It Is Always A Mistake

And now some news from the former East Germany.

Former East German bureaucrat Guenter Schabowski, who died Sunday aged 86, went down in history for a slip of the tongue in 1989 that inadvertently brought down the Berlin Wall.

He had this to say about socialism (take note Bernie Sanders).

Schabowski, who was married to a Russian-born former TV journalist with whom he had two sons, told the Tagesspiegel daily in 2009 that any attempt to build a socialist society was doomed to failure.

“Man is not able to turn off his egotism and therefore it’s always a mistake to try socialism.”

There is a limit to how long you can deny reality. What is the limit? You will know when you have reached it when you run out of other people’s money. H/T Maggie Thatcher.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

33 responses to “It Is Always A Mistake”

  1. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    Or, as someone else put it about communism: “great theory, wrong species”.

  2. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    To make it work you just need enough Power And Control HT: M.Simon

  3. captain*arizona Avatar
    captain*arizona

    try taking away people’s social security and medicare and see what happens!

  4. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    Man will make it his purpose to master his own feelings, to raise his instincts to the heights of consciousness, to make them transparent, to extend the wires of his will into hidden recesses, and thereby to raise himself to a new plane, to create a higher social biologic type, or, if you please, a superman.
    Leon Trotsky, Literature and Revolution (1924)

  5. captain*arizona Avatar
    captain*arizona

    capitalist road kill the voters will decide capitalisms future. one of the marx brothers said this over a hundred years ago the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer and global climate change prevents free booted capitalism.

  6. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    Social security is bankrupt, and obamacare is taking away medicare.

  7. captain*arizona Avatar
    captain*arizona

    man mole hill social security bankrupt? so people won’t get their social security checks this month? wrong I just got mine.

  8. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    Hey Eric, fyi, the s word that stands for the worst economic. system. ever. still won’t post, even when msipeled with a 0.

  9. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    zonetard you moron wanker, what do you think a $16 TRILLION federal debt means? This is the brokest nation in history. All you favorite socical spending is paid for by borrowed money. You think the rest of the world, the Chinese etc. is going to go on funding our profligate public spending forever? You think soosicalism works, look at Venezuela. Ya’ll retarded Hugo Cheezwiz wannabes make me puke.

    Help save sooieee security – kill an old person.

  10. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    So zoney got his soooosal suckurity check. Whatsa matter, big boy, too stupid, incompetent, ignorant and just plain useless to fund your own retirement?

  11. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    CapRoader, here’s a pic of Trotsky with Lenin.
    http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Trotsky_Lenin_Kamenev.jpg
    In the 60’s we bought the hat at the Granma Bookstore on east side of Telegraph, a few blocks south of Sather Gate in Berkeley.
    Here’s some nostalgia for you. Scroll down near the bottom for a picture of the building where we hung out, the old Berkeley Soda Works.
    http://quirkyberkeley.com/gone-4-old-weird-telegraph-part-two-bookstores/

  12. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    Cambridge MA had three different communist bookstores, Red Books (RCP, Maoist) in Harvard Square and the Rosa Parks Center (SWP, Marxist/Leninist) and The Center For Marxist Education (old left, Stalinist), both in Central Square.

    Free Bob Avakian!!

    And, for you old timers, Free Dana Beal!!!
    (they’re worth every penny)

  13. Simon Avatar

    MMM,

    I think Bob Avakian is out of jail. He did his time.

  14. Simon Avatar

    Frank,

    I used to be a good friend of Alicia Bay Laurel. I drove her around in Humboldt County – to help her write her book. Whitethorn, Redway, Briceland area.

    http://www.aliciabaylaurel.com/

  15. Amiable Dorsai Avatar
    Amiable Dorsai

    I’ve occasionally wondered if Herr Schabowski’s “slip of the tongue” was made accidentally on purpose. Now I wonder even more

  16. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    Frank, thanks for the pic’s. I’ve never been to Berkeley.

