Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin used to divide the capitalist West from the communist East, geographically, politically, socially and personally—even dividing families. When you crossed over on a bus from the gay, sparkling West, a dour apparatchik boarded your tour bus and demanded to see your papers. Once you were released, you were privileged to observe poor peasants from East Berlin hurrying along the sidewalks wearing somber clothing and looking down at the ground. Your trip was fully guided, and no interaction was allowed with the local subjects. Travel overland through East Germany was taboo, and for many years, Pan American was the only airline approved by the Soviets to fly into Berlin with food, supplies and passengers. Their blue logo would be familiar to fans of old 1960s spy movies. Under the threat of Mutual Assured Destruction, West and East had achieved a balance of power, a respect for the dire consequences of unilateral action. (Could modern marriages not use a large dose of MAD?). Employing propaganda and James Bond tactics, the USA and the USSR were subtle in their efforts to bring unhappy countries under their wing and grow their empire of ideas
from the cafés of Vienna. Greed was restrained by fear.
Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes had a dream. The world was unfair, and government needed to take the upper hand in enforcing equality among its citizens—not including themselves, of course. The cabal, which was probably behind the spread of communism, had a dream, too: take over the world and rule with an iron fist. Communism was their strategy. And now that the West is more communist than Russia, Russia is framed as the enemy again, and the focus is back on the USA—Britain less so as host of the lawless City—guardian of the cabal’s pot of gold. Capitalism equals production and consumption. Its key components are free markets and property rights, without which there is nothing to compete for. Free markets are life itself, without which the human growth instinct gets suppressed and all human potential screeches to a halt. Capitalism is praised for its free market efficiency and vilified for its twin evils—wages and debt. More rebellious types say that capital, private property and industry are all slave systems for the blueshirts, and that world development is just more colonization by global capital. Communism is praised for offering fairness and equality by matching production and consumption to what its leaders see as good for the nation and just desserts for the workers. Capitalism and the right wing are the domain of people who own or want to own stuff. Socialism is the domain of people who do not believe in stuff or failed to get it but still want a share. . . to be continued
