another misuse of "socialism"

["Michael S. Yoder" <myoder@tamiu.edu>]

At 06:11 AM 11/29/99 PST, you wrote:
>>Don't you mean *authoritarian*? National Socialists and Fascists
>>hate capitalism, because it's based on brains rather than brawn;
>>merit instead of mediocrity.

THAT'S ABSURD!!!  The Nazis, who were socialist in name only (as a way to
"sell" their idea to the masses) were absolutely capitalist.  The huge war
machine that they built in WWII made lots of German private military
contractors filthy rich.  
Capitalism is based more on trickery and accumulated wealth than on 
"brains."
Please stop misusing terms like socialist, etc.  There's never been an
authoritarian socialism that I know of.  The USSR, etc., also misused the
term. I would hardly call the Israeli Kibbutz, the Mondragon cooperatives,
or Sweden's labor-friendly governance as "authoritarian."

Michael
================================================================

Dr. Michael S. Yoder
Assistant Professor of Geography, Coordinator of Urban Studies
Department of Social Sciences
Texas A&M International University
Laredo, TX  78041  U.S.A.
Telephone:  (956)326-2634 Office;  (956)326-2464 FAX
E-Mail  myoder@tamiu.edu
Web Page:  http://tamiu.edu/~myoder/
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"English ideas about property have given us both the Bill of Rights and the
industrial slum." (Archibald C. Coolidge, Jr.)