  17. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    Cap’n, we all look forward to the glorious future When Skateboards Will Be Free.

  18. captain*arizona Avatar
    captain*arizona

    November a new month that means another 100,000 minority kids will turn 18 voting age and 20,000 conservatives will die of old age or other. Soon universal voter registration in all blue states for american citizens. Happy days are here again. As for deficit california cleared up its financial problems by taxing the rich and corporations america under democrats will do the same!

  19. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    yeah…eat the rich yo!!! yadda yadda

  20. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    I’ve lived in Cambridge and Berkeley, overall, I prefer Cambridge. The Harvard Square and campus area is compact and walkable in a way that the Berkeley campus and Telegraph area just isn’t, and it’s flat.The homeless are tamer, the leftists are just as wacko, the book stores are better, and there’s always the Saturday Night free(k) show featuring Pastor Corbin. Or there was, been a bit since I lived there.

  21. Simon Avatar

    Well I always had fun in Bezerkeley. When I was in the Navy I made out with a Bezerkely girl next to a creek in the middle of the campus. It was interesting – all the people walking by who never noticed us because we were in the creek bed and they were 10 ft above us. We also had trees for cover.

    Walking the campus was good exercise. And there was Mario Savio and the police for entertainment.

    Not to mention all the hours I spent in the Caffe Mediterraneum.

  22. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    @Cap’n:

    Happy days are here again.

    Yes they certainly are, since Barack Obama will leave his party in its worst shape since the Great Depression—even if Hillary wins.

    But I doubt it. Think McGovern, 1972. Or at the very least Mondale, 1984.

  23. captain*arizona Avatar
    captain*arizona

    road kill where are you going to get the votes to defeat hillary. there will be 5,000,000 more american citizen minority kids will have turned 18 by nov. 2016 and almost everyone of them hating republiscum and they have id’s happy days are here again!

  24. Gringo Avatar
    Gringo

    Frank, thanks for the article on the old Berserkeley bookstores. Shambala, Shakespeare’s Codys’, Moe’s, I remember them well.

  25. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    The Longfellow bridge had a spot where one could sneak around a barrier to sit on one of the foundations and watch boats in the Charles Basin while unseen from the road and walkway a few feet above.

    I was going to mention the Ave. Victor Hugo book store over the Mass Ave bridge in Boston, on Newbury St., but they closed a few years ago.

  26. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    Cap’n, you are so right! Just look at the the face of the newly elected Lieutenant Governor Jenean Hampton of Kentucky. How on earth can the GOP possibly hope to get minority votes when they elect such racist TEA party types?

  27. Simon Avatar

    CapitalistRoader,

    Nice one.

  28. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    The way those racist repugnicans made Ben Carson shine Jeb Bush’s shoes was just disgraceful.

  29. Gringo Avatar
    Gringo

    captain*arizona
    where are you going to get the votes to defeat hillary. there will be 5,000,000 more american citizen minority kids will have turned 18 by nov. 2016 and almost everyone of them hating republiscum and they have id’s happy days are here again.

    capn, perhaps you should do some research before speaking. But seeing as how you are not likely to do the research yourself, I’ll do it for you. Mid-Term Bloodbath Reveals Cracks in Democrats’ Racial, Gender Divisions.

    First of all, it is hard to maintain the claim that the Democrat Party is the home of diversity when 93% of the Democrats’ governor/senate candidates are white, and 75% are white males. For all their claims of inclusion, lily-white, rich liberals still want women and minorities kept out of the highest echelons of power.

    By contrast, the GOP just re-elected Indian-American female Nikki Haley as governor of South Carolina, and elected black Republican Tim Scott to the Senate (with 88% of the white vote compared to 10% of the black vote…are South Carolina blacks racist?). Reddest of red states Utah just elected Mia Love, a Haitian-born black woman, to Congress, and Iowa elected female Republican Jodi Ernst to the Senate. GOP voters in New York state also just elected the youngest woman to ever serve in Congress, Elise Stefanik, with a 22-point stomping of her Democrat challenger.

