RE:The Cold War

[Andy Austin <soc40001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The thing which bothers me about these discussions is the notion that
the several "leftist" (democratic) movements which have occurred throughout
the world during the past century (against crushing liberal hegemony, I
might add) could be labeled totalitarian. (Won't see a lot of socialists
knocking the top out of the F-scale, I would wager.)

So I ask this question. Does an entire emancipatory philosophy (or, on a
more pragmatic level, a critical historical analysis of liberal economic
theory... or, on an even more pragmatic level, a powerful methodological
paradigm) have to be thrown out completely because a few fascists
like Stalin and Tito decided to call themselves Marxists? Isn't that sort
of like damning democracy because Jackson decided to call himself a
democrat? Yes, the Cold War is over and one result could be a
renaissance of rational-humanist thought. Or we could continue
spouting the same old tired rhetoric of the cold warriors.

There... I feel better.

AWA