George Handlery about the week that was. Does openness demand liking? The state and the economy, the state in the economy. First order, then, perhaps, democracy. Permissive schools link to merciless unemployment. Crime and freedom. Tyranny and security. Their precondition: negotiate without preconditions. Staling was OK because he also killed “Fascists”.
 
1. French “human righters” have launched an initiative a few weeks ago. They wish to drag Geert Wilders who is Dutch before a French court. The charge: he hates French Muslims. Not liking Muslims even if they are French might be unkind, perhaps even wrong. On the other hand, it is a distortion that the lack of liking or the suspicion of an agenda equals hate which imperils its object. The advocacy and methods of these activists waters down the essentials of human rights concerns. There is no right to be liked. In demanding just that, a criteria for the observance of human rights that might be PC-proof is set up. This is nice but that still does not make the definition logical. Must one love all those that are “different” and who come here with the express intent to remain different? If so, then a lot of people are handed a reason to define themselves as negating human rights related values.
 
2. Just seen (April 25). A German ship got under the control of pirates. The mind knows that sympathy is due to the crew. At the same time the guts make the “sorry” shrink. Perhaps the next time a German warship (dares to) arrest a boatful of pirates, Berlin will think of a deal. It could attempt to emulate the pirates and hand over the next batch of “hostages” it takes for German sailors and their vessel held by the “fishermen”. Throw in a few mils and a formal apology to sweeten the deal.
 
3. Some of the attempts to explain the moment’s economic crisis tell little about the roots of the trouble. Meanwhile, they reveal a lot regarding the confusion regarding the  relationship between politics and economics.
 
4. The road to democracy begins with an order that is predictable  and not necessarily with consciously democracy-oriented policies. After a period of consolidation a bifurcation appears. It demands a choice. It is between the continued dictatorial order and a soft shift into the murky waters of eventual popular sovereignty. Putin’s Russia could still be allowed to trod the latter path.
 
5. Trends tolerated out of convenience conspire to undermine our necessarily imperfect democracies. One of these comes about by cuddling schools that let their graduates major in permissiveness. The result: Low qualifications and a stampede away from useful majors in favor of easy subjects that concentrate on the irrelevant. Unfortunately this “coddling consensus” only suspends but does not invalidate a grim reality. It is  that the workplace demands qualifications and that it ejects the unskilled.
 
6. The policy of pursuing total nuclear disarmament for later is easier than insuring that while we wait, no nuclear proliferation takes place.
 
7. Reports like to point out that America has a high percentage of it population in jail. You can attribute this to the innate badness of the population. The alternative is to search for other causes. One is that the freedoms of the land make criminality, as well as creative undertakings, easier to engage in than might be the case elsewhere.
 
8. As a result there is more to prosecute. Third, criminals are, regardless of excellent trial lawyers, more likely to be condemned than in countries with which the US is likely to be compared.
 
9. Obama’s appearance during the campaign convinced Europe’s Left that he is their multi-culti dream. As President, he reminded the same fan club of their duties in the alliance and to themselves. The clapping hands are lowered. Meanwhile, without governments saying “no”, little is done.
 
10. It is nice to rely on, and benefit of, the US when her efforts are directed against the West’s enemies. Meanwhile Europe ducks when it is called upon to bear its share of the political-economic-military cots of American-led actions. (See Afghanistan.)
 
11. Iran demands that America negotiate with her without preconditions. Its own preconditions (the right to continue nuclear armament, help to terrorism, destabilizing her region) it is unwilling to drop. This is understandable. What is hard to grasp is that, tolerating approval is extended with the justification that, after all, it is what gives Iran her best cards in the game. Clearly, in the interest of pursuing  a settlement, Iran is unwilling to give much. This makes the negotiations about what Iran gets in exchange for promising to moderate without checks (pride!) her ways. To the extent that this works out, Iran will be rewarded for doing vile things and then stopping in exchange for payment.
 
12. The cheapest and “mostest” concession a roguish state can get is when it asks a price for eventually considering the possibility to talk.
 
13. Communist East Germany (GDR) has its resolute fans. Whether this illustrates gullibility, amnesia or the consistent refusal of the criminal to acknowledge the lawlessness of his actions, is an open question. Sure, admit the defenders, there were inadequacies and even a bit of arbitrariness. But why contrast a bad GDR with a perfect Federal Republic? The FRG has not been perfect. Facetiously, it was difficult to find parking spaces ande during vacation time there was a traffic jam at the border crossings. Compare this to the bucolic GDR. No one went anywhere, if he tried without the permit that could not be had, the automatic firing installations got him. If these failed he got his deserves for “fleeing the Republic” from the guards. Well, the old order might have been hard but it was also just in that oppression kept almost everybody down. Oh, yes there were no gaping differences in income. At least not officially. If someone questioned the nomenclatura’s privileges the “hard” fist of the “equally just” order’s enforcement “apparat” got him. And one more thing! Stalin killed about 20-60 millions. Mao about a hundred. The “paternalistic” GDR did not produce comparable numbers.
 
14. The moral rehabilitation of tyranny is possible. It demands the support of those who appreciated its security aspects. These are people who fear freedom because it is a condition in which anything can happen. This is the motive of some nostalgic Nazis, the fans of Bolshevism and of the retroactive supporters of other defunct lesser dictatorships. Somewhere there must be a surviving Cambodian who likes the self-genocidical Khmer Rouge for having provided everybody with work. Praise is also due for the policy of the equality. People were killed free of prejudice, that is regardless of guilt, innocence and background.
 
15. Dead, Che Guevara is more with us than while alive. Let us ignore the fact that the USSR and also Castro’s Cuba were rather relieved to have gotten rid of this living embarrassment. The more so since they could keep the distorted image for PR. The relief was not caused by being rid of his killer instinct elevated to the level of policy. The problem was his inability to camouflage his real nature so as to pose in the light of the politically opportune. Guevara was an ardently avowed Stalinist. That means more than admiration for the butcher of millions. Inspired by the “best in the field”, Che did his best to score high  as an epigone. None of this bothers those who proudly display his counterfeit. One explanatory excuse is ignorance. However, at this stage one can only be ignorant of the facts -as in the case of Holocaust deniers- if one is too dumb to grasp and interpret data. More likely is that the fan does not know the facts because if exposed to them he does not care about the slaughter. At least as long as he can live under the illusion that “my guys” were liquidating “them”. The same people are generally highly sensitive to condemn violence if committed by “fascism”. The National Socialism they mean, also killed comrades and therefore the wrong people. So their motive is not a revulsion against violence but a commitment to have the right people eliminate the wrong people. Sarah Wagenknecht, a leading German Communist, opined that commemorating Stalin’s victims is wrong. There were (some) “Fascists” among them.