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And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

American Kulaks

The "problem" with the Left is they seek to "maximize" benefits for the working class. Please note that the "working class" is "more" than simple "wage" laborers.

from Wikipedia
Kulaks (Russian: кула́к, tr. kulak; IPA: [kʊˈlak] ( listen), Polish: kułak) "fist", by extension "tight-fisted"; kurkuls in Ukraine, also used in Russian texts (in Ukrainian contexts) were a category of affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and the early Soviet Union. The word kulak originally referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire who emerged from the peasantry and became wealthy following the Stolypin reform, which began in 1906. The label of kulak was broadened in 1918 to include any peasant who resisted handing over their grain to detachments from Moscow. During 1929–1933, Stalin's leadership of the total campaign to collectivize the peasantry meant that "peasants with a couple of cows or five or six acres more than their neighbors" were labeled "kulaks".

According to the political theory of Marxism–Leninism of the early 20th century, the kulaks were class enemies of the poorer peasants. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin described them as "bloodsuckers, vampires, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on famine". Marxism–Leninism had intended a revolution to liberate poor peasants and farm laborers alongside the proletariat (urban and industrial workers). In addition, the planned economy of Soviet Bolshevism required the collectivisation of farms and land to allow industrialisation or conversion to large-scale agricultural production. In practice, government officials violently seized kulak farms and killed resisters; others were deported to labor camps.

32 comments:

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Aside from the examples of Stalin being shocked by Hitler's betrayal when the Nazi plan to take the Ukraine appeared in Mein Kampf 14 years before it happened and that it took Russia 70 years to figure out communism is a failure, one of the biggest clues that Russians are the dimmest bulbs on the Christmas tree is their wholehearted embrace of Lysenkoism.

To the Russians meager credit though, the Asian commies of China were stupid enough to adopt Lysenkoism because the Russians were on it.

Jersey McJones said...

If you call healthcare and education, a decent living wage, a little help in times of economic change and troubles that are completely beyond their control, "maximizing benefits," I'd suggest you take a look at the rest of the developed and civilized world, because they're doing it, and no Kulaks are suffering for it.

JMJ

Speedy G said...

@ beamish - I'd like to believe that our political ideologies (Left/Right) were different from Lysenkoism, but unfortunately, they're not.

@ Jersey - I, for one, do NOT wish to live in a Hospital State. Didn't you read ANY Foucault? Stalinism with a human face is FAILING in the Eurozone. The Societies of Control are falling apart throughout the West (BECAUSE they're doing it).

Speedy G said...

The problem isn't that they want to help "wage labourers," Jersey, it's that they try and turn EVERYONE into "wage labourers" in the process.

Speedy G said...

You'd turn 20,000,000 small independent self-employed farmers into "tractor operators" earning a minimum wage. wft, over?

Speedy G said...

Oh, but you'd "unionize" them a give them a $1 /hour "surplus wage". THAT makes it "all right"... NOT!

Speedy G said...

You want to help the American farmer? Crop insurance. Crop-specific subsidies. Low-interest loans. But don't have a permanent "corn" subsidy. That's a sure fire way to end up with more corn than we could EVER export.

Speedy G said...

:p

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Burn the corn as rocket fuel ;)

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Burn the corn as rocket fuel ;)

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Mark it zero!!!

Speedy G said...

Either way, turning everyone into fodder for the corporate gulags is a bad idea.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Mark it zero!!!

Thersites said...

Whatever you say, Comrade Stalin!

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

see what happens?

FreeThinke said...

STALIN was EVIL. MARXISM SUCKS.

That's all ye on earth can know, and all ye heed to know.

P___E___R___I___O___D___!!!!

Anyone who needs to read a TOME to understand that must be a MORON.

The TRUTH is usually SELF-EVIDENT to those with eyes capable of seeing, and minds capable of thing fir themselves.

The self-deluded have laced themselves behind redemption. The naive and gullible will be forever victims.

Also sprach Freidenker.

Jersey McJones said...

Speedy, I am so sick to f'n death of philosophy. I'm just sick it. Any stupid @$$hole can attach to whatever "theory" (it's not a science, it's just b#llsh!t, there are no real "theories" in the sophistry that is philosophy) they like. It takes no brains at all. Think for yourself. Look around you. Do you really believe some kind of universal health insurance plan (one that would still be heavily reliant on private sector activity anyway) is the door wide open for Joseph MF'n Stalin? You you have ANY idea how stupid that sounds?

