foy@aerospace (07/20/86)
Return-Path: <foy@aerospace.ARPA> Subject: Re: Poli-Sci Digest V6 #15 Date: 03 Jul 86 09:27:14 PDT (Thu) From: foy@aerospace.ARPA The proposal to have different license plates for drivers convicted of repeat felony driving violations is intriguing. It seems that it might bve worthwhile. However I suggest that there may be unforseen developments with such a program. Is it possible that the yellow plates would become a macho status symbol for those inclined to auto felonies. It is my understanding that going to prison is a status symbol among certain groups of people. Does the cost in freedoms which would probably result from this approach be greater than the benefits gained. It the past women who did not believe in a sexual double standard, had to wear red As on their forehead. People are now proposing tattoos on people with aids. Where does the coercion end. If people want the government to forciably control all risks in their lives they might be wise to examine more carefully those countries where the governments (left or right) do have more power over the people. Please remember that this power is always rationaized for one reason or another when it is established. Richard Foy, Redondo Beach, CA The opinions I have expressed are the result of many years in the school of hard knocks. Thus they are my own. -------
lkk@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU (07/28/86)
Return-Path: <LKK@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU> Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1986 17:34 EDT From: LKK@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU Subject: Poli-Sci Digest V6 #15 From: Steve Walton <ametek!walton@csvax.caltech.edu> >My major point was that no change *of any kind* in the government of >a totalitarian state has come about except by the application of >external force. Bogus! The Soviet Union today is a vastly different place to live the the country that Stalin ruled in 1937. The govt. in 1937 was a one many terroristic dictatorship. Today it is a bureaucratic oligarchy with a much wider dispersion of power, little if any cult of personality, and little day-to-day terror of citizenry. I think this is patently obvious to anyone who has studied that country, but if someone doesn't believe me I can list the differences. Hungary is also a changed place, as the result of an internal revolt. Although the Soviets did crush the rebelion of Imre Nagy, the resulting government of Janos Kadar has proved to be the most liberal in the Soviet bloc. >We did not send US tanks into the streets of Rome when >Communist members were elected to the Italian Parliament; try to >imagine members of the Capitalist Party being elected to the Supreme >Soviet. No, but under the Truman doctrine, the CIA did actively fund the Christian Democrats in Italy and attempt to destablize the Communist party there. Even though the CP was the biggest party in Italy for many years, it was never able to form a government, due to US pressure. Anyhow, its unfair to compare eastern Europe to western Europe. A more appropriate comparison is E.U with OUR "backyard", Latin America. Our record of intervention there is equally as heinous as that of the USSR in the SOviet bloc. -larry kolodney -------