw this is close: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuban_transport.jpg ) Micro entrepreneurship, no doubt. I saw the people and their plight . . . and my heart goes out to them, I wish Cuba the very best. Once it is unshackled, it has the potential to be a super-Israel in the Caribbean; but it went from Batista and the Mafia to the Communists. A short time after we left, three young black Cuban men were shot at dawn at the citadel in Havana on the far side of the river, for trying to escape to Florida, hijacking a ferry to try to do so. After a period of somewhat opening, there was a clampdown; again. Don’t even try to pretend to talk to me about socialist paradises, I lived through Jamaica, I saw Cuba, I can read between the lines regarding Venezuela. Marxism failed for good reason, and when it comes to inherently complex vastly distributed time-sensitive systems to match often inarticulate needs to supplies, nothing beats the market. I have seen what bureaucrats do when they have power and even obvious common sense cases that are not welcome stand before them, so don’t try to tell me about the compassion of government. It is time for you to wake up to reality. KF
CY, a literate public is a necessary but not sufficient condition, likewise a vigorous and free press. A whole society has to move to a point where it accepts that core, bedrock principle based law established legitimate rights, and these control foundational law, then general law and regulations. Leadership has to come to that point, not just one or a few individuals, the culture and classes of leaders. The state has to come to a point of lawfulness and restraint, so that it is limited and fair-minded. A whole culture of governance has to be built up, and the first time that was feasible anywhere on earth was about 1700 in the North Atlantic. It is no accident this happened where the reformation had had impact for nearly 200 years, and that it is where modern representational democracy was born, rooted in Alfred’s Book of Dooms, Common law, Magna Carta and the 1689 Bill of rights, with strong influences from what some have called political Calvinism. We are discarding that heritage heedlessly, and will pay an awful price if we do not wake up real soon. KF
Jerry, Trump knew just where to cut the remark while making the point. KF
KF
“a literate public is a necessary but not sufficient condition, likewise a vigorous and free press.”
Yes, that seems to be a given.
But the current powers that be are content in reframing freedom of the press to mean freedom to manipulate facts into support for a particular political agenda. It’s no different than a dictator controlling the press.
In fact, recent attempts to control the internet (currently the only truly free media available), by passing current American controls to an international body that does include dictators, seems like the logical next step in curbing free speech. Once that freedom is eliminated, the one world government by the globalists, seems much more attainable.
DfO, I simply reported a fact, he is a statesman by profession and praxis, and a widely . . . albeit in my view mistakenly in great parts [notice, my first reference: Communist Dictator, and the onward link has links that explore his death toll, likely 80 – 100+ thousand] . . . respected one. We must respond to that wide perception and feeling in how we deal with his passing. And he is in fact being widely mourned across the world. We have to understand and respond to such facts; even as the Pope, a person from Latin America, understands. I add, we should never wish for the ultimate shipwreck of any man’s soul. KF
PS: By contrast, Pol Pot was not a widely respected figure, nor was he mourned across the world.
CY, that undermining of the props for successful democratic self governance is real, is dangerous, and is in wide parts not being recognised for what it is. I notice for instance the attempts to label responsible sources as “fake news,” and many other schemes (doubtless, including us here at UD too). In part, that is why I have commented as above on Castro’s passing, as we see here a global media consensus that has been manipulated, and we see how the Marxist, cynically subversive analysis of community is feeding it by in effect glorifying rebellion and undermining all legitimate authority from family to school to workplace to law and government . . . revealing its inherently demonic nature. Alinsky’s dedication of his Rules for Radicals to the Devil is no joke, it is a clue. Notice, how I point out how the same analysis extends to successful radicals who seize power. Castro is in many regards case study number 1 just now. If, we are willing to learn. KF
Dean_from_Ohio,
There is a subtle difference between respected and respectable. As kf noted, many worldwide respect Castro, even though he wasn’t respectable by any means. Regarding the misinformed, or corrupt publicly mourning on camera….
-Proverbs 28, which is referring to God’s law in verse 4.
PaV @ 6
Actually, I would have expected the workload to increase, if anything. With the availability of cheap health insurance, people should have felt able to go and seek treatment from any health provider whereas, before, they would have avoided it as far as possible because of the cost.
Sev,
What cheap health insurance?
mike1962 @ 7
CannuckianYankee @ 8
Before the advent of Obamacare, around fifty million of your fellow Americans had no insurance at all. One study concluded around 100,000 Americans died every year from lack of any medical treatment. No one’s denying the Affordable Care Act has its issues but it was at least an attempt to address the problem, which was a lot more than Republicans had been able to do and they still have nothing better to put in its place.
My mother lives in the UK and is in her nineties. She has received knee and hip replacements and surgery for cataracts. All free. My brother is in his sixties and also in the UK. He has just undergone surgery for colon cancer and is completing a course of chemotherapy. Again, he didn’t have to pay anything.
Another thing: here in the US, one study found that around half of all personal bankruptcies involved medical bills. In the UK, no one goes bankrupt because they can’t pay their medical bills. So which system is better?
There is no doubt the UK’s National Health Service faces serious problems but, honestly, when it comes to assuring adequate healthcare for you and your family which would you prefer?
But suggest this to conservative Americans and they clutch their pearls, make the sign of the cross or hold up a crucifix and back off muttering about “Socialism!” And that’s all they seem to have to offer. It’s a disgrace.
Seversky, The global death toll of socialism is north of 100 millions in the past century, and it has consistently been a massive economic failure. Even in Venezuela, sitting on a pool of oil. your mockery on raising crucifixes verges on gross disrespect including to God as well as to people, and you need to take a time out to reconsider your language and arguments. Good night. KF
The united states just elected a man who is a puppet of the russians. Look at all the KGB intel that went into propaganda to get trump elected. Look at how he won’t release his taxes because he is deeply in hock to russians and chinese. I really fear what will happen. Thank god I will get to view it from a distance; I just hope mine isn’t the country he starts a war with as a distraction.
