We were fools to think the fall of the Berlin Wall had killed off the far Left...

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 9th November 2009 | Melanie Phillips

[naturalman1975]

Twenty years ago today, supporters of freedom and human rights cheered and wept for joy as the Berlin Wall was torn down by jubilant young Germans.

To so many, that heady day seemed to herald the emergence of a better world. The spectre of communism had finally been laid to rest. Liberty had triumphed over tyranny.

The end of the Cold War even led some to proclaim that this was 'the end of history' - which was to say that liberal democracy was now the dominant and unchallengeable force in the world.

However, the 9/11 attacks on America tragically proved this to be absurdly over-optimistic. The eruption of radical Islamism revealed that, while the West may have been rid of one enemy in the Soviet Union, another deadly foe had risen to take its place. So much is, sadly, all too evident.

But what is perhaps less obvious is that communism did not just vanish in a puff of historical smoke. The Soviet Union was defeated and fell apart, for sure. But the communist ideology that fuelled it did not so much disintegrate as reconstitute itself into another, even more deadly form as the active enemy of western freedom.

.....

The Iron Curtain came down only to be replaced by a rainbow-hued knuckle-duster, as our cultural commissars pulverise all forbidden attitudes in order to reshape western society into a post-democratic, post-Christian, post-moral universe. Lenin would have smiled.

[naturalman1975]

Full headline (truncated due to length): We were fools to think the fall of the Berlin Wall had killed off the far Left. They're back - and attacking us from within

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

There is good reason to suspect that the fall of Soviet Communism was not real but a tactical, temporary retreat.

[gwilhelm56]

**We were fools to think the fall of the Berlin Wall had killed off the far Left.**

Half of them moved to the ENVIROMENTALIST Extremist Camp and the REST went to the DNC.

and to all the DEMS lurking.... MCCARTHY was RIGHT!!!

[popdonnelly]

The far Left never learns anything. Bill Ayers is the same little shit-ass fanatic he always was.

[Red6]

duh-

The fall of the wall didn't change the fact that you have millions with this ideology that has been ingrained since birth practically. Their system just imploded because it's economically unviable. They simply live among us today, still clinging to their communist/socialist ideas, many even openly professing to these views and proselytizing them.

[Husker24]

The Soviet Union was Americas Boogyman for years. The American people knew they were an Evil Empire that had a repressive system. The left wouldn’t dare to do something comparable to the Soviets, because during the Cold War that would be considered treasonous. The Democrats knew the American people wouldn’t tolerate it. With the Soviet Union gone, a lot of Americans have no real memory of it and its ideals, thus the Democrats dont have to worry about being compared to the “Boogyman” As strange as it sounds the downfall of the Soviet Union will be the downfall of the USA. You cant have yin without yang.

[phatus maximus]

Very interesting thoughts...you are on to something. I wonder how much of today's history classes discuss the atrocities and horrible iron fist governing of the old Communist Soviets et al? I would be almost none and hence as you state there is a severe lack of understanding of the historical significance of why the USSR had to be opposed so strongly.