NORMAL MEN DO NOT KNOW THAT EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE
<Shall I tell you a story or two about 3 automobile manufacturers
that
operate from a formerly great U.S. city that now looks like Berlin did
in
1945 and has been abondoned by Whitey?> -- pro-Soviet Juergen
Dear Phil,
You evidently stepped a mite painfully on
Juergen's gherkin. He tells us that your account of
iron bathtubs in the former USSR weakens the case
against Soviet economic practices.
In response, our Gherkin argues that well, yes,
the USSR may have had quite a few single-brand
economic sectors but after all there is a city
called Detroit that has three major automobile
manufacturers who are in trouble. Detroit looks like
Berlin 1945 (nonsense, but consider the source)
and there is some meaningful parallel between, say,
"Whitey" deserting Detroit and the ruination of an
area in former Soviet Central Asia through typical
economic central planning the size of half the United
States. (I recommend re****ts in Novy Mir during the
final two years of the late Soviet Union that offer an
astoni****ng picture of millions upon millions of acres
reduced to salinated swamp.)
The philospher David Rousset, a survivor of
Buchenwald, noted that total horror can become
unbelievable because, as he put it, "Normal men do not
know that everything is possible." I.e., normal men
in normal countries cannot imagine a world that is
upside-down a la Alice in Wonderland.
Hannah Arendt in her seminal Origins of
Totalitarianism noted that the sheer magnitude of
abnormality in full totalitarian regimes is the first
major, intellectual line of defense for totalitarian
types. Their intended future victims cannot imagine
that a world exists so utterly different.
One recollects that Moscow in 1980 or so had one
used car lot. Used cars, more than a quarter century
old, sold for 60,000 rubles; a new Soviet vehicle was
8,000. If a product was not among the 2,000 or so
included in the Gosplan, then it was unavailable. A
country that created 308 SS18 missles -- each MIRVed
with 10 warheads of one megaton per warhead --
rationed sewing needles. As for thread, the common
practice was to search for it in old clothes and rags.
Virtually every conceivable product in this so-called
advanced nation was either rationed or unavailable.
Our Gherkin will try to compare some failure in
American agriculture, whatever it might be, with
disasters that are simply so enormous that, as Rousset
notes, normal men cannot imagine they are possible.
Well, Phil, we have driven the Gherkin to this
kind of defense of the late Soviet Union. We shall
see whither he proceeds in his response. I reckon it
will be a formulaic "Cold War jibberish" or the like.
And, once again, how our Gherkin must hate the
hundreds of millions of Russians and other peoples who
tossed off communism. For they failed to live up to
his dream of a more evil world.
THIS CRAZY WORLD OF CHESS by GM Larry Evans (page 14).
Fischer emerged in 1992 to trounce his old nemesis Spassky in an
unofficial rematch for $5 million, the largest purse in chess history.
It required 30 games for him to win, and the final score was 10-5 with
15 draws. This victory earned Bobby $3.35 million and an indictment
for violating president Bush=92s embargo against Yugoslavia. Spassky
returned to France without penalty. [The arbiter Lothar Schmidt also
returned to Germany without penalty.]
Fischer Stalemated (page 36)
February 14, 2005
It seems incredible, but Bobby Fischer languished in a Tokyo cell for
eight months without bail while Japan decided whether to de****t him to
America or Iceland, which had offered him asylum. His pass****t was
confiscated but the USA did not demand extradition because Japan
doesn=92t regard his offense as criminal.
"He=92s not a robber, he=92s not a killer, he=92s not a traitor. All he
did
was play chess," said his lawyer. So just what did Bobby actually do
apart from yapping about the Jews and praising terrorists for 9/11?
A new book, Bobby Fischer, The Wandering King (Batsford, 2004), based
on a Dutch TV documentary, notes, "Practising his art became criminal
because George Bush p=E9re issued an executive order in 1992." Fischer
violated that order by playing a $5 million rematch with Boris Spassky
during a civil war in Yugoslavia. He was indicted by a Grand Jury 13
years ago and faces 10 years in jail plus fines, the only person ever
prosecuted for defying Bush=92s economic sanctions.
The book quotes former Chess Life editor Larry Parr, who said, "The
issue is not whether Fischer broke a law (so have all of us) but
whether he is a criminal as opposed to someone who has fallen afoul of
the federal regime. Americans today are largely sold on the State as
the new god, but in 19th century England, juries often would not
convict for minor theft because the punishment =96hanging=96 was utterly
dispro****tionate to the crime."
Canadian chess journalist Jonathan Berry observed, "It has been
re****ted that President Clinton in his memoirs said the embargo was
ignored by all, even the USA government, and it was only enforced to
the extent that arms were not sent to Serbia. Yet arms were sent with
impunity to other factions, and other contacts with Serbia were okay.
If true, the whole incident appears doubly pointless."
A reader replied, "It=92s even worse than that. Serbia allegedly
received missiles produced in the USA via Israel which makes it
grotesquely hypocritical to punish Fischer for his 30 games against
Spassky."
ttk5...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> On May 13, 3:58?am, J?rgen R. <jurg...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > >CRAPUOUS
> >
> > Try again. Maybe on the third attempt you'll get it right.
> >
> > Your attempts to impress by using uncommon words
> > are ludicrous. What was the pathetic fraud's name who did
> > this routinely on TV? Some guy from Connecticut who
> > continually bragged about actually having graduated
> > from Yale, and consequently talked like the Queen
> > might have talked, had she been born in New Haven. ?
> > Probably one of your heroes.
>
> I would guess you're referring to the late William F. Buckley? If
> so, I do not recall that he "continually bragged" about his education,
> and while I probably disagreed with him more often than not, I never
> considered him a fraud.
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