"Eating your children is an act of barbarism" -- Sign posted by the Soviet government in 1933
If you're old enough, you may remember the mass starvations in Ethiopia in the 1980s. They were covered a lot on television, both in the news and by Christian relief charities raising money to help feed people. Later on, Bob Geldoff and "Band Aid," and then USA For Africa (remember "We Are The World?") got involved.
What you probably haven't heard is that a Marxist dicatator named Mengistu ruled that country, and that he intentionally kept people away from food. Even after the aid started pouring in, thousands...
...were forbidden to go where the food was. Relief agencies were not allowed to bring aid to certain areas, either. Ethiopian men, women, and children starved while much of the food we sent was literally rotting on the trucks in Ethiopia.
One of the favorite ways for Marxists to put down large populations of peasant reactionaries has long been starvation, you see.
Lenin himself was the first to discover the utility of starvation. He quite intentionally starved countless Russians a few years after the revolution, in part to quell mass uprisings against his regime. His successor Stalin used this same method even more effectively against "the rich," the "bloodsuckers and kulaks." His underling (and later successor) Kruschev personally oversaw the intentional starvation--to death--of between five and ten million Ukranians in a single year: the harvest season of 1932-1933.
It's not as if the Soviet government did nothing about the suffering, though. To combat the problem of cannibalism, the Soviets made a point of executing people caught eating each other. They also put up signs to discourage the practice, like the one I quote above.
When the government intentionally took all the food away from starving families in Mao's China, on the other hand, people who could not bear to eat their own children would sometimes trade with other familes. It helped quell the anguish. So I guess the posters wouldn't have helped much.
By the Chinese government's own estimates, Mao's regime starved about 20 million people. On purpose. This and other waves of terror and repression during his long reign helped Mao rack up a body count of about 65 million, making him, by any measure, the greatest mass-murder who ever lived.
I mention all this in part because of a small error of assumption made by Indepundit Scott Koenig recently. In a perfectly decent article on tensions between North and South Korea, he mentioned in passing that North Korea had "run out of food."
Oh, Scott. I wish we could assume that's all it was. I really do.
By the way, this Nando Times Article on recent defectors from North Korea is good news. Although the article doesn't say so, for 50 years, no more than 100 people had ever managed to escape from that psychotic regime's clutches. It's heartening to see that more are making their way out now.
Also, if you've read this far, I'd like to make a request. The next time you hear someone snicker at criticism of communism, or make a comment about "commies" in a dumb voice to sarcastically imply that only stupid people have a problem with Communism, do me a favor: kick him in the nuts.
Hard.
That was then:
"Eating your children is an act of barbarism" -- Sign posted by the Soviet government in 1933
This is now:
"Eat the rich." -- Title of the best-selling book by P.J. O'Rourke
That is a very funny and insightful book. One of his all-time best. Have you read it by any chance? It's worth your time, regardless of your politics.
Yes, indeed, PJ is worth taking the time to read. Although I haven't read his book; I have read his various magazine articles.
But I have to say that I thought (and maybe he acknowledges) that the phrase "Eat the Rich" was coined by Abbie Hoffman.
Dunno, I might be wrong on that.
Nope. Well, maybe, ultimately. P.J. discusses the title and mentions a 1993 Aerosmith CD "Get A Grip" that has a song with that name, but there's an earlier tune from with that name on a 1988 Motorhead album, "Rock'n'Roll". He himself saw it on T-shirts worn by Shiite Amal militia-men in Lebanon in 1984/85. Maybe Hoffman had pen-pals?
I believe O'Rourke also mentions at least one researcher who has apparently established that all starvations known to modern history are due to bad politics, and not lack of food.
Ara, yes, you should run (not walk) and get a copy of the book! An excellent read; the economics equivalent of "The Skeptical Enviornmentalist".
Did anyone else catch the news bite on radio recently? Apparently at least a half-dozen countries in Africa are now facing starvation. The US has offered grain, but at least 2 countries have turned that offer down since it was "genetically altered" grain. The truly pathetic part was some dimwit BBC wench was going on about how rude the US for not being sympathetic to standards, or requirements, or whatever, of the idiots (er, leaders) of aforementioned countries.
There's another column for you, Dean: how the modern Greens are turning into technophobic Luddites. Besides the "global economy" one of the things these people hate the most is any sort of genetic R&D, much less applications such as GA crops. Which, by the way, the Greens should love since these crops are more pest resistant, thus requiring less pesticide. Not to mention that the techs have reduced the need for fertilizer as well.
These goobers really are in love with the 18th century I think...
In the book Development as Freedom, the economist Amartya Sen discusses how there has never been a famine in a representative democracy, because the government wouldn't be allowed to continue if there was. A Democracy would also have an almost impossible time trying to cause a famine, as it doesn't have sufficient control over resources.
Re: Whether "Eat the Rich" was coined by Abbie Hoffman or not...
O'Rourke has said that "he himself saw it on T-shirts worn by Shiite Amal militia-men in Lebanon in 1984/85."
This is so truly bizarre that I can only assume that O'Rourke is pulling my leg.
Besides I recall Abbie Hoffman having said it well before the early 80's. Whatever.
Chances are O'Rourke wasn't pulling any legs. He's written extensive travelogues about areas of the world like that, and he generally doesn't make things up. His humor lies in noticing the bizarre, not making it up. Besides, it's been observed that American-style T-shirts with English logos on them are popular around the world with people who don't even speak the language. In some places, they even wear T-shirts with faux-English words on them that are mis-spelled or make no sense at all, simply because they look American and, therefore, cool. ("Fish Green Seven" or "Ball beering extreph!" or things like that.)
One of my favorite P.J. stories was the one he told (I think it was in Eat the Rich but it may well have been Holidays in Hell) about being held at gunpoint in the Middle East by Muslim radicals in the 1980s. His primary guard was a young boy who, surprisingly, spoke English, and harangued him for some time about the evils of America--and ended by mentioning his desire to one day go to Dental school in Dearborn, Michigan.
(That story says something about the schizoid nature of much of the world's view of the U.S., doesn't it?)
Not all of P.J.'s books are great--his latest, The CEO of the Sofa is almost unreadable--but in general he's one of the great writers of our day. I rank Eat the Rich, Holidays In Hell, and Parliament of Whores among the best books I've ever read. (Somewhere in the top 100, anyway.)
Dean
The day that the last Marxist/Leninist is covered by six-feet of dirt cannot come soon enough. The evil done in the furtherance of this dream pulled from the darkest corner of man's mind makes all of man's other "tragedies" pale by comparison. The worst part though, is when my dream becomes reality, some piece of pond-scum will come up with a vision that makes Marx look good, and we'll be right back into it again. Life: Nobody said it would be easy.