You would be surprised where really bizarre and dangerous ideas come from. Ideas that you would think come so far out of Left Field that no one would take them seriously. And, all of a sudden, they're here, like Antifa - or the Russian Revolution.
This is Jacobin, promoted by Bernie Sanders
Jacobin has in the past five years become the leading intellectual voice of the American left, the most vibrant and relevant socialist publication in a very long time
Forget about the secret police and people getting shot as they tried to escape, here's a love letter to the Belin Wall.
The Wall was ugly, menacing, and, for many citizens, no doubt heartbreaking. But the economic and geopolitical stability it ensured also gave the GDR the chance to build a society that was broadly characterized by modest prosperity and social equality between classes and genders. Workers were guaranteed employment, housing, and all-day childcare, while basic foodstuffs and other goods were heavily subsidized. Though wages were only half of what they were in the West, adjusted for prices in relation to earnings, GDR workers’ actual purchasing power was more or less the same. This fact, combined with the chronic lack of certain consumer goods, taught citizens to rely on each other and help each other out in times of need — a reality that still resonates today in polls showing that Easterners are considerably more sensitive to social inequality and the importance of solidarity.
We are going to find out around the middle part of the 21st century, in general unpleasantly, that our fate will have been influenced directly by essays in obscure and extreme magazines read by power elites.
1 comment:
So, East German communism was good because the citizens had food, housing, and daycare? The same arguments can be made for slavery. What the author completely misses is the idea of libery. Like so many on our Left.
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