Some comments from the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, on the passing of Fidel Castro:
Here are a couple responses:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyPKOSLUoAAUjYk.jpg:large
And from twitter:
Leslie Eastman ?@Mutnodjmet
#trudeaueulogies: With this, Canadians have forfeited all rights to mock or deride President Trump.
Are these from Canadians? Can they still criticize their Prime Minister? I am asking because he doesn’t seem to realize that is Cubans haven’t had that right since Castro came to power. It has been a while since I have visited Canada. Maybe the conditions there are now the same as they are in Cuba. Any Canadians here? Hopefully I won’t get you in trouble.
Folks,
I think we need to focus attention on the need for and challenge of change tied to power in society, contrasting Marxist materialistic base-superstructure analysis and calls to radical subversion and revolution with say the seven mountains of influence type approach of godly reformation.
This should then factor in implications for freedom, for rights, prone-ness to tyranny and abuse, and the issue of management of economies.
Castro’s Cuba is a case in point, but it is one where many do not know or recognise the facts in any balanced context. But comparative analysies of similar cultures and countries on market/ centrally planned economies is decisive, and not in favour of overly centralised planning.
I wish to suggest that there is a temptation to an arrogance of knowledge of the dynamics and illusion of being able to control that leads many to think that government and central planning and control offer superior solutions to the sort of perceived chaos and injustice of markets.
The realities of trying to concentrate and centrally process so much time-sensitive, perishable, diffuse, uncertain, often inarticulate information and perceptions (including of relative values of alternatives) then poses a processor architecture problem. For, yes, the economy poses a planning problem that is in many regards tantamount to a processor architecture issue.
Markets boil down to allowing the cluster of diffused individuals, households and firms to perceive, respond and plan for themselves, by and large coupled through markets, but with requisite socio-cultural structures that manage good order. These structures obviously require modification and onward development from time to time, hence the issue of reform.
Many plans and hopes will fail, but in aggregate there is an exploration of the space of possibilities that promotes progress and the common good, leading to economic growth. Though it is known that such growth is in spurts with fall-backs that are quasi-periodic.
In short, in aggregate the market approach trusts in a large number of simpler processing units running in parallel and with the population of processing units coupled through markets. It then moderates for reducing the places where markets fail, or where it is in the best interests of the community to act centrally or institutionally, e.g. through governments etc. Pareto, Coase et al and welfare economics then come to bear.
In this context, debates over health care systems are seen as over whether so big a chunk and so dynamic a chunk of the economy should be brought under centralised control. The effective alternatives boil down to a system of insurance markets and support for the indigent or those whose insurance fails.
There are doubtless no solutions that cannot be criticised as in many ways deficient, but there is a tendency to compare idealised versions of favoured option A with challenges faced by option B.
Beyond the narrow problem, it is to be realised that the concentration of power and control in Government itself is a manifestation of problems of monopolies and oligarchies, multiplied by some pretty grim lessons of history on the implications of Marxian base-superstructure materialism and amorality in action through ruthless activists. Hence the relevance of Mr Castro’s passing as an occasion for a serious and responsible, factually informed discussion.
On health care, there is no doubt that some very effective medical practitioners are in Cuba, and that there is provision of reasonably high quality care in some quarters, but the average situation of the ordinary person is grim — and known to be grim. The UK type system does offer a lot of care but with serious wait-time problems and many other points of concern. There doubtless are many other difficulties that can be discussed. The former American market system was often critiqued as unjust and facing a challenge of the uninsured.
The accretion of concentrated power in the state is a relevant factor, and reasonable, responsible people can and do have different balances of views.
Which is part of the problem, we see far too much demonisation and denigration.
I am also troubled deeply by the fact that law, government, education, media and medicine have been deeply corrupted and perverted to enable the mass slaughter of 800+ million unborn children globally across the past 40+ years, and mounting up at 1 million more per week. This is the worst holocaust in history, it is the central evil of our time, and it is a case of induced mass blood guilt, which will warp ability to think straight or heed the voice of clear conscience. (And of course, much of the debate shows there is a tendency to embed horrors such as this into centralised health services systems.)
Let me be frank and direct:
Until we see clear signs that we are frankly and fairly facing then responsibly resolving our blood guilt, we are not to be trusted with significantly centralised power on medical or legal and governance matters.
Period.
Nor, to carry out reforms in general.
If this issue is not being faced by would-be reformers, we can be sure the proposed reforms are utterly corrupt and wicked.
Never mind the veneer of oh we care about case X, you do not — how dare you clutch your pearls, hold up a crucifix and cry some shibboleth like “Socialism.”
Sorry, enough of Alinsky’s devilish agit prop tactics, astro-turfed fake grassroots front groups, marches of deluded fools led by judas-goats, rioting to create a false narrative, parading of cases to push an agenda, scapegoating, stereotyping, demonising, red herrings led away to strawmen soaked in ad hominems and set alight to cloud, poison, choke, confuse and polarise the atmosphere for discussion. Enough of deceitful policy arguments and twisted decrees under false colour of law and justice and rights.
Enough!
Have you not heard, that a right is a morally grounded demand to be respected in some wise based on our dignity as made in God’s image and endowed with responsible rational freedom under moral government?
That, your right therefore means my duty to support and sustain you in such a regard as life, liberty, property, innocent reputation, etc?
That, therefore, to claim a right one must be manifestly in the right, as we can have no just cause to demand that others do or enable evil and taint their souls to allow us to proceed in our way?
That, therefore, there can be no right to demand that we enable the shedding of the innocent blood of the unborn?
And much more, down a long litany of the wickedness of our day marching under false colours of rights?
Enough!
The self-referential moral incoherence points unerringly to much deeper and broader incoherence and folly, liable to trigger manipulated marches of folly to ruin.
As it is, our civilisation is already far down a road to ruin, and we need to stop, and think again.
