Free Republic

On a cold afternoon in late January, I pulled into an industrial side-street of Saint Petersburg. There, I met with a man who I’ll refer to as “Oleg.” Oleg drives a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee ZJ—an “Orvis Edition” with a 5.2-liter V8. As we stood chatting by the hood of his car, many heads turned, and a fair share of strangers offered their thumbs up. A few others asked if the car was for sale, to which Oleg responded, ominously: “takiye mashini ne prodayutsya” (“cars like this don’t go up for sale”). In America, the Grand Cherokee ZJ is at...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...