09-30-2011, 05:10 AM | #1 (permalink) |
Almost there...
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 5,979
Internets: 161638
|
Notable Socialists of History
Part 1
"George Orwell was the wintry conscience of a generation..." "Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a belief in democratic socialism." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell Best known for his works Animal Farm and 1984, Orwell's Socialism was solidified during the Spanish Civil War, in which he fought against the fascist general Francisco Franco. He later wrote a book about it called Homage to Catalonia - a gritty account, and one that further establishes Orwell as a total bad ass. Of course, what Orwell meant by Socialism is very different than the blustery rhetoric thrown around in this country during election cycles. To hear what each side says about the other now, it would seem, ironically, that Orwell himself was guilty of double think, the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct: "...he once described himself as a Tory socialist, someone, that managed to fuse conservative ideas (about patriotism, for example) with radical ones (about the equitable distribution of wealth, for example)." Unfortunately Orwell had health problems throughout his life, and died young, at the age of 47. What he left was an impressive legacy of essays on language and politics, novels on totalitarianism and fascism, and a hatred for inequality and dishonesty. Suggested reading list: 1984 Animal Farm Politics of the English Language Homage to Catalonia Down and Out in Paris and London A Collection of Essays Stay tuned for our next Notable Socialist of History! |
09-30-2011, 11:21 AM | #2 (permalink) |
Poor Sport
|
Pol Pot
Pol Pot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. As the leader of the Communist Party, Saloth Sar was the designated leader of the new regime. He took the name "brother number one" and declared his nom de guerre Pol Pot. This has generally supposed to derive from Politique potentielle, the French equivalent of a phrase supposedly coined for him by the Chinese leadership. An alternative version of the origin of Pol Pot's name is from Philip Short, who states that Saloth Sar announced that he was adopting the name in July 1970 and suspects that it is derived from pol: “the Pols were royal slaves, an aboriginal people,” and that “Pot” was simply a “euphonic monosyllable” that he liked.[13] A new constitution was adopted on January 5, 1976, officially altering the country's name to "Democratic Kampuchea." The newly established Representative Assembly held its first plenary meeting on April 11 – 13, electing a new government with Pol Pot as prime minister. His predecessor, Khieu Samphan was instead given the position of head of state as President of the State Presidium. Prince Sihanouk was given no role in the government and was placed under detention. Immediately after the fall of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge began to implement their concept of Year Zero and ordered the complete evacuation of Phnom Penh and all other recently captured major towns and cities. Those leaving were told that the evacuation was due to the threat of severe American bombing and it would last for no more than a few days. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had been evacuating captured urban areas for many years, but the evacuation of Phnom Penh was unique in scale. The first operations to evacuate urban areas occurred in 1968 in the Ratanakiri area and were aimed at moving people deeper into Khmer Rouge territory to better control them. From 1971–1973, the motivation changed. Pol Pot and the other senior leaders were frustrated that urban Cambodians were retaining old habits of trade and business. When all other methods had failed, evacuation to the countryside was adopted to solve the problem. In 1976, people were reclassified as full-rights (base) people, candidates and depositees – so called because they included most of the new people who had been deposited from the cities into the communes. Depositees were marked for destruction. Their rations were reduced to two bowls of rice soup, or "p'baw" per day. This led to widespread starvation. "New people" were allegedly given no place in the elections taking place on March 20, 1976, despite the fact the constitution was said to have established universal suffrage for all Cambodians over age 18. The Khmer Rouge leadership boasted over the state-controlled radio that only one or two million people were needed to build the new agrarian communist utopia. As for the others, as their proverb put it, "To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss."[14] Hundreds of thousands of the new people, and later the depositees, were taken out in shackles to dig their own mass graves. Then the Khmer Rouge soldiers beat them to death with iron bars and hoes or buried them alive. A Khmer Rouge extermination prison directive ordered, "Bullets are not to be wasted." These mass graves are often referred to as The Killing Fields. |
10-01-2011, 03:36 AM | #7 (permalink) |
Almost there...
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 5,979
Internets: 161638
|
"The greatest scientist and mathematician of the twentieth century..."
"Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics 'for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect'. The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory within physics" - Albert Einstein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Less known about Einstein, are his political views. It surprises many people to learn he was a Socialist, and in fact wrote a famous essay on the subject: Why Socialism? :: Monthly Review |
01-29-2012, 04:18 AM | #9 (permalink) | |
Spice Master
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 17,969
Internets: 278288
|
Quote:
| |
Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing.
― Terence McKenna |
||
Bookmarks |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Epic Rap Battles of History | DJ FC | Reviews | 16 | 12-11-2012 12:57 PM |
Nubblies History and Lineage | Mr. Blonde | General Chat | 67 | 01-14-2012 07:04 PM |
Walk The Line/ A History of Violence | angry pancake | Reviews | 2 | 05-30-2006 02:01 PM |
Notre Dame Football Announces Improvements To Its Storied History | DJ FC | Sports | 14 | 11-03-2005 03:45 AM |