Semi-Daily Journal

Call me oversensitive, but doesn't the use of the term "kulak" here make you a little uncomfortable? Consider that the main use of the term during the era of Soviet Collectivization was to mean "a dirt poor peasant with slightly more money than the other dirt-poor peasants in the area and who therefore must be eliminated"

Not when you are an unreconstructed Communist like Ken MacLeod. He's fairly strongly in the "The People were better off under the Soviets" mold.

Oh, twaddle.

At the risk of misrepresenting someone I have no particular right to speak for, Ken's views are widely informed and complex and don't involve many answers. They do involve a belief that it's not ok to sod the proles.

It's entirely legitimate to think that perhaps all the criticisms of economic systems are correct, eh?

It helps to have a sense of history, and to recognize the sheer persistence of the Anglo squirarchy in the current mechanisms for land tenure in Merry England; 'kulak' isn't an unsuitable description for that rural British landholding class.

Are there any people out there who aren't in the "The People were better off under the Soviets" mold? Looking at life expectancy and GDP, it's pretty much a slam dunk.

As for his political philosophy in general, I'll take Earth over New Mars any day. I can imagine the 30th century Semi-Daily Journal entries: "WSJ Debunks Fast Folk Bashing", "Trade with Jupiter doesn't cause Data Virus attacks - Alan Greenspan sets data virus levels blah, blah, blah"

msw

Graydon,

I don't buy this argument. While I'm willing to concede for the sake of argument that England's land distribution system isn't exactly fair--not exactly my field. The fact is that the term kulak carries with it the stink of mass murder. Indeed, to be branded a kulak in Soviet Russia was effectively a death sentence. Unless McLeod's goal is to throw the landholding class into concentration camps, it would behoove him to choose a better term.

It's also worth noting that if one believes that "it's not ok to sod the proles" then kulak is a singularly inappropriate reference, seeing as teh vast majority of people who were killed during dekulakization were very definitely proles.

"A party that can't effectively oppose the most distrusted Prime Minister in living memory."

There is a comment!

EKR-- It's not just you, and you've every reason to feel uncomfortable with it. Given that, as far as I'm aware, the term "kulak" was COINED by the Bolsheviks in order to "further class struggle" in rural Russia by identifying small farmholders as class enemies, it's very, very difficult to see anyone using the term and not infer that he considered a state-enforced famine and mass murder to be acceptable or at least excusable policy.

But that's about the level of moral clarity that I would expect from someone who seems to believe that colonialism was a uniquely capitalist enterprise.

The interesting thing here is how few people seem to care. I was in London last week for a round of meetings. Most of the time, I went out in the evenings (Samantha Bond as A Woman of No Importance was magnificent), but one evening the meeting had dragged on, I was too tired and just dined in at the club. And what was the conversation at the club table? Was it whether IDS should stay or go? Was it who might replace him? Was it what the Tories should do? No. It was about Diana.

EKR-- It's not just you, and you've every reason to feel uncomfortable with it. Given that, as far as I'm aware, the term "kulak" was COINED by the Bolsheviks in order to "further class struggle" in rural Russia by identifying small farmholders as class enemies, it's very, very difficult to see anyone using the term and not infer that he considered a state-enforced famine and mass murder to be acceptable or at least excusable policy.

But that's about the level of moral clarity that I would expect from someone who seems to believe that colonialism was a uniquely capitalist enterprise.

'Kulaks' refers obliquely to the class from which a significant number of my own extended family derive (hard-working rural business people) and for which I have quite a lot of respect.

It's, y'know, hyperbole, like the rest of that phrase.

"A party that can't effectively oppose the most distrusted Prime Minister in living memory."

I was rather wondering whether that referred to the Tories under Blair, or Labour under Thatcher...

I’m curious as to why MacLeod has such animus against the Tories. What have they done to him personally? Thrown him in jail on a trumped up charge? Confiscated his property? Denied him employment? If he were Irish, I might understand. I’m always suspicious when I see such bile flowing solely for ideological reasons.

I’m curious as to why MacLeod has such animus against the Tories. What have they done to him personally? Thrown him in jail on a trumped up charge? Confiscated his property? Denied him employment? If he were Irish, I might understand. I’m always suspicious when I see such bile flowing solely for ideological reasons.

I'm always suspicious when I see a bunch of stupid gits taking a decent bit of humor the wrong way. You all should write a letter to the Kulak anti-defamation league or something. While you're at it, contact the spivs, the insane homeless and the scabs and let them know.

Ken,

I'm familiar with the concept of hyperbole, but I don't think that that salvages the phrase. The problem with it, as I said earlier, is that the word has been used within living memory to identify targets for mass marder. It seems to me that that puts the use of the term "kulak", like the term "the Jewish problem" out of appropriate public discourse, even as a subject of humor.

Well he could also have called them squires no ?

It's not easy to say scabs spivs spies and squires when drunk either. havenì't actually done the experiment but I am having trouble now when I am sober.

By the way there is also an ethnic slur. Howard, in spite of his name, is the son of immigrants from Rumania (not bad that the Tory leader is the son of immigrants no ?). This must be related to the nickname Dracula which inturn is related to "sleeps in a coffin." I am ethnically Hungarian. I understand that I am, therefore, supposed to hate Rumanians but I have resisted that ethnic stereotype.

I haven't resisted the temptation to make a parody of political correctitude.

