7/9 blog

This week’s blog posting will be about a combination of material from the reading and from the lecture.  I have read and heard about communism before, but I could never really figure out what it was.  I tried to look up what the word meant in the dictionary, but I guess it didn’t register in my brain.  I always knew that it wasn’t a good thing, but I didn’t know how bad it could be.  The lecture and chapter opened my eyes and I finally get it now.  The idea of everyone getting something and making an attempt to create an equal world doesn’t sound too bad.  However that is not realistic, having a central planning system and trying to manage who gets what has to be stressful.  What if some people don’t like what they get and or need more? It actually creates a shortage and wide spread resentment of the entire process.  The people become deprived and the rich stay rich.  One of my old coworkers was from South Vietnam and he spoke of communism and how the North Vietnamese were bad people because they wanted to enforce these rules on them.  He fought in the war along side the US to preserve freedom for the south and not be forced into a communist society. 

South Africa was a country were the minority white British settlers controlled.  It’s interesting to know that no black Africans had any political rights.  South Africa was controlled by apartheid, which attempted to separate blacks for whites in every conceivable way.  “Pass laws” were placed to monitor the movements of Africans who entered the cities and enforced social segregation.  In the 1950’s Nelson Mandela organized non-violent civil disobedience.  They had boycotts, strikes and demonstrations.  Mandela was arrested because of this; Gandhi inspired these tactics and movements.  Africa acquired its political freedom as an intact and unified state. 

I couldn’t imagine dealing with these forms of hardships.  Throughout history people have had to survive, adapt, live and migrate to preserve life.  Many have died along the way, but their history is what we learn about today.  They are the ones who have paved this road that we walk.