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From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Freedom of faith (Communism) WARNING FLAMES!
Message-ID: <2558@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 12-Oct-86 00:18:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.2558
Posted: Sun Oct 12 00:18:27 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Oct-86 07:38:06 EDT
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Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
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> [ed falk]
> Anybody who thinks they should judge socialism by the actions of Russia
> is deluded as to what socialism is.  A much better model would be
> Sweden or some of the other more developed countries.  Russia is a
> dispicable betrayal of the ideals of socialism.  They proved that
> quite well when they clamped down on Poland's Solidarity movement, thus
-------
Sorry, Ed, it won't wash.  Sweden has a capitalist economy.  A high level of
social welfare spending and a few government owned industries does not make
a country "socialist".  I thought only right-wing and libertarian ideologues
went around labeling such things as "socialism".
	Of course, Russia is a despicable betrayer of the ideals of socialism,
but then, who isn't.  The most benign example I could come up with was
Yugoslavia.  Far less despicable than the USSR, but a far worse violator
of human rights than any democratic country in Europe.   Ideals don't
amount to a hill of beans unless they can be demonstrated in practice.
-- 
Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan