Marc Thiessen’s sloppy logic created a muddled message (“Former Polish President Walesa tells youth to reject socialism,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 18).
A quick check of an online dictionary concludes that, “All communists are socialists but not all socialists are communists.”
I suspect that Thiessen has not read anything about or by Upton Sinclair. The distinctions between socialism and Marxist communism are important. Socialism does not include the concept of a dictatorship of any kind, but applies government intervention as a check on unbridled capitalism. This confusion allows uncritical thinking to condemn Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, public utilities, health, housing, transportation and anything else I don’t like as an intrusion on my individual freedom. (Just don’t ask questions about repealing tax breaks for all the millionaires who are members of Congress.)
He does go on to recognize the danger that demagogues and populists pose to civic order and the common good. He also cites, at length, Walesa’s appreciation of a good man’s influence, in this case, Pope John Paul II.
The column’s misleading headline ignores these important points completely.
Edward B. Hanel, Jr.
Kailua
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