I've read alot of these thinkers' works. Chomsky is the darling of the half-read neer-do-wells that populate our campuses. If you have problems in your life, it must stem back from a problem with THE MAN. Tripe, I say...

Cheers to Andrew O'Hehir for his thoughtful and intellectually nuanced review. Too many suffer from historic amnesia on the harm perpetrated by state run communism. I appreciate the reference to Karl Kautsky who always kept the democratic dream and standard flying as did Rosa Luxembourg and Orwell. Added to the galaxy are those converts from the "God that failed" once they understood, and acted on, the anti-democratic character of Communism. Here I am thinking of Ignazio Silone, Arthur Koestler, Richard Wright and others.

So we didn't know that Communism was the system that tried to redefine human nature and asked everyone to wallow in altruistic squaller? We didn't know that a ruthless dictator arose in every instance of its approach to "commonality"? We didn't know that it was theoretically flawed and collapsed due to its inherent design deficiencies? Trying to convince us that it was not an abomination and is clung to by the most vicious and cruel regimes still in existence is just one more attempt by the America apologists who cannot ( or will not ) grasp that the moral system is Capitalism as it is in sync with man's nature of independence, prosperity and self worth. Communism is best left to the ashes of history as a stupid idea that caused pain and disaster for millions. Any form of homage for that hideous system should be relegated to the annuals of ignorant evasion.

I dunno, maybe it was the 120 million citizens murdered by the Soviet and Chinese regimes that were supposed to treat everyone equally.

Maybe it was that everyone was equal, except everyone was not, with the leaders acting like fluffed up emperors.

Maybe it was the godlessness and mutual distrust.

You know, old school communism may have failed, but you people will get your dream situation soon as, in the current activities NOT being reported by ABC and NBC will attest, we can see that the United States, and indeed the rest of the world will soon be plunged into intense worldwide warfare so as to force implement the FINAL SOLUTION Nu World Order.

You know, that idealistic paradise where everyone will be treated the same, except billions will die for not adhering to the plan, those at the top will live like emperors, and trust and God will be forgotten relics.

you will have all of this soon. better practice your boot licking and ass kissing, people. I know y'all are shamelessly good at it already, so I am not too worried.

usxpat wrote:The current American state is filled with National Socialist leanings on a level that would make Hitler marvel

You bet, and for a full documentation of the extent - to which actual former Nazis, SS influenced our politics, read Russ Bellant's: Old Nazis, The New Right and the Republican Party

You will see the Nazi, anti-communist extremism festered from the era of the Republican Heritage groups and its council under whose aegis hundreds of former Hitler assistants, SS were shipped in to assist with Reagan's campaign for election. And to consolidate the Nazified security state and its monied allies.

Anyone who wonders why many would be fascinated with communism given such an awareness of the recent underpinning of our system, isn't paying attention.

Condoleeza Rice, supposedly herself a Soviet expert, being able to even understand, much less write, something like this. She gave no indication of having the brainpower to think in such a complex way while she was Sec. of State.

It's kind of fun exercise. Scary, but fun.

"Significant sectors of the left were paralyzed by Communism, unwilling or unable to criticize regimes (no matter how nightmarish and autocratic) that nominated themselves as the enemies of capitalism and imperialism and the champions of third-world revolution. Right-wingers became hysterically obsessed by it, finding a creeping Red stain in ... Read MoreHollywood movies, pop music and abstract art (and never realizing how much they were mirroring the paranoia of the Soviet commissars)."

So, people who apologized or spied for communism were merely 'paralyzed' while those who opposed it were 'hysterically obsessed'. Btw, what's wrong with being passionately opposed to a system that murdered 10s of millions worldwide? By the same token, werent & aren't Jews 'hysterically obsessed' with Nazism & the Holocaust?

The author ignores the fact that the main hysteria in the West has concerned imaginary 'racists and fascists'. Bans on Free Speech only target the Right.

"Eager to prove they weren't closet pinkos, the mainstream liberals of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations launched a disastrous series of overt and covert anti-Communist proxy wars, whose echoes continue to reverberate today. (Osama bin Laden, after all, was a nasty little piece of Cold War blowback.)"

So, let me see. Kennedy decided to support a close ally South Vietnam just to prove his anti-communism credentials? Did Truman back South Korea for the same reason? I suppose Kennedy administration's defense of Western Europe was also show off his communist credentials. Did Carter back Afghanistan for the same reason? The more disturbing truth is liberal media like NY Times aided Castro to power and undermined our war efforts in Vietnam and rejoiced when Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia.

"As Brown sees it, Reagan definitely played a role in the dissolution of Communism, but not the role most Americans think. Brown describes Reagan's confrontational first-term cowboy act, and his 'evil empire' rhetoric, as almost entirely destructive, heightening tensions and strengthening the resolve of Kremlin hard-liners. It was in Reagan's ... Read Moresecond term, under the guidance of his pragmatic secretary of state, George Shultz, that he strolled amicably through Red Square with Mikhail Gorbachev, and negotiated a series of arms-control agreements that ended the threat of nuclear war in Europe."

But, the later carrot would not have worked without the initial stick. So much for a 'nuanced' understanding. Why are liberals so stupid? Don't they know peace initiatives ONLY work from a Position of Strength? Reagan had to show that he's a SERIOUS man, not a pushover before he could constructively work with Soviets. His roll back strategy worked and USSR was being bled dry. But, this Archie Brown, being British, cares more hoity toity good manners than real business of politics.