Aren't Hungarians also normally vampires? I just tend to lump them in there with the Rumanians and the Vlachs.

I'm just blinking at the sight of Graydon posting to Brad Delong.

At some point, it appears, rec.arts.sf.fandom moved to the blogosphere. Who'd a thunk?

(And why don't I get more visits?)

I'm just blinking at the sight of Graydon posting to Brad Delong.

At some point, it appears, rec.arts.sf.fandom moved to the blogosphere. Who'd a thunk?

(And why don't I get more visits?)

> > I’m curious as to why MacLeod has such animus against the Tories. What have they done to him personally? Thrown him in jail on a trumped up charge? Confiscated his property? Denied him employment?

When the Tories replaced property taxes with the highly regressive and widely despised Poll Tax, there was a campaign of civil disobedience through non-payment. Some people close to me joined in this campaign, despite the fact that, being well-off and owning a large house, they stood to benefit handsomely from the Poll Tax, and they risked imprisonment by not paying. They simply thopught the tax was wrong, however beneficial it was to them personally, and were willing to do their bit to bring it down, and to have it replaced with a more progressive tax that would mean they personally would pay more.

This is the kind of civic virtue which A. Zarkov seems unable to comprehend. There are many people who will oppose policies which they think are bad for the country, even if they themselves stand to benefit. And then there are the likes of Zarkov.

I'm just blinking at the sight of Graydon posting to Brad Delong.

At some point, it appears, rec.arts.sf.fandom moved to the blogosphere. Who'd a thunk?

(And why don't I get more visits?)

> > I’m curious as to why MacLeod has such animus against the Tories. What have they done to him personally? Thrown him in jail on a trumped up charge? Confiscated his property? Denied him employment?

When the Tories replaced property taxes with the highly regressive and widely despised Poll Tax, there was a campaign of civil disobedience through non-payment. Some people close to me joined in this campaign, despite the fact that, being well-off and owning a large house, they stood to benefit handsomely from the Poll Tax, and they risked imprisonment by not paying. They simply thopught the tax was wrong, however beneficial it was to them personally, and were willing to do their bit to bring it down, and to have it replaced with a more progressive tax that would mean they personally would pay more.

This is the kind of civic virtue which A. Zarkov seems unable to comprehend. There are many people who will oppose policies which they think are bad for the country, even if they themselves stand to benefit. And then there are the likes of Zarkov.

I'm just blinking at the sight of Graydon posting to Brad Delong.

At some point, it appears, rec.arts.sf.fandom moved to the blogosphere. Who'd a thunk?

(And why don't I get more visits?)

> > I’m curious as to why MacLeod has such animus against the Tories. What have they done to him personally? Thrown him in jail on a trumped up charge? Confiscated his property? Denied him employment?

When the Tories replaced property taxes with the highly regressive and widely despised Poll Tax, there was a campaign of civil disobedience through non-payment. Some people close to me joined in this campaign, despite the fact that, being well-off and owning a large house, they stood to benefit handsomely from the Poll Tax, and they risked imprisonment by not paying. They simply thopught the tax was wrong, however beneficial it was to them personally, and were willing to do their bit to bring it down, and to have it replaced with a more progressive tax that would mean they personally would pay more.

This is the kind of civic virtue which A. Zarkov seems unable to comprehend. There are many people who will oppose policies which they think are bad for the country, even if they themselves stand to benefit. And then there are the likes of Zarkov.

I'm just blinking at the sight of Graydon posting to Brad Delong.

At some point, it appears, rec.arts.sf.fandom moved to the blogosphere. Who'd a thunk?

(And why don't I get more visits?)

I'm just blinking at the sight of Graydon posting to Brad Delong.

At some point, it appears, rec.arts.sf.fandom moved to the blogosphere. Who'd a thunk?

(And why don't I get more visits?)

Well, that only took a bit more than an hour. No trouble at all!

Sorry, three hours.

Apologies for the repeats. Of course, having to spend three hours to make a comment speaks for itself. How fine the Internet is!

Gary, Ian, and others from rec.sf.*.*:

This blog has some (pulling out my MS dictionary) 'special undocumented features'. When posting, open up a separate pop-up, fill in the form, and copy the text (in case the posting fails).

Then, hit 'post', wait a few seconds, and kill the pop-up window. Ignore the message at the bottom of the window. Your post probably went through in the first second or so; it's the confirmation which takes forever.

Then refresh the blog, and check the comments. Your post probably went through (that's why I suggested copying the text before posting).

I take a dim view of political "wit" which consists of mocking how the other side's candidates or spokesmen LOOK, unless they happen to look nervous and shifty. Macleod's witty litle comments about the appearance of Smith and his successor bear an unmistakable resemblance to Dan Luskin's rantings about Krugman being an "ill-tailored gray homunculus", which I don't believe DeLong considered humorous in the slightest.

>> I was rather wondering whether that referred to the Tories under Blair, or Labour under Thatcher...

Tories under Blair, of course: you could trust Thatcher... to screw you over, if you weren't a Tory. She was like that, which is why large portions of the UK, particularly beyond the home counties, will form lines to defecate on her grave when she finally shuffles down to hell.

But as hyperbole goes, Ken does a good job. And it should be noted for the benefit of A. Zarkov that, in spite of being the nation's fourth party, the Tories under Thatcher -- and under Michael Howard -- chose to give Scotland the first taste of the Poll Tax.