(10-15-2010, 12:37 PM)thefool Wrote: I was born in India and spend the first 28 years of my life in a socialist/democratic system having a completely different picture of than last 12 years have taught me from my own experience.
OK. I respect that your opinions are based on your own personal experiences. That is true for all of us.
But it's not a given that everyone in a given country will have the same opinion. Look at how polarized the US is. Those with opposing ideologies to the point of venomous hatred. So the fact that they grew up in the same country doesn't predict their views at all.
(10-15-2010, 12:37 PM)thefool Wrote:(10-15-2010, 12:32 PM)Bring4th_Monica Wrote: It works both ways. It's a tossup as to which one has more STS influence. I don't think we can begin to calculate that.
It is not a tossup at all. We know from the history who killed millions of their own people, imprisoned them and where there is more media control. You know about these mass killings in Russia and China. Do you not believe those to be the facts?
I don't dispute those events. Neither do I dispute that there is more media control in those countries. But it's a myth that our media is free, fair and balanced. It is controlled also. And capitalist governments have committed such atrocities too...just on a lesser scale. I see the same in both types of countries...it's just a matter of degree.
The corruption in socialist countries is more blatant; whereas, the corruption in capitalist countries is more clandestine. The clandestine nature itself adds to the corruption, in terms of net result, imo. I just don't see it as one being good and the other bad. I don't think it's nearly that simple.
Many people are fiercely attached to their chosen ideology, as with religion. And, as with religion, ideologies are only as good as the people who live by them.