In this light, the way we discuss the case of Mr Castro’s passing is yet another warning sign of where we are headed, and JAD is quite right to highlight the glaring gaps and politically correct talk-arounds in Mr Trudeau’s remarks. We must never forget the people of Cuba have been subjected to a generation of tyranny, and have suffered perhaps 80,000 – 100,000 plus dead at the hands of tyrants as a result. Cuba went from Batista and the Mafia to Castro, the Communists and the DGI backed up by your friendly neighbourhood committees for the defence of the revolution. All, subsidised by the late unlamented USSR, and paid for in the blood of Cubans sent out as mercenaries of revolution all around the world as well as that of the victims of those wars and subversions.
Including, in Jamaica and Grenada.
With a long list of other places.
Enough!
Sophia is warning us.
And, given the significance of evolutionary materialism and its undermining of reasonable, responsible freedom and of morality, so is Plato in The Laws Bk X:
Will we heed such warnings?
KF
AK, you just used this thread to accuse the President-Elect of the USA of treason most foul. You will either substantiate with adequate evidence of a quality that would stand up in impeachment and onwards in a trial for his life, or else withdraw and apologies for your remarks. Or else, kindly leave this thread and never return to any thread I am owner of at UD. Failing this, as thread-owner, I will call you a foul troll and wicked false accuser, treating you as your irresponsible behaviour deserves. KF
DfO,
statesman has two senses; one is professional, the other complimentary. As in, what a statesman ought to be.
The other, when a man of the state fails in his sworn duty, actually gains further adverse force from the implied utter failure or outright betrayal.
Let us learn and let us turn from sinful ruinous folly.
Including, failing to speak truth in this moment of truth.
KF
bb
When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices,
and when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness.
Proverbs 11:10
(Doesn’t mean we should be shouting along)
The news is always interested in the fake response – world leaders who only knew the “statesman” Castro.
We’ll get no real response from Cubans in Cuba, who aren’t free to speak their minds.
The real response is from those who lived under Castro and gained freedom; the majority of whom now live in south Florida.
KF
“Castro is in many regards case study number 1 just now.”
Very true.
KF,
It would be great if this principle were applied evenly!
To be clear, I don’t mean to throw any accusations your way, KF. It’s just that we (in the USA) have become used to this sort of rhetoric over the last several years. For example:
–Obama founded ISIS.
–Obama might have been secretly behind the Orlando shootings.
–The George W. Bush administration either orchestrated the Sept 11 attacks, or deliberately allowed them to happen.
etc.
PM Trudeau, who I cited above @ #23, isn’t the only one who has developed (or inherited) amnesia about recent history in Cuba. Here are a couple examples from the U.S.
GregGutfeld @ greggutfeld commented before he retweeted Geraldo Rivera:
“U can see the “but” coming 90 miles away.”
Rivera had tweeted:
“RIP #FidelCastro Yes, a despot who ruthlessly suppressed dissidents. But he defeated a dictator & was the premier revolutionary of his time”
https://twitter.com/GeraldoRivera/status/802639263938605056
Rev Jesse Jackson Sr @RevJJackson
“In many ways, after 1959, the oppressed the world over joined Castro’s cause of fighting for freedom & liberation-he changed the world. RIP”
https://twitter.com/RevJJackson/status/802503336280858624
The political left is even more out of touch with reality than I thought it was. That’s scary.
CY,
That was the first proverb that came to mind when I heard of Castro’s death. Though they didn’t specify any, Adams, Jefferson and Washington all thought religion and morality were essential to self-governance and self-governance essential to liberty.
-John Adams, Letter to Zabdiel Adams (21 June 1776)
Mass murder is always justified by the perpetrators and their followers. Most Americans are completely comfortable with Harry Truman ordering the use of nuclear weapons against two Japanese cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) during the summer of 1945…killing over 100,000 civilians.
Here’s a poem to consider:
Hiroshima
by Sherwood Ross
I am the Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto
A graduate of Emory College, Atlanta,
Pastor of the Methodist Church of Hiroshima
I was in a western suburb when the bomb struck
Like a sheet of sunlight.
Fearing for my wife and family
I ran back into the city
Where I saw hundreds and hundreds fleeing
Every one of them hurt in some way.
The eyebrows of some were burned off
Skin hung from their faces and hands
Some were vomiting as they walked
On some naked bodies the burns had made patterns
Of the shapes of flowers transferred
From their kimonos to human skin.
Almost all had their heads bowed
Looked straight ahead, were silent
And showed no expression whatever.
Under many houses I heard trapped people screaming
Crying for help but there were none to help
And the fire was coming.
I came to a young woman holding her dead baby
Who pleaded with me to find her husband
So he could see the baby one last time.
There was nothing I could do but humor her.
By accident I ran into my own wife
Both she and our child were alive and well.
For days I carried water and food to the wounded and the dying.
I apologized to them: “Forgive me,” I said, “for not sharing your burden.”
I am the Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto
Pastor of the Methodist Church of Hiroshima
I was in a western suburb when the bomb struck
Like a sheet of sunlight.
KF @24:
Sobering timely warning. Thank you.
TWSYF,
Your equivocation doesn’t work. There is a big difference between war with a nation that attacked you first and mass murder.
Was it Wrong to Drop the Atom Bomb on Japan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmIBbcxseXM
daveS
If you’re equating AW’s opinions with that sort of thing, then I think you’re on to something here. Yes, indeed.
bb @32:
Insightful commentary. Thank you.
Regarding the text you quoted: Was it assumed back then that they had in mind Judeo-Christian framework?
Dionisio,
“Was it assumed back then that they had in mind Judeo-Christian framework?”
None other, though I doubt that any I mentioned were Christian. They still embraced the Christian idea of natural moral law, which is basically what is laid out Biblically. Based on that standard they had contempt for Islam.
bb @ 35: You just made my point. Mass murder is ALWAYS justified by the perpetrators and their followers. The 100,000 murdered Japanese civilians had as much control over their government as you do over yours. None.
kairosfocus @ 21
In the eyes of many in the US, to label something as “socialist” is to demonize it and cast it beyond the pale of serious consideration. The idea behind socialism is that society as a whole should own the means of production and distribution so that society as a whole should enjoy the benefits thereof, not just the few with the skills to manipulate the system to their advantage. The failures of socialism are not so much a fault of the ideology but rather of human nature. In the notorious cases, they professed socialism but practiced despotism. The states fell into the hands of dictators and the thugs that supported them. Absolute power corrupted absolutely.