    The GOP had already elected Mexican-American governors in New Mexico (Susanna Martinez), Nevada (Brian Sandoval), and Indian-American governor Bobby Jindal (Louisiana), as well as Cuban-American senators Marco Rubio (Florida) and Ted Cruz (Texas). The great thing about these GOP minority elected officials is that, true to the dream of Dr. King, they were elected for their conservative principles and the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
    . Incumbent Democrat Senator Mark Udall of Colorado was dubbed “Mark Uterus” because of his single-themed campaign that flopped with voters. Senator-elect and Iraq War combat veteran Joni Ernst mocked the Democrats claims of a war on women, saying she had been to war, and rejecting the comparison. Republicans also elected Shelley Moore Capito as the first female senator ever from West Virginia.

    Democrat efforts at stoking racial fears and grievances also fell flat, despite sending out fliers in states like Georgia and North Carolina implying that black kids will be killed if Republicans are elected.

    Unlike 2012, there was not much enthusiasm for Democrats among constituencies that they desperately need support from; blacks, Hispanics, the youth, Asian-Americans, and women. In fact, in a development that must be especially distressing to Democrats, Republican Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia won 47%, Georgia Republican Senate candidate David Perdue won 42% of the Hispanic vote. In Texas, Republican Greg Abbot won 44% of the Hispanic vote, six points higher than Governor Rick Perry achieved in 2010. In Kansas, Republican Governor Sam Brownback won 47% of the Hispanic vote.

    Where are the votes to defeat Hillary coming? For starters, from the 44% of Hispanic voters in Texas that voted for Gregg Abbott for governor. Or who voted for Susana Martinez for governor in New Mexico.

  30. Gringo Avatar
    Gringo

    captain*arizona
    where are you going to get the votes to defeat hillary. there will be 5,000,000 more american citizen minority kids will have turned 18 by nov. 2016 and almost everyone of them hating republiscum and they have id’s happy days are here again.

    Please explain the following to this so-called “republiscum.” Young Voters Supported Obama Less, But May Have Mattered More. From 2008 to 2012, Black Males aged 18-29 increased their vote for the Republican Presidential candidate from 6% in 2008 to 19% in 2012.
    Please explain. Inquiring minds want to know.

  31. captain*arizona Avatar
    captain*arizona

    in 2012 president Obama got 9,000,000 less votes then in 2008 because he would not “deal” with republiscum traitors sabotaging the economic recovery. this was somewhat off set by 2,000,000 less republican voters voting. that accounts for your statistic as black men wanted jobs guarding prisons republican traitors and saboteurs were put which Obama did not do. blue states are going to universal registration of their citizens (not aliens like you think) while red states thru voter suppression are limiting voters so no republican will ever win the popular vote again and will make it harder for republiscum to win elections in blue states. as democratic voter are more likely to not register or vote. by the way obama only got 93% of black vote because so many black men have drug crime convictions and can’t vote (nixons southern strategy still in effect) the latino vote goes up 1 and half percent of total vote every presidential election cycle and it is increasing every year as 100,000 minority kids turn 18 every month. as for texass latino turnout was low thanks to voter suppression and wendy davis concentration on abortion issue instead of latino issues. latino democrats did not turn out. republiscum can only win low voter turnout elections kentucky tuesday 30% 2014 36% if voters turn out republiscum are thru!

  32. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    *voter suppression* Also known as being too lazy, ignorant, stupid and non-citizen to get off your ass and make it to the poling place on the right day, and maybe even have to show ID and sign in. We already know which is the correct way for oppressed minorities too vote, I propose pre-voting where the vote is filed for each and every one, with the
    democ ^H^H^H^H proper vote filled in for them. What could possibly go wrong?

  33. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    “Or, as someone else put it about communism: “great theory, wrong species”.”

    That was a gentleman (Edward Osborne Wilson) who might otherwise be considered leftist.

    He and I do agree on one thing – and that is that the correct species is ants.