Was WWII Worth it?

[Woodlouse2002]

[quote]

Sure, people had jobs under communist rule.

[Hyperion2]

Ah, but if communism is what the people really want, if that's what makes them so happy, why in the world aren't we seeing people stand up in droves saying "Give me what Cuba's got!"

Last month Castro doubled the minimum wage in Cuba.  It's now in the neighborhood of four dollars....PER MONTH.

Yep, they've got it made.

[Woodlouse2002]

[quote]Ah, but if communism is what the people really want, if that's what makes them so happy, why in the world aren't we seeing people stand up in droves saying "Give me what Cuba's got!"

Last month Castro doubled the minimum wage in Cuba.

[ATI_7500]

With the death of Castro, Cuba's future will be black....very black.

[Hyperion2]

Scenario B.  If communism is so grand, and there are still a handful of communist governments lying around (China, North Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba...)

Where do you guys live again?

[Hagar]

Whichever form of government you have it's open to abuse. I always liked this quotation. "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." In Hitler & Stalin we're simply discussing the worst form of dictatorships at opposite ends of the political divide.

Democracy is fine in theory, as are other forms of government, but in all cases it's spoiled by human failings. Power can & often does corrupt which is why I question the motives of all politicians, whichever side of the fence they're on. Even in the free country I grew up in there's very little I can do about anything I disagree with - & plenty of things have happened in my country over the last few years that I & many others passionately disagree with.

[Woodlouse2002]

I don't quite understand your scenario B. I think you must have mistyped something or my brain has ceased to work...

As for where I live: Cornwall.

[ozzy72]

Scott you're really towing the "US Cold War propoganda" line there chap, visit a former Communist country sometime, you'll find that things are in many ways worse now than they were in the Communist era...

Mark

[Craig.]

What i find amazing about this whole argument. People are all coming at it with their own views from their own style of Democracy and hearsay about how it was. If i am reading this right, no-one making their statements about it truely lived under a communist rule. Mark and Bjorn are perhaps best judged to give examples as they have lived in and around areas effected by it, but remember, you cant judge something properly till you have lived it dont make generalisations.

[Hyperion2]

Oh I'm no doubt bringing a very American perspective to the table.  All I really have to go on is what I was taught in school (which is admittedly very slanted) and hearing stories of Nazi Germany from my family's stories.   I'm not so stubborn as to say that I know first hand what the opinion of the people in those countries is, I wouldn't be so arrogant.

[Craig.]

Fair enough.
But remember things like Nazi Germany werent a true representation of communism or how it was ever supposed to be. As someone said in theory communism is all well and good, infact it would be a very good idea. But in a way the human nature of greed would soon stop it in its tracks.

[Hagar]

National Socialism or Nazism was violently anti-Communist.

[Hyperion2]

I've always said that Hitler (early on) and communism in it's purest form was a very good idea...but it was the bastardization of the concept that proved fatal.

Sure, if you could make everyone have the same, it would work beautifully.  But as humans, we have an inert desire to want more.  That's the first catastrophic flaw in the theory of communism.

[RichieB16]

I've always said that Hitler (early on) and communism in it's purest form was a very good idea...but it was the bastardization of the concept that proved fatal.

I agree with this statement.  Communism is probably the most perfect system that has ever been developed...in theory.  The problem is the theory isn't applicable because there is always someone who takes advantage of it.  If everyone wanted to work towards the better good for all, it would work fine-but the human population as a whole is greedy and they seek power.  As a result, the system doesn't work.  

[eno]

George Orwell hit the nail on the head

"All people are born equal ...... but some are more equal than others."

and thats where the purest communist and democratic models fail.

I would suggest reading Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 for some sort of comparrison on how both "democracy" and "communisum"  if looked closely at aren't really that far apart. Both are open to abuse, greed and human nature.

60 years on from the end of the war, wether WW2 was worth it is not for us to speculate on ......... ask the guys who took part in the war from all sides. They are the ones to judge wether it was worth it.

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