BOURGEOIS COMMUNISM III

The 70's and early 80's brought a period of "stagnation " as compared with the chaotic 60s. The social events occurred on a slow motion fashion and within the boundaries of the Yalta "doctrine"; so we witnessed the Carnation Revolution in Portugal and the decolonization of Angola, Mozambique and other Third World nations. The Soviets swiftly jumped at the chance and were able to place their allies in most key places; "Lusitania", however, followed a different path and after several months of power struggling it remained in the west. In hindsight one could speculate that neither of the two superpowers wanted to rock the boat and had reached a tacit agreement by virtue of which the former colonies were allowed to try a populist course while the European nation remained a western country; be that as it may and despite Castro's flagrant meddling in Africa, the vital interests of the West were never in serous jeopardy. 

In the mid 80's the death of three Party chiefs and Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power brought a more realistic approach to the deadwood infested bureaucracy in the USSR; once again anything could and would be done in order to salvage the system; the new face was a tactical maneuver within the same strategy, but the Soviet empire had been erected upon marshy land and it inevitably collapsed. For many of us it was the end of the red menace, but actually it was only the beginning of a new era; the Cold War had inoculated the west with a lethal dose of a deadly virus: self destruction.

Russia would later emerge from the debris of the USSR; the triumphalism created by the so-called demise of communism would keep the west off guard for a few years, long enough for the virus to get into its bloodstream and ironically vindicate the patient toil of thousands of KGB operatives 

The splintering of the communist nightmare would turn into hundreds of short bad dreams. Complacency and economic bonanza combined with a double talk rhetoric would continue to push the west to the abyss. The new century brought the condemnation of the right and the stereotyping of anything and everything conservative. No mention of the dictatorship of the proletariat but Gramsci's class alliances re emerged. All of a sudden the crimes of communism blurred. What really mattered was to depict capitalism as evil, to soften the lexicon to such a low that concepts like "self made man" or "rich" became blasphemies. If one was wealthy it was NEVER due to one's own efforts but due to the efforts of the "community". Suppression of individuality and exacerbation of collectivism.

A new breed of "progressive billionaires" started pulling the strings and they galvanized a huge sector of the middle class that once again was ready to abandon the certainty of the evil they knew only to embark on a journey to places unknown. Before long the pride of Americana ushered by Ronald Reagan faded into a collective and tenacious guilt complex. Success and wealth became a viability as our nation prepared for a milestone appointment with history: the election of the first African American president. TO BE CONTINUED...