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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!talcott!panda!teddy!lkk
From: lkk@teddy.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: The myth of Allied invasion of R
Message-ID: <1576@teddy.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 10:31:16 EST
Article-I.D.: teddy.1576
Posted: Mon Nov  4 10:31:16 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Nov-85 21:43:47 EST
References: <544@qantel.UUCP> <7800608@inmet.UUCP>
Reply-To: lkk@teddy.UUCP (Larry K. Kolodney)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 32

In article <7800608@inmet.UUCP> janw@inmet.UUCP writes:
>Let me add this. 
>Though hypotheses in "alternative history" are unverifiable,
>it is quite likely that, without Communism, the Russian empire
>would have fallen apart. All the others did (count:
>Austro-Hungary, Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Portugal,
>Spain...). This one survived, and spread, and keeps spreading.

What about the American empire?  Seems like an equally important
factor in keeping such empires together is contiguity.  The only
contiguous empires I can think of off hand are U.S., China, and
U.S.S.R.  They're all seem pretty permanent.

>
>Communism provided it (1) with an incomparable machinery 
>of power and (2) with a supranational, internationalist
>ideology, acceptable to the ruling class of subject lands.
>It also (3) made economic gain secondary to power gain, so
>the empire needn't be cost effective to exist.

American ideology (whatever that may be) seems to have done a pretty
effective job as well.




-- 
Sport Death,       (USENET) ...{decvax | ihnp4!mit-eddie}!genrad!panda!lkk
Larry Kolodney     (INTERNET) lkk@mit-mc.arpa
--------
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
- Helen Keller