Thatcher on the fall of communism
10 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: fall of communism, Margaret Thatcher
500 years of generations, and their Moniker
10 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: talking about my generation
Reagan at Brandenburg gate
10 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: Brandenburg gate, fall of communism, fall of the Berlin wall, Ronald Reagan
When Boris Yeltsin went on a 20 minute unscheduled grocery shopping visit in Clear Lake, Texas 1989
10 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: fall of communism, fall of the Berlin wall, The Great Fact
…a Yeltsin biographer later wrote that on the plane ride to Yeltsin’s next destination, Miami, he was despondent. He couldn’t stop thinking about the plentiful food at the grocery store and what his countrymen had to subsist on in Russia.
In Yeltsin’s own autobiography, he wrote about the experience at Randall’s, which shattered his view of communism, according to pundits.
Two years later, he left the Communist Party and began making reforms to turn the economic tide in Russia. You can blame those frozen Jell-O Pudding pops.
“When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people,” Yeltsin wrote. “That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it.”
via When Boris Yeltsin went grocery shopping in Clear Lake – The Texican.
Hayek on utopian thinking
10 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in F.A. Hayek, liberalism Tags: FA Hayek, utopian thinking
Harald Jaeger – the man who opened the Berlin Wall
09 Nov 2014 1 Comment
in liberalism Tags: spontaneous order, The collapse of communism, The fall of the Berlin Wall, unintended consequences
When one of the regime’s most loyal subordinates, a Stasi officer named Harald Jaeger who was working the 9 November shift at a crucial checkpoint in the Berlin wall, repeatedly phoned his superiors with accurate reports of swelling crowds, they did not trust or believe him. They called him a delusional coward.
Insulted, furious and frightened, he decided to let the crowds out [at 11:30 p.m], starting a chain reaction that swept across all the checkpoints that night.
In short, the fall of the wall came about because of the complex interplay among Soviet reforms, East Berlin’s incompetence and, crucially, rising opposition from everyday Germans.
Earlier that night, Politburo member Guenther Schabowski said — mistakenly, as it turns out — at an evening news conference on Nov. 9, 1989, that East Germans would be allowed to cross into West Germany, effective immediately.
Jaeger refused to leave East Berlin because he said he was "on duty". Stasi officers didn’t get permission to cross into the West until just before Christmas. Red tape involving his travel documents delayed the trip for another month.
On the evils of capitalism
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: The Great Escape, The Great Fact
Evils of capitalism http://t.co/hLzjUc5LFp—
ian leslie (@mrianleslie) November 07, 2014
25 years later Berlin recreates the Wall with 8000 glowing balloons
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: collapse of communism, fall of the Berlin wall
Berlin is just cool. 8,000 glowing balloons recreate the Berlin Wall, 25 yrs after its fall: wired.com/2014/11/8000-g… http://t.co/qWQZ4TyhLz—
Tabatha Southey (@TabathaSouthey) November 08, 2014
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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