Michael Parenti (his book called Superpatriot is excellent) argues that the people of Eastern Europe and Russia had guaranteed jobs, health care, housing, etc; With the fall of the USSR they had visions of suburban ranch, two car garage etc; but what they got is shit and corruption: gangsters running things, no real political input, more or less fake elections like here, malnutrition, no work, no food, no suburbia.... they become third world… and they wish they had back what they had before the fall (they don’t idealize it, they definitely lacked political freedom, due process etc but they had the basics and the basics are pretty important –try going without’em). The comparison isn't of "freedom and tyranny but of having the basics and not.
Noam Chomsky also points out in his curtain-lifting books that in the Soviet domains of Cold War days the people had the bare necessities, even high government officials lived in modest apartments, whereas in the U.S. domains, Central and South America, Indonesia, etc; a tiny elite were immensely wealthy (so long as they served U.S. corporate interests) while the majority population endured deprivation, malnutrition, poverty and were threatened by accusations of "communist", which made them targets of death squads, if they tried to organize to improve their lot. The U.S. provided much of the means for this oppression via “foreign aid”, CIA intervention, military training and arms – funded by U.S. taxpayers of course. So the bottom people of an affluent nation fund the oppression of bottomers of another nation. As the observation goes, the wealth is created by the workers and divided among the owners. The owners own/control the media so we get ministers of misinformation like Rush Limbo, O’reilly etc; keeping us distracted from the exquisite scam by demonizing immigrants, Islam, the homeless, dark-skinned people, gays, women… whatever works. This is one of my blog themes, power. The antidote lies in the other, being.
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