And should God, if He exists, find anything I have said to be disrespectful, He is welcome to take the matter up with me directly. I’m sure that, as Supreme Being and all-powerful Creator, He is quite capable of taking care of Himself.
bb @ 35
Is there any simple answer?
Prior to dropping the bombs, one study had estimated that a conventional invasion of the Japanese home islands would have cost 1.7 – 4 million American casualties and anywhere between 5-10 million Japanese fatalities.
What was done to Hiroshima and Nagasaki was terrible. There is no way round it. But was it the lesser of two evils confronting the Allied planners? What would you have done if you’d had to make that choice?
DS, i do not live in the USA and am subject to UK style libel law, just tolerating something on what I have some authority over is enough. And, frankly, the issue still obtains even if there is no legal penalty. There is here an accusation of treason. There had better be solid warrant for it or I am taking drastic action against AK. KF
TWSYF,
Your equivocation still doesn’t work. Maybe you can offer some definitions so that we’re sure to be speaking the same language.
TWSYF @33:
Interesting commentary. Heartbreaking poem. It points to the cruel reality of wars in this spiritually lost and blind world.
Seversky, fair warning. One of those over 100 millions was an unofficial but very real aunt of mine, murdered in her shop because of poisonous agit-prop targetting and blaming shop keepers for “hoarding” during an undeclared civil war. A civil war where Cuban-trained and armed brigadistas were a very relevant force; so yes, my aunt is one of Fidel’s death toll. I, for cause, have an extremely low tolerance for Socialist rhetoric, policy proposals, activism and agit prop. I have already laid out in outline my substantial — processor architecture — reasons for rejecting government driven socialisation of the economy and/or its major sectors. If you have something to say on substance, say it. I will not tolerate agit prop and evasive rhetoric, not on this topic. KF
PS: I see we are more or less on the same page regarding the nuke bombings. This needs to be extended to what we now know, WW II was a nuke threshold war and the Allies were not sure of how advanced either Germany or Japan were. A significant part of the aerial bombardment hampered Germany’s progress and may have bought critical time for a ground campaign to bring things to a halt before nukes went off over London, Moscow and New York.
bb @38:
Does the last word you wrote in your comment refer to a religious belief that apparently appeared in the 6th century (i.e. 5 centuries after Christianity)?
Didn’t it borrow ideas from or made references to biblical passages or names?
DM on UK nationalised health services problems:
KF
Seversky,
I think Truman did the best he could with what means to weigh costs that he had. Post-hoc analysis with modern tools is irrelevant because he didn’t have the resources we have today. His motivation wasn’t genocidal, and it certainly wasn’t to subjugate the Japanese in order to keep them under his thumb for decades to feed his personal power trip and greed the way Castro did to his own people. TWSYF is playing an equivocation game.
If dropping the bomb meant destroying enemy ability to build arms, a quicker end to the war, an end to American casualties, and fewer deaths overall in the end, I would have done the same. But how does one accurately evaluate all that using WWII tech? I think the morality of the decision before God matters most and leads to the best decision in the end. I can’t hide my intent from the God that can see right through me in every respect.
I’m obviously not the moderator, but I propose we focus on the real subject, Castro, his murderous and tyrannical regime, and the possibility of history repeating in societies that are somewhat free only for the moment because many of our leaders admire a thug. It indicates that they don’t have the morality necessary to judge rightly. Hiroshima is a distraction and just a big tu quoque.
Seversky @40:
socialism?
ideology?
human nature?
Which socialism? Scandinavian – known as Nordic Model? Or something else? What exactly?
What ideology?
What about the human nature?
Dionisio,
Yes, but that doesn’t make it equivalent. Europe borrowed ideas for paper, gun powder, the printing press and paper money from China, but that didn’t make it China. Counterfeiters borrow currency designs from mints, but that doesn’t make their product cash. Satan himself, tries to imitate God, in his twisted way. Even Satan quotes the Bible. But alas, he isn’t God.
-William Shakespeare
bb @ 43: The fact that you are JUSTIFYING the killing of 100,000 civilians makes my original point. I call it mass murder. You call it…what?
Here is something for you to think about:
“Careful scholarly treatment of the records and manuscripts opened over the past few years has greatly enhanced our understanding of why the Truman administration used atomic weapons against Japan. Experts continue to disagree on some issues, but critical questions have been answered. The consensus among scholars is that the bomb was not needed to avoid an invasion of Japan. It is clear that alternatives to the bomb existed and that Truman and his advisors knew it.” See Chapter One, Note 2 in the book “Worse Than War” by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (2009).
TWSYF, I doubt there is a justification, only an argument of lesser of evils in a horrible situation. I also tend to be a tad skeptical of claimed wonderful alternatives when in fact the atomic bombings nearly were not enough. Yes, there was a faction that was trying to fight on and it took the unprecedented act of a recording broadcast by Hirohito to order the surrender of Japan. Anyway, this is now well off topic, and we need to come back to focus. KF
You like to threaten people, don’t you?
What action might that be?
___________________
Mr King, your behaviour is enabling of reckless false accusations. The above, which I responded to, clearly constitutes an accusation of treason; which was offered almost as though it is a right to make such a grave charge without grounds. I challenged the accuser to ground, on pain of appropriate action against false accusation. That you see this as a “threat” while apparently not seeing the significance of a capital crime accusation tossed off as though it needs no warrant and is a right, speaks volumes about you, and not in your favour. Good day sir, KF
bb @50:
Huh?
Who said anything about equivalence?
