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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!decvax!yale!inmet!janw
From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Nicaraguan Parallel
Message-ID: <7800435@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 04:55:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.7800435
Posted: Mon Sep 16 04:55:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Sep-85 04:49:01 EDT
References: <7800427@inmet.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:inmet:7800427:inmet:7800435:000:1995
Nf-From: inmet!janw    Sep 16 04:55:00 1985


 My point has apparently been missed (at least, it was not attacked ...).
It was *structural identity* of all communist - and other totalitarian -
regimes. I did not quote pre-schooler drilling as a major evil, but
as a *symptom*. The reasoning goes thus: a totalitarian state (by
definition) enlists all the resourses of society in its service.
This includes even toddlers, and by this sign you may know it.

 Brief review of responses: 
 
 The note was not scurrilous enough for net.flame - mea culpa.
My ignorance of the net was responsible. I'm moving the sequence.

 Cub scouts are non-compulsory, non-political,
and only faintly militarized. 

 "God Bless America" is not political, in the sense relevant here.
It is a non-controversial generality. Now imagine kids chanting,
say, DEATH TO DEMOCRATS; goose-stepping with wooden
machine-guns to show they are serious; and children of
Democrats, as everyone else, being obliged to join. That gives it
a different flavor, doesn't it ? 

 As I've said, it's *only a symptom*. Other things
go with it, such as:  
 - no dissent within the ruling Party;
 - secret police unchecked by any other institution
   but the Party;
 - a net of informers sufficient to report on every citizen;
 - Propaganda a major item of budget;
 - armed forces politicized;
 - a network of Party-affiliated organizations covering all
   areas of life, cradle to grave;
 - anti-government demonstrations (of course) made impossible,
   but also pro-government ones made compulsory;
 - censorship (of course) suppressing anti-regime information;
   but also *insufficiently pro-regime* information;
 - the country declared a military camp;
 - foreign connections made difficult; and so on. 

P.S.  Larry Kolodney mentions the Young Pioneers in the USSR. 
He is only part right: this is for a different age group (10-14);
peers couldn't care less about who joins;  but official pressure
is strong enough that everyone does. I should know; I've been one.

	Jan Wasilewsky


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