English

Letters from our readers

The following is a selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site.

On “Obituary: Kurt Vonnegut, satirist and pessimist”

Kurt Vonnegut may have had more insight into the nature of humanity than he has been given credit for. One cannot find too much optimism in the world today with leaders of two of the world’s richest nations (Canada and the USA) knowing fully the consequences of global warming, but still seeing profit as the bottom line.

I think Mr. Vonnegut wanted us to see the terrible, the dark, what was and is and probably will be possible. Many wars could have been avoided, and weren’t; the holocausts of history could have all been thwarted, but weren’t; many African nations and those of the Middle East and Latin America had had chances for more equitable societies, but the elites of other nations let anarchy, despotism and tyranny prevail because it made more economic sense for them.

We are at a time in history when a crisis must happen, and the irony is that very crisis will make us or break us. We will either meet it rationally or succumb to it irrationally. Kurt Vonnegut saw first hand exactly what that meant. We have, indeed, lost a great man.

SN

Canada

27 April 2007

On “The bitter legacy of Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007)”

After reading Mr. Volkov’s article, I was struck by how Stalin’s “socialism in one country” mirrors Hitler’s “national socialism.” Both nationalist roads lead to the same place: Catastrophe for working people.

These are important historical lessons. I thank the author for succinctly retracing the bitter road followed by the Soviet Union’s working people.

Lesson learned!

DP

Canada

26 April 2007

* * *

Boris Yeltsin was a reactionary and a criminal who undid the great work of Lenin and his revolutionary allies. The picture of the Soviet Union formed under the leadership of Lenin will always inspire the working class to gather and consolidate its strength for a final assault against world capitalism that is historically inevitable.

SMJ

Lucknow, India

27 April 2007

On a letter from a reader on the Virginia State Shootings

Hi TK,

I really take issue with your assertion that this shooting “echoes the over-reaction of the Bush administration and the people of the USA to the 9/11 attacks.” There is a serious, and disturbing flaw in your analogy.

The invasion and mass slaughter in Afghanistan and Iraq were carried out by the world’s biggest imperial superpower, in an attempt to secure their global dominance over their upcoming rivals, such as China. These shootings, on the other hand, were carried out by a person who was systematically oppressed and alienated and abused to the point of desolation, by the same power that invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and that treats human life as just something that gets in the way of profit, whether that’s in the Middle East or America itself.

To assert that there is some kind of analogy between the propaganda justification for the US’s imperialist exploits in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the horrific, desperate and tragic actions of a young man who had been finally crushed into complete despair by the racist, alienating, oppressive and misanthropic capitalist system that the US represents is something that I’m not prepared to accept. This is a disanalogy of the most venal kind; it displays no differentiation between a suffering person driven by despair and a genocidal imperialist superpower driven by profit and global domination. Therefore, your assertion displays no basic respect for humanity, and I think you should take a serious look at your own politics.

Let’s save our hatred for the system that produces such monstrosity and spare some sympathy for someone who was as much a victim of this horrific capitalist system as his victims were, as the victims in Iraq and Afghanistan are, and indeed as ordinary people the whole world round continue to be, day by day.

Regards,

BC

26 April 2007

On “After first round of French election: the contest for the ‘centre’”

In the last paragraph of your article, you state, “The outcome of the French election shows that the situation is ripe for the building of a section of the International Committee in France. This is the most urgent political task that emerges from the current presidential election.”

I couldn’t agree more. Please start now!

JK

26 April 2007

Loading