And let me ask you this also - did you vote for Trump?

JMJ

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Jersey,

The Cubans have universal health coverage. How's THAT workin' out for 'em? And YES I voted for Trump. It's high time SOMEONE started to drive a stake through the heart of neoliberal globalism! It sure wasn't going to be "Hillary".

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Psst. Check out the entitlement encrusted turd the left-wing gasbag Donald Trump is pushing to "replace" Obamacare with.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Psst. Check out the entitlement encrusted turd the left-wing gasbag Donald Trump is pushing to "replace" Obamacare with.

Gert said...

The Cubans have universal health coverage. How's THAT workin' out for 'em?

'Splain, please?

Gert said...

@Jersey:

(it's not a science, it's just b#llsh!t, there are no real "theories" in the sophistry that is philosophy)

But your musings are real "theories"?

Hint: most of modern science was once called Natural Philosophy.

Don't denigrate those who try and think about the World, because you'd be denigrating yourself, Philosopher Jersey!

Greetings form Little Mordor! Computer says NO" (Cough!)...

Jersey McJones said...

FJ - that's your example? Cuba??? And the irony! It's one of the few things they actually do really well! You are silly.

Gert - I'm well versed in the field for your average schmuck. But I am really getting sick of philosophy getting in the way of reality these days, and the right has been particularly annoying with it. It's cult-like with these guys. They are following philosophies, ever mindful of consistency, and no amount of failure, of irrelevance, of change, of bad outcome after bad outcome will divest them of this ideological disease. And many of these philosophers are either long dead, don't know much of anything about America, are completely misunderstood and misrepresented, etc. I'm anti-philosophy (in the "anti-hero" sense). Nothing against it per se, but I do not allow philosophy to blind me to reality.

JMJ

FreeThinke said...

Well, Jersey, we study philosophy primarily because it is supposed to ILLUMINATE reality –– prompt us to look at familiar things in different lights, and also to explore the unfamiliar with greater curiosity.

No, I tend to agree with you about the turgid, ambiguous, often cryptic, maddeningly-dense prose in which most philosophers tend to express themselves. Philosophers, possibly more than any other creative intellectuals, are much given to prolixity. The result there is that relatively simple concepts appear more complex, convoluted and abstruse than they need to be.

But hey! Whatever floats your boat.

I happen to be nuts about Johann Sebastian Bach, when it's performed with passion, insight, imagination, spontaneity and flair, but to others sitting for an hour in the dentist's chair may be preferable to listening to a recital of Bach's organ works, or one of his cantatas.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Jersey,

Cuba's healthcare system is stuck in the 1950's. If you want a healthcare system that's stuck "in the moment" and makes little advancement, by all means, adopt the "Cuban" model. Cuba has many doctors who are completely reliant upon medical advances made elsewhere. They do "existing medical knowledge" VERY well. But what the Cubans and other socialist societies don't do is "invest" in "advancing" that knowledge. Their societies don't have the "luxury" of investing in technologies that don't have an immediate pay-off. It's one of the reasons why Venezuela's oilfields go largely "un-tapped".

And I'm not hung-up on "philosophy" either. Nietzsche, Freud and Lacan were the anti-philosopher's par excellence. Whereas most "philosophy" serves to illuminate the "master" discourse, the "analyst" discourse serves to "undermine" it.

jez said...

Jersey: is it not philosophy that you dislike, but dogmatism?

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Jersey seems to have stymied himself by ludicrously believing the left is actually capable of rational thought.

Gert said...

Jersey seems to have stymied himself by ludicrously believing the left is actually capable of rational thought.

Says the guy ('Beamish' - from the 'The Crank Files') who was once an ally and follower of the Only Jew who could turn any Decent Goy into a Rabid Antisemite! ;-) (Beaky, to be clear...)

Gert said...

Bizarrely, Beaky is still limping along...

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Have you tried diaper paste?

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Have you tried diaper paste?

FreeThinke said...

When discourse turns into a competition between SHIT and VOMIT, it's time to vacate the premises.