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Being a Bostonian, I feel obliged to make some form of reference to the Red Sox's victory. But I can't decide between mockery of competitive sports in general, or mockery of the pathetic aspirations of those poor souls that proudly proclaim themselves to be "die hards
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I do think there is strong evidence that DESPITE the dystopian aspects of what I consider to be workers' states, i.e. counties where the national capitalists have been expropriated to a large extent and the economy is planned, the nationalization and planning of the economy have been HUGE gains for the people of those countries.
Perhaps that is most apparent in Cuba, a country that has one of the highest literacy rates in all of North America, VERY VERY low unemployment compared to the other South Ameican countries, universal health care etc. These are significant gains for the people there, though they are not what constitute socialism.
Russia illuminates the gains of revolution as well. When the Soviet State collapsed in the early 90's, huge gains won by revolutionary struggle in the past, were scrapped. There may be "democracy", corrupt as it is in Russia, but what does that mean to a starving person? Capitalist restoration in Russia has been a historical example of how capitalism CREATES misery.
The fact that socialism has not yet been achieved, is, in my opinion, largely do to the lack of consistent, socialists whom have the right program for the masses at crucial historical junctions. This underscores THE NEED for such consistent socialist leaders.
It's interesting that we're talking about revolution and socialism etc. in the comment box of an lj post making fun of sports mania.
It might be worth noting that the Red Sox fans desire victory so much that they, or at least a big section of them, remain fans even as the Sox have let them down time and again, "discredited" as some might say. But this year they actually beat the Yankees, proving that the tides do change. I think the tides in politics change as well, and the people dedicated to social change recognize that fact. The people who claim that "socialism will never happen" are generally not that interested making such changes. It is much easier for people who accept the state of the world today as okay, or the best we're going to get, to say communism failed, because those people in fact don't have to face the realities of social struggle, they don't have to figure out their own method for how to reform society better.
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If one were to advocate some socialistic aspects, such as can be seen in Europe and Canada, I'm not necessarily opposed to that. But communism, particularly for already advanced countries such as ours, is clearly an incredibly bad idea. It's been tried- it has failed, universally, whatever minor, temporary, material benefits may've found their way to the commoners (which are dubious claims, at that). Wait until Castro dies and then we'll see how long communism holds out down there. My money says Mike Eisner has Disney take over. I could see it now- "Commies of the Carribean"!
As for the sports thing, if the Sox lost this series, and people kept on insisting that somehow they were still going to the World Series, then those people would be pretty damn goofy, wouldn't they? Kinda like Reds going about saying, somehow, their nonsense system will make that big comeback and save the world, despite the fact that all the current communist states are fleeing from central economic control as fast as they can (while keeping that other key communist characteristic, political repression).
Berard
PS as far as I knew, the Kallels were Yankees fans.
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