Tyranny

An interesting footnote to the German film The Lives of Others. My wife, an intelligent woman, was shocked by the life of East Germans depicted in the film. I had no idea it was like that, she said. Well, as a "spy" in this era, I knew about life in a police state well enough, which in areas is even worse than anything depicted in the film. So why this gap in her education? In truth, I find many "liberals" have a gap in their knowledge of life in police states. On the extreme, some will point out the superior health care in such a country, for example, which can be true. But at what price? At the same time, the marketplace is driven by greed and can't be relied upon to provide basic human services. "If all men were angels, there'd be no need for government." It's a balancing act, and both extremes have their arguments for more or less government. I know some folks, for example, who are infatuated with Cuba today -- and others, Cuban refugees, who believe Castro is the devil.

My feeling is that the more government snoops into your lives, the worse the situation gets -- and this clearly is a trend here now. It's always in the name of security, of course. Well, I digress. I just found it fascinating that my wife thought everything was rosy in East Germany during the Cold War.