[lit-ideas] Re: Further on Russia and the Communist Dream.
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:03:49 -0800
Michael,
Your continuation note follows. I’ll make a few comments below it.
Lawrence
<http://www.blogger.com/profile/02175930729200278402> Michael_Kuznetsov has
left a new comment on your post "
<http://www.lawrencehelm.com/2009/11/russia-and-communist-dream.html> Russia
and the Communist Dream":
Lawrence:
I continue.
THE WEST IS HELL
Just how funny was that story of the man in Fairfax County, Virginia, who got
up early on Monday morning, October 19, and walked naked into his own kitchen
to make himself a cup of coffee? The next significant thing that happened to
29-year-old Eric Williamson was the local cops arriving to charge him with
indecent exposure.
It turns out that while he was brewing the coffee, a mother who was taking her
seven-year-old son along a path beside Williamson's house espied the naked
householder and called the local precinct, or more likely her husband, who
turns out to be a cop.
"Yes, I wasn't wearing any clothes," Williamson said later, "but I was alone,
in my own home and I just got out of bed. It was dark and I had no idea anyone
was outside looking in at me."
The story ended up on TV, and in the opening rounds the newscasters and network
blogs had merciless sport with the Fairfax police for their absurd behaviour.
Hasn’t a man the right to walk around his own home (or in this case rented
accommodation) dressed according to his fancy? Answer, obvious to anyone
familiar with relevant case law: absolutely not.
I'd say that if the cops keep it up, and some prosecutor scents opportunity,
Williamson will be pretty lucky if they don't throw some cobbled-up indictment
at him. Toss in a jailhouse snitch keen to make his own plea deal, a faked
police line-up, maybe an artist's impression of the Fairfax Flasher, and Eric
could end up losing his visitation rights and, if worst comes to worst, getting
ten years in jail and being posted for life on some sex offender site.
You think we're living in the 21st century, in the clinical fantasy world of
CSI? Wrong. So far as forensic evidence is concerned, we remain planted in the
17th century with trial by ordeal, such as when they killed women for being
witches if they floated when thrown into a pond.
<http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/55336,news-comment,news-politics,virginia-witch-hunt-the-naked-truth-about-american-sexual-prudery>
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/55336,news-comment,news-politics,virginia-witch-hunt-the-naked-truth-about-american-sexual-prudery
These three shorts stories explain why I do repeat it over and over again: We
Russians do not belong to the West.
Thank God!
Cheers!
Michael
COMMENT:
Michael,
Firstly I notice that what you offer in the way of an argument is “anecdotal.”
Anecdotal evidence is considered by logicians among the weakest kind. In fact
if one uses it one is very likely to commit a “fallacy.” The fallacy could be
illustrated as follows: A man walks naked in his own house and is arrested;
therefore all men who walk naked in their own houses will be arrested.
You can see, I hope, that one incident doesn’t make a principle. You would
need a greater “sampling” than a single incident to be able to establish a
principle. The writer of the Virginia article may have an ax to grind. I have
personally never heard of such a thing happening in California or any place
else until you sent this article.
As to Americans having "food insecurity" - not having enough food for an
active, healthy lifestyle,” yes, we are enduring either a “recession” or a
“depression,” and many will be in that category. Notice that the article you
posted doesn’t say anyone is starving, just that they may not feel they are
eating as well as they should.
The root of the issue is that we in the West have free economies. Liberal
Democracies do not have socialistic control over the means of production. Only
Communism sought to do that. Even National Socialism didn’t seek that level of
control. And as long as you have the “market” free to rise and fall according
to demand, then there will be times when you will have recessions or
depressions. These are unfortunate. But Liberal Democracies (nor any other
form of government) do not do well trying to run businesses or farming. I can
quote experiments conducted during the Stalinist period when many starved as a
result of Soviet management of farming.
Also we read many anecdotes of individuals walking into Soviet stores to find
the shelves bare or nearly so. That has never been true in the America I am
familiar with. The shelves have always been full. People can’t always buy
everything they would like, but they don’t starve.
But also, the sort of government that can control the market and farming is the
sort of government that strives to control the people. At least that was true
in the two famous 20th century experiments, Communism and Fascism. Would we
willingly put up with that level of control so that we won’t starve – oh wait,
they did starve under Communism.
To move away from the anecdotal, here are some statistical comparisons we might
discuss:
The Russian Federation:
Total population: 143,221,000
Gross national income per capita (PPP international $): 12,740
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 60/73
Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2003): 53/64
Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 13
Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 432/158
Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2006): 638
Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2006): 5.3
Figures are for 2006 unless indicated. Source:
<http://www.who.int/whosis/en/index.html> World Health Statistics 2008
The United States of America:
Statistics:
Total population: 302,841,000
Gross national income per capita (PPP international $): 44,070
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 75/80
Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2003): 67/71
Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 8
Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 137/80
Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2006): 6,714
Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2006): 15.3
Figures are for 2006 unless indicated. Source:
<http://www.who.int/whosis/en/index.html> World Health Statistics 2008
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