boomerang:
She was born under Hitler, raised under the USSR's sovereignty in East Germany, and came to America as a young adult. LISTEN to her.
Is there anything to be learned from folks like Elke?
M: Think about your question. Surely what any one person can learn from Elke depends totally on what he or she already knows. But what I think your real point is, my personal take on your post so far and to come, is that your real feeling is that she has supported a feeling about the meaning of communism and socialism that you already believe and that your real hope is that her words will inculcate in others that same point of view. But the real point, if I may suggest the one I see, is that the truth of what she has experienced, the disastrous system in which she grew up in, her fear of it and her vision of it happening exactly the same way here, the equivalence, for example, of universal health care here and under Hitler and the assumption that the arrow of history between the two separated by time and very different cultures, imply a similar fate for us today, is, I believe, a mistake in logic and simply a hallucination produced by fear.
b: I think we've got too many people in the nation that were not taught history, believe that we're a bad nation, with bad people and that Socialism is just misunderstood and has gotten a bad rap. I think we're doomed to repeat the mistakes of history.
M: Again, I believe you are applying the delusions of fear, a kind of insanity of thought, magical thinking, really, to simple facts that do not, to a calmer or more balanced mind, perhaps we could even say a better educated mind, and yet one still agreeing with many of the same facts, lead to the same conclusions, that some imminent danger lurks in the direction our culture is taking. Imagine for a second that you took a wrong turn somewhere that led you into a ghetto that was pretty scary. Would you be terrified if somebody else in the car, with a good sense of direction, took the wheel and headed back to the place where the wrong turn was taken. Would you feel, as you approached that intersection, that now some new disaster was in store?
b: I'm glad I've got enough years under my belt that should the Socialists/Communists/Occupiers win out, that I won't have to live too long under the society that they so desperately wish to force upon the nation. The transition is going to be a bitch, but by the time it's completed I won't have many more years left.
M: Do not be so sure. When the robots take over, programmed with a massive AI to bring socialism to all, they will resurrect you and keep you young and safe forever, in a paradise of communal bliss. You must never thing there is any place that is truly safe from the insanity of fear. If you are in for a penny, you are in for a pound.
b: Yeah, I know, I'm a nut. Remember that it happens slowly, under the guise of what is just and good and with the full support of many.
M: Indeed so. Communism and socialism enforced by state power are a nightmare brought about by fear, fear that without a leveling control, others will take everything and the disadvantaged will linger, which is exactly what did happen when the haves, fearing the have nots would take everything from them, had the upper hand.
b: The guns though, they've got to get the guns. That's going to be the real interesting part. What comes after the failure of Fast and Furious?
M: There is a huge economy that runs on fear, fear of anything and everything and those who work in that economy have as their task to make you frightened so they can get something from you in exchange for some delusional safety. The NRA is one such organization, the church another. Then there are the survivalists, the politicians, the news media, it is really endless. You must never fall behind the Mr and Mrs Jones next door in any way. You have to wear the right clothes, find the right friends, get the right job, run your little tread mill.
Fear is death. The frightened are dead. We have lost our lives and our way. You have lived long enough in fear that it really is time to die. Do it. Know that everything you fear happened long ago when you were a child and all your terrors are the terrors of a little child controlled by the monsters who gave birth to you. But you do not remember and your terror is that you will. Let yourself feel what you really feel. The road to heaven is found by those who make a wrong turn into hell. The only place that's truly safe is in a state of love.
As somebody once told me: I am the Divinely Beloved who loves you more than you can possibly ever love yourself. Relax and be happy.