From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   There are lessons that stand to be learned from just about everything. I am   
   now focusing on lessons that should come from the world’s experience of   
   Communism.   
      
   The main lesson from Communism is that you don’t get to keep people’s   
   loyalty for long if you insist on treating your workers like dirt. When a   
   section of a population is being mistreated, it is only a matter of time   
   before someone comes along and    
   caters to that. With Communism, the hardest lessons were learned by places   
   like Russia and China, where abuses were the worst, and the least hard lessons   
   were learned by places like America, where the abuses were the least.   
      
   We have some in conservatism claiming that anyone who’s had anything to do   
   with Communism is evil. In fact most people who supported Communism came from   
   the right place. They didn’t like seeing workers being mistreated. They   
   didn’t like seeing    
   women being mistreated. They didn’t like seeing people of other races being   
   mistreated. Many of these people were ethical and compassionate. Much more so   
   than people who want them lynched.   
      
   While Marxism itself is wrong – and I have written about all the ways in   
   which Marxism is wrong – it doesn’t take an evil person to want to improve   
   the conditions for workers, women and other races. All this does not require a   
   revolution and can be    
   done within the framework of capitalism and democracy. When I worked in the   
   computer industry I did not feel exploited. I was being paid right and I was   
   being treated right. These people in business have learned their lesson from   
   Communism, and they made    
   correct changes in their practices.   
      
   It is in no way valid to advocate for slaughter of propertied class. It is   
   however valid to work to improve conditions for workers, women and other   
   races. Once again, this does not require a revolution; it can be done within   
   the framework of the system    
   that we have now.   
      
   There are many valid arguments in favor of business being good to the workers.   
   There is an argument toward compassion – that the worker has a family to   
   support. There is an argument toward reason – that the worker is working   
   hard and should be    
   correctly compensated. There is an argument toward the Golden Rule. One does   
   not have to be a Commie to care about such things. Both rationality and   
   Christianity favor this approach. And a person claiming to practice either has   
   it demanded of himself    
   that he treat people in general – and his workers in particular - well.   
      
   There are also many valid arguments in favor of better treatment of the   
   environment. What we have here is timeless treasures that man has not created   
   and cannot recreate. These should be protected, even as the world goes on with   
   scientific and    
   technological progress.   
      
   This being done, the more idealistically minded people will work within the   
   system instead of advocating for a revolution. They will find home in the   
   capitalist system in fields that they can believe in. And the same people who   
   are now troublemakers will    
   becomes significant contributors, applying what is in many cases extraordinary   
   creative intelligence to come up with and implement real solutions to the   
   problems of the world.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)