- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Interesting assignment.

Posted by: Frenchy on February 25, 19100 at 15:11:53:

In Reply to: not only satirizing utopias, but communism/marxism posted by David on February 24, 19100 at 11:45:49:

: Alright, in my British Literature class I am currently reading/analyzing "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. I have to write a ten page paper essentially analyzing some part of the book. I was thinking of a thesis today and I recalled Barry mentioning something about a tactic that Chomsky used to "poison the well" as it were. In this case it was saying something like "Rand wasn't a neo-fascist." or, I believe in his case it was something like " is not a neo-liberal earth lover who would leave the poor without gas to heat their homes."
: What I want to do is prove that by using names of communist figures (i.e. Bernard Marx, Lenina, Paula Trotsky, etc...) he was not only satirizing utopias, but communism/marxism (yeah, I know there is a difference between leninism and stalinism and maoism and marxism ad infinitum) in particular.
: So, basically what I am asking is if any of you know of any resources that discuss that particular tactic. Otherwise I will just play devils advocate in the class and write a paper on how Brave New World was a perfect Utopia because everyone was happy and that is the only goal in life (ala hedonism).

Interesting assignment.
But you've got your work cut out for yourself, if I understand the goal correctly. Even though there are differences in this brand of Communism, or that brand of Communism, the end product is always the same; Tyranny.
In my mind the question is how can it be so successful, if that's the term, in so many different countries? In other words, how can so many people be fooled into thinking that this particular solution, or that one (Maoism vs Castoism)will bring about the utopia they seek?
Huxley, I feel, tells us that it's done w/ the adroit use of words and their meanings; "War is Peace", etc.
In other words, the particular flavor of Communism/Socialism is irrelevant, what does matter though is who controls the meanings of the words that are used in advancing towards the goals of Socialism/Communism.
This is one of the reasons we should be very leary of anything that has to do w/ 'hate-speech' on campi or in civil life.
As Rush Limbaugh says; "Words mean things".



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