I’m sorry if my convoluted writing is hard to decipher. 🙂
You may want to take some time to digest the comments before responding or ask me to clarify my questions if they are not clear. It happens sometimes. I’m still learning to write.
Anyway, I’ve done the “knee-jerk reaction” too. More than once. Join the club!
I just wanted to comment on the last word you wrote @38. You seem to know more than I do about this topic, hence wanted to asked you a few things.
Basically wanted to ask if their alleged founder used a few twisted references to scripture passages or characters (the Christian Bible cannon had been compiled around two centuries earlier, right?). Was he trying to persuade the Jewish merchants in the area to accept his newly brewed messages but they did not buy it? How else one could explain that they were described in nice terms first and then trashed later in the same book? What happened that triggered such a radical change? Besides, is Jesus presented in their main book as the only prophet who performed miracles? Do they make any reference to the scripture passages saying that Jesus made their founder and everybody else?
Sorry I’ve digressed far off topic.
DK @53:
I can’t answer for KF, but I’d put the seemingly “trolling” comments in a queue awaiting moderation. Then run a referendum here to see what percentage of commenters want the allegedly distracting “trolling” comments back.
That would be a democratic solution.
Some folks here can’t afford to squander precious time on nonsense.
BTW, the trolls I saw in the Norwegian fjords last summer were much nicer than the ones we encounter online. All the tourists wanted to take pics near them.
Actually, if I had moderation power like KF I would put a few more comments in the moderation queue and wait for a democratic referendum to decide how to dispose of them.
I definitely lack the patience and tolerance KF has.
🙂
KF @47:
Interesting but very discouraging article.
In a hypothetical communist society -as far as I remember from my studies- the NHS described in that article would have been minimized, because everybody would do their best to use their time, energy, skills, talents, for the benefit of the society. In return everybody would have their needs* satisfied. Perhaps that’s one reason why the societies that were trying to reach that ‘ultimate’ stage of society called ‘Communism’, first had to build a totally new person –which the soviets would call “nasta-yashy komunisticheski chelav-yek”– highly altruistic, unconditionally dedicated to give their best for the sake of the rest of the society, expecting nothing in return, except the full satisfaction of their needs*. But that final socioeconomic stage also required a tremendous development of the productive forces in order to guarantee the satisfaction of everybody’s needs.
Needless to say that no country ever reached that goal, not even close. They never reached the required production levels and obviously were never able to create the dreamed new person. All the countries that were allegedly on that path remained in the transitional stage called ‘socialism’ were the ‘official’ distribution of the national wealth was not according to needs, but according to the work people did, or according to their relative position in the socioeconomic structure. Unofficially it was as in Orwell’s Animal Farm, where some folks were more equal than others. 🙂 http://msxnet.org/orwell/animal_farm.pdf
What went wrong?
Perhaps Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave us a hint. See the next post.
(*) whatever that meant. 🙂
Kairos @ 24,
“Marxist materialist base superstructure.”
In what universe is the theory of Marx’s description of Communism, in any way connected to the greed of capatalism/materialism?
Health care? I live in NZ with an almost identical socialised health care system to the UK, Australia, Japan, and almost all of western Europe.
Here is some real information from someone aged 50 who has lived in this country, and travelled, all his life:
At age six I contracted cerebral meningitis, a hospital stay of six months, drugs, medical procedures, and doctors bills cost my father exactly 0$. In the States I would rot.
I have broken my leg twice playing football, and all costs were paid for by the taxes of my countrymen; I am greatful.
Do you seriously wants to put up your private user/pay health care system up aganist ours? You’re either insane, self loathing, ignorent, or all three.
Castro left Cuba with a 100% youth literacy rate; your country?
15,000 highly trained Cuban medical workers work in various regional hotspots to the cost of Cuba; the UN is greatful, the US watches ‘Duck Dynasty’.
In 2000 the UK sent 100 doctors and health administrators to Cuba to learn how they use every dollar so efficiently. The answer get rid of the administrators. Cuban hospitals are run by doctors and nurses.
If you could just get rid of that pointless middleman, insurance, out of yor haelsth care system in the states, and replace it with tax payer funded doctors and nurses, US wastage in health care costs (which is despicable) would plummet.
kairosfocus @ 47
You would be well-advised not to rely on the Daily Mail for fair and balanced coverage of this or any other issue. The Mail is Tory paper. The NHS was the creation of a socialist Labour administration, hence the Mail is not necessarily well-disposed towards it.
It lists a number of medical errors committed by NHS staff which don’t look good and aren’t good. What the article doesn’t provide is context. Is the NHS significantly better or worse than other health services by that measure? For example, it makes no mention of US statistics which show that medical errors there are the third leading cause of death of patients, just after cancer and heart disease. Why not? Could it have anything to do with Tory ambitions to privatize healthcare in the UK?
Another sobering lecture by Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the second half of last century:
rvb8 @58:
[original]
[corrected]
Are you addressing KF?
Isn’t KF a UK (not US) citizen?
Better ask him first.
RVB8,
Perhaps it has not dawned on you that Marx and those who followed him offered the base-superstructure, naked force and ideology analysis as a means to delegitimise all authority before they came along, creating the perception that authority and structures of influence and leadership are all conditioned — thus, relativised and discredited as at best “ideologies” — by power relations keyed to economics of production and linked technologies [the materialistic base]. This “justified” the movements of subversion and revolution, formerly mostly class-based, latterly often being motivated by manipulation of cultural/racial and social or sexual identity.
The predictable result is agitation and subversion, multiplied by seizure of power by ruthless manipulators and conscience-benumbed angry agitators leading dupes and intimidating others into enabling behaviour, leading to imposition of a new tyranny by the latest form of the nomenklatura, with the KGB, DGI and Committees for the Defence of the Revolution [every neighbourhood I saw in Cuba had signs up by said CDRs . . . a not so subtle hint that potentially destructive eyes were watching you]; or Red Guards or even Young Pioneers or whatever enforcement arms are convenient.
