Word: communisme
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...conceits of Communism, none is more pervasive, and none more dubious, than its claim to serve the interests and fulfill the aspirations of the people. Marxist states are given to calling themselves "people's republics." The largest represents 1.1 billion men, women and children, nearly a fifth of humanity. The Chinese are supposed to read the People's Daily, entrust their security to the People's Liberation Army and obey laws passed by the National People's Congress, which convenes in the Great Hall of the People, situated, as it happens, on Tiananmen Square...
...something quite extraordinary is happening. The people who live under Communism are rising up and asserting themselves against the party. In China they have done so in defiance of their rulers. In the Soviet Union they are doing so with the help of their leader. While his Chinese counterparts were intriguing against one another last week, Mikhail Gorbachev officiated at the opening of a new government body called the Congress of People's Deputies. For once the name was not entirely a mockery of the political reality...
...most momentous month in the second half of the 20th century. Forces of epochal transformation are bubbling up from below in China, while they are being marshaled from above in the Soviet Union. But in both cases these changes are driven by a recognition that Communism has failed its subjects, the people, and that the only solution is far-reaching reform of the entire system. In China it is the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square who personify that realization. In the Soviet Union it is Gorbachev himself...
Gorbachev also has the satisfaction of knowing that he has re-established the pre-eminence of the top man in the Kremlin as the leader of world Communism -- but with a twist. He is now the leader of the Communist reformation. It is as though Martin Luther had returned in triumph to Rome to be installed as Pope...
...world, America has lost some of its radiant pride of place. Japan has risen. Europe is organizing itself into a new collective power. The Soviet Union is struggling to escape the dustbin of history. Gorbachev, a magician of much elan, attempts to rescind the hoax of Communism without denouncing its idea. It is fascinating to watch a smart man trying to defend a premise that is beneath his intelligence...