Re: Neo-liberalism

To Ismail

Your point about where historically the major atrocities of the 20 the
century have occurred and who did them is well made. The usual response I
guess  would be to trot out the argument about  Soviet Communism killing off
somwehere between 12 and 20 million people btween the civil war, the purges
and collectivisation campaigns and so on. Except that recent archival
research has drastically reestimated those numbers downwards, around the 1
to 2 million mark (including gulag prisoners) I can't chase the reference
now, but I will look it up if anyone is interested.

I take issue with one of your comments though, about people committing
artrocities. By my view, all the horror stories of the 20th century are the
fault of governments. Left to their own devices I just don't see the
evidence for widespread ordinary human brutality - brutalisation and
participation yes, but the organising and initiating has always come about
as a function of government policy.

Regards,

Cedric Beidatsch
Perth Western Australia