Re: On Socialization

[BILL MITCHELL <ECWFM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim:

i couldn't agree more. Herb's selective interpretation of history with the USA
being the good guys defending world freedom and the east bloc being the bad
guys intent on totalitarian destruction of their populations is the sort of
stuff that we used to read in american comic books here (OZ) when i was young
(during the 1960s). How four american commandos won the war sort of stuff. I
seem to recall a TV programme about 4 marines swanning around europe in ww2
defeating whole platoons of germans. i even learned to speak german from the
comics - such things as sieg heil, and snel, and yankee swine come to mind as
my childhood linguistic skills expanded.

and may i remind those who say that the USA won the war, that if hitler hadn't
thought the russians were easy beats and if the russians hadn't been so brave,
determined, and committed, and if hitler hadn't underestimated the problems of
driving tanks through the ardennes in the winter, then things might have been a
little different. sure john wayne won the battle of the bulge, but a lot of
other folks (russians included) lent a hand.

i also might add that Churchill said something like, "why stop at berlin" in
reference to his conniving traiterous scheme to turn on the russians and crush
them after the germans had given up. some way to treat an ally. that was the
beginning of the cold war. Rotten traiterous politics from the UK and the USA.

if the soviet bloc had have been allowed to run their economies the way they
saw fit and not been excluded from world trade by the west then things might
have been a lot different. The USA seems to take this sanctamonious line if
they disagree with the ruling paradigm. there are countless examples. including
the shenanigans of 1975 in OZ when the CIA helped to subvert our democratically
elected parliament. take the criminal acts that the USA has inflicted on Cuba,
since it could not get its own way in the early days.

and how many americans had their lives destroyed by the Macarthy era. Some way
to treat your own citizens who happen to have a different view.

so yes Jim, the USA is far from the exemplar of good practice. and the russians
are far from the exemplar of bad practice. i know this b/c i have grown up form
my yankee comic book days.

kind regards
bill
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