Darker Shades of Red

I found the exhibit Darker Shades of Red to be quite interesting. I t reminded me a lot of the statue park in Budepest Hungary that is full of statues from the Soviet occupation befor the revolution. Specificaly I found it interesting how closley the small iron cast statue of Lenin looked to what remains of a similar statue of Stalin that used to be in Heros Square in budapestt and all that are left now are stalins's boots because during th erevolution the statue was knocked down. Overall I find all of the stuff to be quite conflicting because personally I think the inherent valuse of communism are a good thing. However in the execution of it the ideals get sidetracked and the goals are never reached. In the story Under a Cruel Star a story that follows a girl from czhecholslovakia throughout the soviet occupation and her experience as a member of a nation being occupied by different regimes and the turmoil that caused on their lives. One thing that I remember from the story was the power of the community and belonging th athtey felt at least at the beginning of the communist regime which causes me o beleiver that in some form it could be a powerful and prosperous society and beleif system. Overall I feel that the ideals of communism that value hard work and education are good and can also lead to good commerce. I understand that the capitlalist would argue that a society like this would not function because witht he equalization of wages there would be no incentive to pogress. It is with this point that I find things get sticky because I do beleive in the power of competition while at the same time beleive that the amount of money that a single person can accumulate should be limited with the remainder going back to the stat. Yet if the ideas of communty are actually beleived and upheld competition is not really needed because the idea of working for the community is enought.

The Communist Manifesto

I find it interesting that in the Communist Manifesto Marx is promoting the idea of a classless society while at the same time understaning the roles of the proletariat or the working class and the Bourgeois or the factory owners and people with capital. Given the innate differences in the class standing and opportunities of these two classes there is tension between them. the Bourgeois although a smaller group has the upper hand and can control what happens to the proletariat. However I find it interesting that within the "class" of the proletariat it is argued that they are a classless group of people because as Marx writes "...the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class...the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population.". As for the Bourgeois as a class it takes away from the individuality of people because it is such a proponent of making everyinthing equal. Overall I think that Marx's arguments about class are interesting in the way that at times thisgs seem to be contradictory but if there were to be an execution a perfect communist society then these class antagonisms that he argues against might not nescesarrily exist but I don't know if that would ever be possible.

The Positive Woman

I found this article quite interesting. I thought hta tit was interesting that what they deem as a The Positive Woman was more than just what is depicted by the areticle on how to be a good wife yet the concepts lined up. Howeve, i did think that it had good points. I am all for equal opportunity for women and fair representation but I do agree with their assesment that if the liberationist women were to have everything neutralized that it would be a disadvantage to society and to both women and men. I think that the innate differnces that Schlafty identified such as physical abilities and certain emotional and personality dispositions are good examples of why society could never and should never be truly gener neutral. I do find it interesting though that it seems that the woman's liberationist does not seem that they would beleive that a woman is or could possibly be content with the conventional role of a woman and they they would only think they are because they have been conditions by a sexist society to think that way.

Edmund Burke

In this reading Burke seems to percieve human intellect as the means ot a just society. he states that " the pride of human intellect ,which, with all its defects, redundancies and errors is the collected reason of errors. That in a sense if people are properly educated and in his sende that would include undestanding of jusrisprudence and common humanity that it would lead to reason and with reason the society would function better. He seems to suggest that through reason a rational way to solve and explain conflicts exists. However it sems that he feels that those that stand out in intelectual feilds would be overtaken by those who are less knowledgable.

Friedman

Overall i found Friedman's point that there can be many combinations of the different forms of economic ans political freedom. He points out that capitalism is necesarry for political freedom pointing out that there were Facist and tzarist regimes where that was not the case. As for his discussion on the "neighborhood effects" where as a result of monopolies some private businesses do not have a chance of surviving. He describes it as the "effecton third parties for which it is not feasible to charge or recopense the (92)". He seems to be encountering a difficulty in a total free market while still providing everyone with equal oppotunity to have their own economic freedom. However, Friedman would not support the regulation of monopolies because he was for as little government interation as possible and beleived that if a country is economically free then it will be politically free.