Wednesday, May 20, 2009
An Apology
Earlier today I wrote some alternate lines for the movie Angels and Demons in which I suggested that a specific religion could have been responsible for more misery than any other single organization. I now realize how wrong I was. No one, save possibly all religions together, can come close to Communism for causing death, famine, and misery. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the deaths attributable to Mao and Stalin alone at close to 60,000,000. Fold in all the kindly folks in Viet Nam, Laos, Cuba, and Berkley, and you have a huge misery index. And, when you factor in the fact that Communism has, in a variety of formulas, in a variety of places, and in a variety of contexts, proven a dismal, profound, catastrophic economic failure, the total rises even higher. So, sorry religion. Got to try harder
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3 comments:
I would definitely say religion is at least in second place then..
I don't know. If you look at the basic reason for wars throughout history (at least on the face of it), it's often religion. But I don't know how you would quantify that.
The deaths under Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, et al, are because of evil dictators who abused their power. One wonders what communism would have been like under a good and compassionate leader. Is there such a thing? You and I have had this discussion before - power corrupts. However, that applies in all political environs.
I have a friend who grew up in the Soviet Union, and she had some great educational and other advantages I wish I had had. But there were economic drawbacks.
No need to apologize. Even if it comes in second, religion has a bad track record.
I think that if you have a wise and compassionate leader, you don't need the system. My feeling is that communism creates evil leaders. Lenin, according to one account, spent his last years regretting what he had created and what he had done.
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