In short, George Orwell was precisely right in his closing scene from Animal Farm: As the animals looked form man to pig and from pig to man, they realised what had happened. Already, there was no difference.
Perhaps, you have not actually seen where marxist agitation leads at institutional or national level, I have and it is not good; a lesson my extended family has paid a price in blood for.
As for health care systems, I suggest to you that the first issue is socialisation of large sectors of the economy and that such raises exactly the concerns I have noted. I note too that the all too commonly seen practice of strawman caricature and linked demonisation of ideas and people who raise relevant questions or challenges, should be moderated. There are no solutions to the health care problems and challenges that do not face the core challenge of economics, choice amidst scarcity, leading to one form or another of rationing.
In this case the practical alternatives seem to be some sort of pattern of insurance markets and/or state-backed centralisation. Neither solution, nor any mixed solution, is free of severe problems. State-backed solutions have the further import of opening door to political domination of the economy and of lives by the state, which must be guarderd against, strictly limited and controlled.
Further to all this, this generation is the most en-darkened, conscience-benumbed, blood guilty one in all history, so a wise person would first call for reform of the situation where law, government, media, education, public opinion and professions sworn to protect life have been systematically warped, corrupted and rendered blood guilty by what was done to enable the ongoing holocaust of 800+ million unborn killed in the womb in 40-odd years, mounting up at a million a week. This is a red flag issue, and a test of any proposal or policy or scheme. Where, as a rule, the boasted of socialised or nationalised, taxpayer-funded schemes around the world are clearly implicated in this holocaust. (How else could it amount to these levels?)
This is already a strong reason to hold that such schemes are too often of the character of a baited fish-hook: 99% good fish food, but the barbed point is what counts.
If I do not see a good answer to the problem of the holocaust of the unborn in any socialised medical scheme, it is patently devilish, murderous and destructive, period.
Further to this, such a warped, wicked, murderous system will feed an agenda of destructive control and subversion precisely along the lines outlined in the OP and above, i.e. it is tainted with destructive activism that traces directly or indirectly to Marx. in this case it will also corrupt the professions sworn to uphold and defend life, tainting their practitioners with blood guilt.
Practitioners of law, government, administration and politics, sworn to justice, will be tainted with enabling evil and enacting or enforcing unjust decrees under false colour of law and justice.
Practitioners in education and the media, sworn to truth, will be tainted by enabling blood guilt.
And so forth.
Instead, we need a different approach, one that respects legitimate authority and core moral concerns, anchored in our inherent dignity as being made in the image of God, granted the gift of responsible rational freedom under moral government guided by that candle within, conscience.
In such a context, rights have a reasonable meaning, being expressions of our inherent dignity and the premise then is, if I have a right to life, liberty, innocent reputation, property [as in, theft implies legitimacy of property and that fraud or force can be used to illegitimately seize what belongs to another . . . including by the state], etc it is because you owe me a duty of care in these regards. Therefore, I can only properly claim a right if I am manifestly in the right.
This instantly demolishes the agenda of claiming rights to murder our progeny in the womb. Murder, here, being in the core, natural law, moral sense: shedding of innocent blood.
So, I would think, sir, that you have some rethinking to do.
KF
F/N: RVB8, you have some accounting to do on your vaunted dismissal of the facts on the embedding of text in the core of cell based life, where you exhibited gross ignorance. We are still monitoring that thread. KF
D, there are duties of care that rise beyond, oh moderate and put in a waiting-line for a vote. A false and unwarranted accusation of treason most foul, a capital crime, is well beyond the pale of responsible discussion. those who resort to such discredit themselves and have no claim on others that they host or propagate or enable such behaviour. The fact that AK is suddenly missing in action speaks volumes, that he most likely cannot substantiate his accusations with evidence that would impeach and put on trial for life. Further to this, someone above tried to excuse such outrageous misbehaviour as “rhetoric” made acceptable by being commonplace in an American context. All s/he shows, instead, is that the American public has become corrupt and wicked and/or is enabling of such corruption and wickedness. No wonder they have reached where this past election reveals their nation to be in no uncertain terms, by ending up in such a choice of the lesser of evils. Gresham’s law that bad money drives out good from circulation seems to extend to politics in a community that becomes increasingly tolerant of abusive and irresponsible, slanderous behaviour. I laid out the clear alternatives: substantiate, or apologise, or else — as an exposed troll — leave this thread or any other one that I own; which is where my authority/moderation power holds. KF
D, I would suggest that at the end of WW2, the W was exhausted and the public unwilling to tolerate further rivers of blood. Then, all too soon, thanks to atom bomb spies, Stalin had the bomb. (The first genuine Soviet innovation was Sakharov’s spherical H bomb design — as opposed to the American cylindrical design. And of course, all of this hangs the albatross of shame around the collective necks of my core professional community, Physics. We have a particular duty to guard civilisation from the horrors we have wrought.) Containment and gradual solution by whatever worked out was the only feasible option. It took a generation — and many in the West were arguing for de facto surrender, more than once nearly attaining power to effect just that. It is by no means certain that the strong stance of the 1980’s would inevitably have occurred. We all owe a debt of honour to Pope John Paul II, the Great; to Mrs Margaret Thatcher; and, to Mr Ronald Reagan — thus, to the voters of the UK and the USA — that many will never ever properly acknowledge. KF
Seversky, Do you see that you resorted to tag, polarise and dismiss tactics? The DM article is actually most interesting for the following discussion, by which the issues seep out around the edges. It is patent that junior doctors and presumably nurses are routinely over-worked and are making the errors of exhaustion; which is what DM correctly headlines but in my view does not sufficiently draw out and detail; I suspect, they intend to be provocative of a discussion. Some of course suspect “dem furriners” who cannot “speaka de Inglish rite.” The evidence instead is economic: when price is removed as a means of rationing, other forms of rationing emerge: wait time, degradation of service quality through over-strain, and more. In short, the reality of scarcity will out, and with it realities of opportunity costs and trade-offs. Subsidised or “free” care is possible, but at a cost, and given the scale of the health sector in an economy, with much broader implications and precedents. My own view (for what it’s worth) is that we need a sliding scale of coverage: social care [and BTW we need to emphasise public health and prevention], affordable subsidised care, catastrophic care access, insurance markets in some blend. BTW, I hold myself as living on borrowed time and essentially uninsurable given that by rights I should long since be dead; that I am alive is by patently miraculous answer to prayer. I also wonder whether we need to reframe medicine, opening up a much broader category comparable to the nurse practitioner. In any case, back on focal topic, it is clear that no-one can gainsay the point that the vaunted claims of health care advances are justified on the ground for the degree of care accessible to the ordinary Cuban, much less that such provides mitigation for a stringent evaluation of Mr Castro’s seizure of power and half century plus of rule as Dictator and sponsor of his brother as successor. Beyond, Communism and its linked notions and ideological weapons of mass subversion, patently fail the test of responsible, rational freedom and moral governance. Solzhenitsyn’s summary should be substantially acknowledged by all, HT Dionisio . . . who, from previous remarks, grew up in the shadow of Communism. KF
KF,
Here’s a general ‘off topic’ comment posted in another thread, but perhaps it applies to the entire site:
Perhaps some of your ‘idealistic’ readers may find this surprisingly revealing?
