Let's be clear about this.NOBODY here wants the old Soviet security apparatus reassembled(even though Putin is arguably in the process of doing so).
NOBODY here wants people to be forbidden to travel from their own countries again.
NOBODY here wants censorship or bureaucratic management of the economy.
What those of us who do criticize the Warsaw Pact alumni and The Artist Formerly Known As The USSR are actually saying is that market economics has clearly failed in those states.
We're saying that there is no excuse for any of those states to be doing WORSE than the old Stalinist regimes in terms of providing for their own population's needs. It should have gone without saying that those societies could count on greater prosperity if the market values types had it right.
And we're saying that a new economic and social model is desperately needed for those states if they are not to fall into decay, extreme poverty, and ultimately, some form of fascism.
And no the old "the people voted for the governments that did these things" dodge doesn't wash. If that doesn't end the discussion here, it doesn't end it there either.
The people of Eastern Europe never WANTED massive austerity. The west FORCED them to accept "elections" between parties that were all committed to immiserating their populations.
So let's get real.
It's about justice, equality, and hope, not nostalgia for the fucking Gulag.
[ 22 September 2007: Message edited by: Ken Burch ]