Economics, Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Berlin Wall

15 Comments

Yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary of its erection. Ilya Somin discusses its significance:

I am somewhat conflicted about the status of the Berlin Wall as the symbol of communist oppression in the popular imagination. My reservations have to do with the underappreciated fact that the Wall was actually one of communism’s smaller crimes. Between 1961 and 1989, about 100 East Germans were killed trying to escape to the West through Wall. The Wall also trapped several million more Germans in a repressive totalitarian society. These are grave atrocities. But they pale in comparison to the millions slaughtered in gulags, deliberately created famines in the USSR, China, and Ethiopia, and mass executions of kulaks and “class enemies.” The Berlin Wall wasn’t even the worst communist atrocity in East Germany…

And though the wall has been down for more than two decades, or perhaps because it has, a new generation needs to learn the lessons that such things are the inevitable result of Marxist thinking, and one can engage in Marxist thinking without having ever actually read Marx.

15 thoughts on “The Berlin Wall”

  1. Didn’t you hear Thomas tell us there are only two communist countries left? Obviously, the major players never tried to make us accept their BS juvenile illogic? How can you suggest otherwise. Raaaccciiisssstttt!

  2. “and one can engage in Marxist thinking having ever actually read Marx.”

    Should read “WITHOUT having ever actually read Marx”, no?

  4. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s still a duck even if it thinks it’s an eagle.

  5. So, I read this post just before heading to the grocery store. While there, I happened to see (of all things) some guy wearing a soccer-type t-shirt with “DDR” on it. As I got closer, sure enough, there was a little East German flag on the shirt as well.

    I behaved myself better than I ought to have and didn’t call him a jackass as I passed by. In hindsight I think I should have. He wasn’t just some dumb kid who doesn’t know the history, he was probably in his mid-late forties.

  6. Ken,

    I am curious. Give me YOUR list of communist nations. Ones that actually still have a communist economic system.

  8. I don’t know Thomas, nothing is pure. I can tell you the most powerful Marxist influenced country. We’re both standing on it.

    Of course that’s only until China passes us (not per capita of course.)

    Russia would like to be, but they’re demographics and lack of economic diversity means they can only play the spoiler if their trajectory doesn’t change for them.

    Those in South America are only going to be a minor but persistant annoyance.

    Marxism is an evil social economic theory. The number of people that believe some of it’s false teachings is so great they’ve become invisible. Just watch all those ‘buy gold’ commercial that talk about it’s intrinsic value. There you’d have a legitimate argument against some in the tea party. I’m surprised you’ve never mentioned that.

  9. Honecker built the wall
    He thought that he had it all
    Head of the GDR, oh
    Wife’s in the Politburo
    His dreams were smithereens
    By October 16
    He was the Number One man
    What happened to his plan?

    He was the head of party
    He was the head of state
    He shook his Commie fist
    Dissidents he sealed their fates
    His own SED
    Is now the enemy
    Miffed by his corrupt life
    And nothing, has been…
    All right since

    Lech Walesa, and Havel
    Way before Obama
    There was Ronnie and Gorby
    And Russians still in Hungary
    The Commies from the old school
    They think the change is way uncool
    They’re all dissatisfied
    With 19, 19, 1989

    The rest is here. I came up with this on the fly on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the fall, and put in one revision. Gonna tweak it some more – change “Dissidents he sealed their fates’ to “He sealed off all escape” for one.

    Note the Hungary reference – Russkies had troops there for ages, ever since the 56 uprising. Something not a lot of people know about.

  10. Ken,

    [[[I can tell you the most powerful Marxist influenced country. We’re both standing on it.]]]

    Yea, right. The founders of the John Birch Society would be proud of you. You bought into their propaganda 100%.

  11. Looks like this system is eating comments again. Let’s try this again.

    Ken,

    [[[I can tell you the most powerful Marxist influenced country. We’re both standing on it.]]]

    Yea, right. Looks like You bought into the propaganda of the JBS one hundred percent.

  12. So, I read this post just before heading to the grocery store. While there, I happened to see (of all things) some guy wearing a soccer-type t-shirt with “DDR” on it. As I got closer, sure enough, there was a little East German flag on the shirt as well.

    I had a similar experience recently. My wife and I were out for an early morning walk and passed a man wearing a hammer and sickle tee shirt. I couldn’t help but wonder why he was wearing such an odious symbol. To me, it’s just as bad as if he’d been wearing a swastika. Both sides of the totalitarian coin were responsible for millions of innocent people’s deaths.

  13. Larry J, I think it was Ann Coulter who suggested that whenever you see a Che Guevara shirt on some clueless idiot, you ask them if their Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot shirts were still in the laundry. That’s probably why the guy you saw wasn’t wearing his sleeveless Swastika T.

  14. [[[My wife and I were out for an early morning walk and passed a man wearing a hammer and sickle tee shirt.]]]

    Lies! You bought into the propaganda of the JBS one hundred percent, and now it’s affecting your eyesight! 🙂

  15. You bought into the propaganda of the JBS one hundred percent.

    I don’t know that I’ve ever been exposed to it. My voracious reading in my youth did not include a lot of political propaganda. I probably should have paid more attention.

    In the future, let’s try sharing substance. Are you trying to say that America has not been influenced by commie bastards marxist thought?

    Titus has me ROFLMAO (he does that often to me TYVM) and probably makes a better reply to Thomas than I myself made.

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