[PEN-L:7572] Re: RE: Re: Mao

[Brad De Long <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>As for neo-liberal globalism, Bertolt Brecht best summed it up:
>
>Those who take the meat from the table,
>   teach contentment.
>Those for whom the taxes are destined,
>   demand sacrifice.
>Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry,
>   of wonderful times to come.
>Those who lead the country into the abyss,
>   call ruling too difficult,
>   for ordinary folk.

And as Brecht wrote to Party Secretary Walter Ulbricht during the 1953 mass
uprising of East German workers against the Socialist Unity Party regime:
"I need to express to you at this moment [i.e., the moment of the
suppression of the workers' demonstrations] my allegiance with the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany."

But I would prefer to remember Brecht for a different--very, very
private--comment on the Socialist Unity Party government:

	After the [East German workers'] uprising of June 17, [1953,]
	The Secretary of the Writers' Union
	Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
	In which it was said that the people
	Had lost the confidence of the government
	And could win it back only
	By redoubled efforts.

	In that case,
	Would it not be simpler
	If the government
	Dissolved the people
	And elected another?