Originally posted by Hornet33
Basic freedom's. The right to free speech, the right to practice whatever religion I choose. The right to question the political leaders of my country. The right to choose where and how I live. The right to pretty much do whatever I want to do as long as it does not take away the rights of other people. Most importantly the right to defend my rights.
This rights are a nice, but unnessesary addition to the rights to live, to feed, to have accomodation, education, job and rest. All this rights were 100% guaranteed in USSR, and it's a fact.
Originally posted by Hornet33
I never said I was going to impose my belives on others, however there are many governments out there, the USSR being one of them when it was around, that would and do impose "their" belives on others. During the time of the USSR, if I were to go on National TV in the USSR and say that I thought Stalin was a raging lunitic and needed to be kicked out of office, I would have been shot, and my family sent to the gulag if they were lucky. I would not have had the right to speak out against the government.
Well, in fact several Soviet leaders said what you wrote officially. Both were dangerous idiots, one of them didn't have time to completely destroy the country, another one did it.
JFYI: main goal of
any government is to impose beliefs on population.
Originally posted by Hornet33
Any political system that would take away my right to all of the above is a threat to my WAY of life. Never said it was a threat to my physical self. I would however fight to protect my rights, and if that means putting myself in physical danger to do it, so be it.
Any individual that opposes the society is in danger. You can't live outside of society.
The problem with USSR was that it was different from the other countries. It was the most successfull social and economical project in human history. From illiterate agricultural country that starved every few years in 10 years it became an industrial and military power, with millions of educated people appearing out of nowhere, from the grey mass of peasants. After the most devastating war in human history it recovered in less then tree years, and twelve years later it reached into Space, beating Western powers technologically and socially. Yes, it didn't provide some of that imaginary "rights" you mentioned, but it wasn't an Orwellian dictatorship as it's portrayed by propaganda now. It was simply a different way of life, that's all.
USSR could be saved. The Chinese way is wise: not to get rid of ideology and allow some private economical initiative, in the way it was going in 1983-84 under Andropov. Counter-propaganda work had to be done, all the dangers were understood, but, unfortunately, corrupt leadership literally made all Soviet propaganda machine work for enemy - we were spreading enemy propaganda on our own expense.
The roots of the crisis were in the 50s, when economical stimulation system, built under Stalin, was destroyed.
