I coincidentally just finished this a few days ago, and it's a fantastic read. Parenti lays everything out so clearly, I wish more theory/history was written this way. I really can't recommend it enough, I think it's a great entry point into understanding communism.
I really appreciated Parenti's nuanced take on both the successes and failures of communism. I didn't realize until he pointed it out how much I had internalized the false notion that being a leftist means disavowing communism entirely due to its failures (while ignoring its successes). He does a great job making the case that communism has been a force for good in many ways and that it absolutely should not be thrown by the wayside.
Yeah, I appreciated the nuance in his critique of the late stages of the Soviet system.. I'm curious how those problems would be addressed, especially in light of modern IT.
He says at a couple different points that it's impossible to adequately gather and process all the information needed for a planned economy, but the Soviets were somewhat slow to adopt computers, so I wonder how that could be different in light of the successes of planned economies like China and Wal-Mart, and earlier projects like cybersyn.
I like how nuanced Parenti is. His support of the AES countries is in fact critical and it seems so much more mature than liberals who uncritically equate everything from AES with evil and inefficiency.
Parenti-videos were certainly instrumental in opening my mind to the onesidedness of the cold war propaganda that is still accepted as gospel truth in the west.
Yeah, I definitely want to read both of those next as well, I've seen them come up repeatedly in people's recommendations...
Afaik, certain Soviet economists did make meaningful contributions to the theory and mathematics behind logistical and production planning---theory that's put into practice wherever there's a planned economy, like with Wal-Mart.
I mean look at cybersyn. I can only imagine what the Soviet-aligned countries could have accomplished if they'd been allowed to develop on their own terms instead of being squashed by counter-revolution.
Soviets couldn't adopt computers. They made information flow too easily. Heck, Xerox machines were kept under lock and key. But don't trust me, let's ask Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff:
"We cannot equal the quality of U.S. arms for a generation or two. Modern military power is based on technology, and technology is based on computers. In the US, small children play with computers... Here, we don't even have computers in every office of the Defense Ministry. And for reasons you know well, we cannot make computers widely available in our society. "
Interesting point; that seems to be in line with Parenti's "siege socialism" thesis. However, whether or not that's considered overly authoritarian or justified by the circumstances is one thing, but it's interesting that the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies had been so successful at infiltrating the USSR regardless.
![[Book Club | Part 1 Discussion] Blackshirts and Reds](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/0AZOoJgwYG.png){kind=link}
I coincidentally just finished this a few days ago, and it's a fantastic read. Parenti lays everything out so clearly, I wish more theory/history was written this way. I really can't recommend it enough, I think it's a great entry point into understanding communism.
I really appreciated Parenti's nuanced take on both the successes and failures of communism. I didn't realize until he pointed it out how much I had internalized the false notion that being a leftist means disavowing communism entirely due to its failures (while ignoring its successes). He does a great job making the case that communism has been a force for good in many ways and that it absolutely should not be thrown by the wayside.
Yeah, I appreciated the nuance in his critique of the late stages of the Soviet system.. I'm curious how those problems would be addressed, especially in light of modern IT.
He says at a couple different points that it's impossible to adequately gather and process all the information needed for a planned economy, but the Soviets were somewhat slow to adopt computers, so I wonder how that could be different in light of the successes of planned economies like China and Wal-Mart, and earlier projects like cybersyn.
I like how nuanced Parenti is. His support of the AES countries is in fact critical and it seems so much more mature than liberals who uncritically equate everything from AES with evil and inefficiency.
Parenti-videos were certainly instrumental in opening my mind to the onesidedness of the cold war propaganda that is still accepted as gospel truth in the west.
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Actually Existing Socialism, used to refer to officially socialist countries, like those of the former Warsaw pact.
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Yeah, I definitely want to read both of those next as well, I've seen them come up repeatedly in people's recommendations...
Afaik, certain Soviet economists did make meaningful contributions to the theory and mathematics behind logistical and production planning---theory that's put into practice wherever there's a planned economy, like with Wal-Mart.
I mean look at cybersyn. I can only imagine what the Soviet-aligned countries could have accomplished if they'd been allowed to develop on their own terms instead of being squashed by counter-revolution.
Soviets couldn't adopt computers. They made information flow too easily. Heck, Xerox machines were kept under lock and key. But don't trust me, let's ask Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff:
"We cannot equal the quality of U.S. arms for a generation or two. Modern military power is based on technology, and technology is based on computers. In the US, small children play with computers... Here, we don't even have computers in every office of the Defense Ministry. And for reasons you know well, we cannot make computers widely available in our society. "
Interesting point; that seems to be in line with Parenti's "siege socialism" thesis. However, whether or not that's considered overly authoritarian or justified by the circumstances is one thing, but it's interesting that the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies had been so successful at infiltrating the USSR regardless.
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R u OK bro
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