Wednesday
Over at the Adam Smith Institute blog is this nice item on a recent performance of s Tom Stoppard play, touching on the themes of oppression under the old Soviet Union. Apparently, as the ASI commenter notes, this makes some theatre reviewers a bit sniffy, since all this stuff about the USSR is so, well, dated, dahling. As the blog points out, it is not. The kind of issues that arose under the Soviet Empire are as relevant now as they were during the Cold War. Some of the names have changed a bit, that's all.
Talking of dramatists, here is an old post of mine about David Mamet, who has had a bit of a Road to Damascus political conversion.
"I am hard-pressed to see an instance where the intervention of the government led to much beyond sorrow"
or as Dr. Johnson said:
"How small of all that human hearts endure/That part which laws or kings can cause or cure."
Posted by Rob H at February 17, 2010 05:05 PM
There is an interesting comparison between Hitler's, Roosevelt's and Mussolini's economic policies and the similarities are quite striking. This is also the reason why the US eventually will fail alongside China.
Posted by CrisisMaven at February 17, 2010 09:40 PM
By the FT critic's standard, Arthur Miller's The Crucible should never have been premiered, let alone shown today. It was about events 250 years previously.
Posted by Ted Schuerzinger at February 18, 2010 01:38 AM
I wasn't too surprised about the Mamet "conversion". A few years ago I think I saw him in an "I'm the NRA" ad, around the same time he published a story in Sports Afield about a trip to Vermont for a muzzle-loading deer hunt.
Posted by poppa india at February 18, 2010 04:12 AM
It is not just the Soviet Union - it is any attack on socialism.
For example, I heard on the BBC radio today an attack on North Korea - accept that it was not an attack on socialism.
Not at all - everything is the fault of a bad man called Kim and his son (the Great Leader and the Dear Leader). No doubt they are "neo cons" in league with big business.
I hope this snowstorm clears soon - the msm does try my temper.
Posted by Paul Marks at February 18, 2010 09:30 PM
