K: here is the question of the story/narrative plays into it…
The narrative is that commununism failed and yet, the fact is
that Soviet Communism lasted only slightly less then Athenian
democracy. The narrative however is that Athenian democracy
was successful and the Soviet Communism wasn’t succeful…
but upon what grounds are you going to make that argument?
daughter and wife call my name, back later…
Kropotkin
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That’s a tough one .
But, here is a go at it:
Athenian democracy was in tune with Plato’s republic, before the sophists grabbed the spotlight.
The foundations did not enter the realm of doubt as we moderns had to learn the hard way with Descartes.
Their doubt was not really posed in the either/or method, they could listen to both , conflict less, their logic did not yet cause civil disobedience and the such, because they still believed in the good of having wisdom.
Then the lights went out and then the darkness of the middle ages were scripted by monks who revised the concept of guilt into their alchemycal formulations .
The doubt became a conflation between the ideal and the real situation, forming a.conundrum, geared for gathering the flock of believers.
The late middle ages and the startup of enlightenment created a huge conflict, socially, starting with the Reformation and the American/French revolutions, and the pover of the new fkind masses had to be eventually controlled.
The either/or problem resurfaced with a.vengeance, and Hegel tried to infuse it with a presumed absolute idealism, while Kant tried to solve the puzzle, finally Marx merely changed the same alchemical formula by renaming spirit by magical conversion into spiritual materialism, which worked for a while, until people began to compare that with other ideologies which promised AND delivered more subter fuses and ‘freedoms’.
Both failing, (falling) the spiritual idea behind the magic of free enterprise, based on the wisdom guiding the efforts of the ‘founding fathers’ makes more sense.then the idea of social raising and responsibility taken by The State. ( The low wages in the Soviet Union made the Father State a pitiable comparative model to Uncle Sam, who was wise and generous beyond comprehension.
A poor free man within a wealthy society is better off then a controlled man , especially where, the societal dictator cam never find the graft, and they again compared it with the wise and compassionate Uncle Sam.
The same Uncle Sam who is complicit in The Revolution, with the Geek Wisdom implicit and the spotless moral compass represented in The Statue of Liberty.
The great doubt of then Great Divide, has not yet, ideologically touched our pristine shores yet, with most of is living in the promise of.Levittown.