the girl with x-ray vision

Undertoad · 02-09-2004, 11:58 AM

Well, this will hijack the thread like nothing else, but...

...and it's probably politically incorrect, and a frightening question to ponder, but...

FNF, is the Russian society permanently hobbled by the loss of the type of people that Stalin went after? Intellectuals, universities, productive and successful marketers?

More and more, I think that the US is not extra-successful because of its natural resources, or even its tendency towards economic freedom; but it's because of the kind of people who have always come here: risk-takers, freedom fighters, people seeking a better way, smart people trying to be productive, people getting out from under crippling heavy government, who will make for themselves. That doesn't represent all the people who have come here, but it's a good number of them.

What happens when part of Stalin's purge is getting rid of those types because they threaten the state? 4-5 generations later, can the society find and reward those kinds of people so it can become productive again?

02-09-2004, 11:58 AM	#6
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Well, this will hijack the thread like nothing else, but... ...and it's probably politically incorrect, and a frightening question to ponder, but... FNF, is the Russian society permanently hobbled by the loss of the type of people that Stalin went after? Intellectuals, universities, productive and successful marketers? More and more, I think that the US is not extra-successful because of its natural resources, or even its tendency towards economic freedom; but it's because of the kind of people who have always come here: risk-takers, freedom fighters, people seeking a better way, smart people trying to be productive, people getting out from under crippling heavy government, who will make for themselves. That doesn't represent all the people who have come here, but it's a good number of them. What happens when part of Stalin's purge is getting rid of those types because they threaten the state? 4-5 generations later, can the society find and reward those kinds of people so it can become productive again?

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)