http://nypost.com/2016/11/27/i.....y-starved/
Basically, what we see is not always what we get.
Misinformation is all around.
That’s why we are told to test everything and hold what is good. Only.
Words have contextual meaning, but relatively few people seem to care about finding it.
KF
Agree with your insightful comments posted at 62-66. Thank you.
KF,
Let me make another ‘off topic’ comment as follow-up to 67.
Note that I wrote @67:
However, the quoted text that followed was copied from a New York Post online page.
Then why did I write ‘apparently said’ instead of just ‘said’?
Well, because I don’t know with certainty if Keith Richards really said that or it was just made up by the NYP journalist. But this time I did it intentionally in order to use it as an illustration for this follow-up comment.
However, since in most cases we assume that it really happened, then we don’t emphasize the ‘uncertainty’ factor in our comments.
Otherwise we would have to say ‘apparently’ many times in our conversations and written discussions.
Maybe the expression ‘benefit of the doubt’ applies here? I don’t know.
F/N: H/T PL, Khrushchev’s rebuke to Castro in the aftermath of the Missile Crisis:
Please bear this in mind as you see the one-sided news and commentary.
KF
KF,
FYI RE: comment @55 – my references to ‘referendum’ were intended to slightly soften my ‘screen out’ suggestion, in response to DK@53, which itself seemed a little ‘trollish’ too. Maybe it wasn’t.
I understand the moderator is responsible for ensuring the discussion develops harmoniously, hence trolls, offensive comments or comments that violate the ‘non-profit’ status of the blog should be filtered out ASAP.
If at any moment a moderator considers my comment inappropriate, it must be taken out immediately and I have nothing to say about it. This is not my blog, but someone else’s.
It’s obvious that this site allows a wide variety of opinions from folks with very different worldview positions. That’s good.
Even the ID community is far from homogeneous philosophically and theologically speaking.
Sometimes I may have referred to it as an eintopf on steroids. 🙂
That’s why associating ID with a particular theological viewpoint or religious belief is a sign of either deep ignorance or unclean intentions.
Dionisio
Philosopher, Edward Feser, argues that ID is actually a product of a specific theological viewpoint.
I’ve always argued against that, but at times I think he might be correct. It depends on what we mean by ID and where we actually find “the real ID”. It’s interesting.
KF,
I’m not sure if you are referring to my post #30 above, so if you aren’t, then please ignore the following.
If you are, then I absolutely did not try to “excuse” such misbehavior; in fact, I did quite the opposite.
I’m not going to say that the American public has become corrupt and wicked, but we apparently have become too tolerant of some of the more outrageous attacks on our public officeholders.
DS, pardon if I misread your remark, but it looked to me close to toleration. I suggest, the tolerance and enabling of wickedness and folly speak for themselves, and not commendably. the matter on the table here is an accusation of treason, and from the utter failure to substantiate when challenged, we can infer on no serious grounds. That speaks for itself. As for corrupt and wicked, I think on the whole this generation across the world has become the most blood guilty and conscience-benumbed on record, going along by and large with the worst, in-progress holocaust in history — mounting up at about 1 million per week if we take the figures from Guttmacher and UN as a yardstick. (IIRC, Auschwitz “only” killed 2 – 3 millions total; we are clearly doing that much per MONTH.) Posterity will call us accursed, for cause. My hope is, that enough of us will wake up to reform from our wickedness before it is too late. KF
Silver Asiatic @72:
For ID I was referring to (i) the scientific concept that stops short of identifying the Designer and (ii) the community of people who posit/support such a concept.
Obviously, Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3; and other biblical passages clearly identify the Designer, but that’s beyond ID. The NT references leave no doubt that Christ did it.
However, I agree with some fundamental scientific ID concepts, but I don’t stop short of identifying the Designer, hence I can’t count myself among the ID proponents.
Perhaps Jews, Muslims, JWs, Mormons, Unitarians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, Masons, etc. even agnostics, can find ID concepts attractive too, though at different degrees.
Creation is the general revelation of God to all. The Christian scriptures are God’s special revelation. Most non-atheists accept the former. Christians accept the latter too.
That’s why associating ID with a particular theological viewpoint or religious belief is highly questionable.
Is this clear now?
What’s hour take on this?
#56 error correction
Where it reads:
it should read:
Had we remained in Eden none of those problems would have occurred. 🙂
🙂
KF @70:
Interesting historical document. Thank you for posting it.
Hopefully many people would read it and understand what it means even beyond the context it was written in.
KF: No problemo.
Dionisio @ 75
Yes, I fully agree. Well said.
Glowing tributes are rolling in across the Caribbean.
