[quote=harvey][quote=Jazzman]All said and done, the USSR was enormously successful in some respects. It created a super power, a huge industrial complex, an enviable space program and a secret service that out-foxed even British intelligence.[/quote]
And the USA and Western Europe did all that much better.
Your point?
Anyway, this conversation was a response to a claim above that “we actually are more socialist than capitalist.”
I say that’s not true. And I’m not hearing any arguments to the contrary. The verbal gymnastics around the definition of socialism and CAr’s predictable self-certification of intellectual superiority are not compelling.[/quote]
I don’t recall any country in Europe putting a man on the moon, or becoming a super power for that matter, building a huge industrial military complex, or even producing so many great gymnasts. There was Europe’s colonial past, which even the US fought against. The KGB was very effective and was considered, at least by Mi6, to be a force to be reckoned with. My point, therefore, is about the human experience, the collective wisdom available to us, and how it shapes what we are today. It is not about who ultimately is “better”, however you measure that. It seems there is also a case to be made about cultural conditioning and how that limits our ability to tap into the collective wisdom.
