Feelings get strong and rhetoric gets stronger. It's tough to separate people from issues and epithets. For example, my hackles rise when someone calls me a socialist, because I know that person considers it an evil thing to be, even though I don't think it's evil. As Erin points out: "... in the most technical sense of the terms, socialism, communism, and capitalism are all economic systems; democracy, oligarcy, monarchy, autocracy, etc. are political ones, and combinations of economic and political systems are possible, but they remain separate systems. So yes, there can be democratic capitalism, democratic socialism, or democratic communism (or autocratic capitalism, socialism, or communism), but it's not correct to say an argument is "democracy" vs. "socialism" or "communism." It's *capitalism* vs. socialism, or democracy vs. oligarchy or autocracy"
I think some people grew up with parents so frightened by the Red Scare (face it, Lenin and Stalin didn't end up being swell guys) that any hint of socialism or communism is anathema. To me, extreme abuses of economic and political systems do not mean the thinking behind those systems is evil. Olson and the Populist movement wanted fair wages and an end to the exploitation of the masses at the hands of capitalist plunderers. But they were not rampaging Bolsheviks. I think the story of Jesus and the loaves and fishes is a socialist lesson: We will share and it will be enough for all. Even Reagan's "safety net" - if it hadn't been so full of gaping rents - could be called socialistic. If Tom or Erin or anyone else wants to shred what I've said here, I'll try not to take it personally. Gail O'Hare St. Paul _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