KF,
and far beyond the Caribbean too:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/north-korea-in-3-days-of-mourning-for-great-comrade-castro/2016/11/28/20e16444-b5df-11e6-939c-91749443c5e5_story.html
Korea stats: which data corresponds to North and which South? Let’s see who can guess correctly.
Area
• Total 120,540 km2 (98th)
46,528 sq mi
• Water (%) 4.87
Population
• 2013 estimate 24,895,000 (48th)
• 2011 census 24,052,231[2]
• Density 198.3/km2 (63rd)
513.8/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2011 estimate
• Total $40 billion[3]
• Per capita $1,800[3]
GDP (nominal) 2013 estimate
• Total $15,4 billion[4]
• Per capita $621[4]
HDI (1995) Steady 0.766[5]
high · 75th
Area
• Total 100,210 km2
38,691 sq mi
• Water (%) 0.3 (301 km2 / 116 mi2)
Population
• 2016 estimate 50,801,405[4][5] (27th)
• Density 507/km2 (23rd)
1,313.1/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2016 estimate
• Total $1.929 trillion[6] (13th)
• Per capita $37,948[6] (28th)
GDP (nominal) 2016 estimate
• Total $1.404 trillion[6] (11th)
• Per capita $27,633[6] (27th)
Gini (2013) 30.2[7]
medium
HDI (2014) Increase 0.898[8]
very high · 17th
Folks, the Khrushchev letter to Castro is one of those windows into reality behind the scenes of the world of media shadow shows, so it would be interesting to see the points you pick up. For instance, as a starter or a few:
I believe these matters are highly relevant to our own time, and to how we should respond to issues. It also points to the significance of attending closely to lessons from sufficiently old history that we can see the various behind the scenes factors clearly enough. 100 years in the past is the most credible operative threshold, and so currently the First World War is the zone in which insights will be emerging in the next decade or two. This includes, on the rise of global Communism to state power. (Though, the fall of the Soviet Union gave us a glimpse or two into things well within this threshold. That sort of event, collapse of a power, is one of the key exceptions to the 100 year rule.)
KF
D, your comparison above is key to understanding the difference between market and centralised economies, and it is to be further noted, that S Korea was the agricultural part of the former colony of Japan, the industrialised belt was in the North. The case is also a case of the success of IMF interventions in a case where there was sufficiently good leadership that sound development obviously took root. It will be instructive to see how the usual commenters take up the issue implied, processor architecture in economic planning, and the implications of markets as feedback mechanisms that indicate relative values of options on the table. The arrogance of Government planners is on trial, here, and they by and large fail the test. Such provides a window into our own policy choices, and at deeper level, an insight into the significance of the Christian view of fallen man which your earlier clip from Solzhenitsyn highlights. The evolutionary materialists and their sub-party, the marxists (including the culture and identity politics, base vs superstructure variety), have a lot to answer for. KF
F/N: National Review has a telling summary from the story of Cuban Prisoner of conscience, Valladares, which should be put alongside any assessment of the various responses of world leaders — including a clear, rising anti-Christian bigotry.
This is utterly devastating, devastating because it is the obvious truth, spoken by a Confessor of the Faith:
There is abundant evidence that allows us to weigh our generation in the balances.
Unsurprisingly, all too many — including many political, academic and opinion leaders here in the Caribbean and beyond — are found sadly, utterly, tellingly, damningly wanting.
This is indeed, un momento de verdad.
Kairos.
I say with the thousands of Christian Martyrs of Cuba: Viva, Christo El Rey!
And, in that light, I call for repentance and reformation.
Valladares, a brave witness who paid a terrible price to reveal the truth a full thirty and more years ago now, has spoken.
What, then, will we do with the truth?
What does this tell us about the state of our souls and of our civilisation?
KF
PS: In light of the above, read what we may see at Yahoo News this morning:
Oh, the echoes of go to your friendly local altar and prove your loyalty by swearing “Kaiser Kurion,” Caesar is Lord. For which many early Christians met their deaths for refusing to confess to such blasphemy.
And, of this:
Do we not see what is going on?
(All I can say to the oppressed people of Cuba, is that an oath extorted under implicit threat is of utterly no validity, all the exercise does is to try to twist your sense of honour into service to wickedness. [Read Havel’s The Power of the Powerless, starting with the Greengrocer forced to put up a meaningless propaganda slogan.] If you are compelled to such words under threat of starvation of your family or the like, the only real effect of the words is to expose the demonic monstrosity at work. If you feel God has called you to defiance, that is one thing. Do not despise those who feel compelled to a meaningless show in defence of the survival of their families, especially helpless children. This is not the Mark of the Beast, only a cynically wicked, demonically inspired dry run for it. Never mind, that this will then be propagandistically projected as if it were a valid referendum, it obviously is not; it is a mockery of democracy. And, if the leaders of the Caribbean and wider world refuse to denounce this wickedness, they stand — in too many cases, further — exposed as enablers of wickedness.)
Last week on another thread I wrote:
http://www.uncommondescent.com.....ent-620997
They’re still obsessing about it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/v.....38976.html
Now juxtapose that with the coverage of the death of Fidel Castro, who had an absolutely dismal record when it came to human rights. Does anyone else here see the glaring disconnect? Why the outrage over waterboarding terrorists, which was done very sparingly under Bush (2001-2009), while whitewashing the record of a brutal dictator who imprisoned, tortured and executed thousands of political opponents?
John @ 86: “Why the outrage over waterboarding terrorists, which was done very sparingly under Bush (2001-2009), while whitewashing the record of a brutal dictator who imprisoned, tortured and executed thousands of political opponents?”
Because they are hypocritical Marxists.
Truth Will Set You Free,
Yes, but it is hypocrisy that the secular progressive left doesn’t see and won’t admit. They are too blinded by their own conceit and self-importance. Unfortunately, it only demonstrates the complete moral bankruptcy of a world view that is based on naturalistic or materialistic presuppositions.
JAD, with a cost in lives north of 100 millions per counts of democides. KF