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TOLERATED CAPITALISM:
Women
shoppers, left_ in a Moscow "free
market" examine produce which is
general/y unavailab/e in state-run
gastronoms,
or food stores. Some
of the sellers come from as far
away as the sunny Caucasus regían
hundreds ofmiles
to
the south. They
are able to fly to Moscow, se// their
fruits, vegetables or flowers at un–
regulated prices over a three- or
four-day period -
then fly home
with a profit.
LITTLE MISS
in Kiev clutches gift
of American chewing gum. 0/der
Soviet children make a business of
exchanging
snachky,
or trinkets, to
foreigners for the " forbidden fruit "
otherwise unobtainable in the
U.S.S.R. where authorities frown
on gum-chewing as a base habit.
The " gum traffic " flourishes under–
ground nevertheless. Sellers " cut "
the gum into smaller pieces for
resale. As one American phrased
it_ " There are two currencies in
the Soviet Union. 8oth are 'soft '
but only one is free/y convertible.
The first is the
ruble.
The second
is chewing gum. "
socialism and capitaJjsm and peace–
ful coexistence belween the Com–
munist and bourgeo is ideologies
have no t existed and do not and
cannot exis t. "
The edito ria l appeared right on
the heels of Sununit Two, which
supposedly sent the machinery of
détente o n to an " irreve rsible"
course.
In testirn ony before a Sena te For–
eign Rela tions subcommittee, fore–
most expert on Communist a ffairs,
Zbigniew Brezezinski. defined t he
meanin g of détente perhaps more
clearly than a nyone has so fa r: "The
Sovie t view of détenle - explicit ly
a nd openly a rticul ated by Soviet
leaders - is that of a limited and
expedient arra ngement, which in no
way termina les the ideological con–
flict even as il yields ta ngibl e eco–
nomic benefi ts. On the contrary, it
has been emphasized over a nd over
aga in tha t ' peaceful coexistence' is a
form of class struggle and that ideo–
logica l hostili ty, however, is no t lo
stand in the way of economic coop–
erat ion ."
PLAIN TRUTH December 1974
On e must consequently ask the
same ques tion th at en tcred t he
mind of one of the ancien t prophets
of Israel: "Can lwo wa ik together,
except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3.)
Who Has the Key to Peace?
How in thi s strife-ridden wo rld of
ou rs can hopeless ly divided man–
kind ever find the road lo peace?
Will " peace" result from the ulti–
mare victory of one high ly imperfect
human philosophy over ano lher,
wit h the millions of those ho lding
opposite points of view "conve rted"
aga inst their wills?
True peace and harmony wi ll
never result from individua l men
and na tions each stubbornly clutch–
ing lo cherished man-made " isms"
and ideologi es.
While on our trip to the Soviet
Union, Dexter Fau lkner a nd I
picked up a copy of a recent s peech
of Mr. Brezhnev. In the 47-page
transcript, tra nslated into Eng lish,
the Soviet leader used the words
" peace" and "peaceful" 155 times.
Yet where is the peace of which
he speaks? And Brezhnev is by no
means the only world leader profes–
sing peaceful intentions in officia l
speeches and lengthy documents.
The pla in fact is that not one sys–
tem ever devised by the thoughts of
man has ever brought forth the
good fruits of lasting peace. All con–
tain the seeds of their self-destruc–
tion. Histo ry is really no t on the
side of any humanly conce ived
system of government. And tha t
includes democracy
in
all of its
myriad fo rms as well as athe–
istic Marxist Leninism. whi ch
has a lso fragme nted into its
seve ra! exclusivist varieties.
In our trip to the Soviet Union, l
noticed how easy it was for the 80
Amer icans in our tour group to spot
the weaknesses .a nd defi ciencies in
the Soviet sys tem. And yet.
1
won–
der, how ma ny were fuUy aware of
the many sho rtcomings of their own
political a nd economi c sys tem.
Sorne of t he mos t incisive a nd objec–
tive repo rting on t he fa ilu res within
our highly touted "American way of
life" have come from visiting Soviet
j o urnali sts who have bemoan ed
Ameri ca 's shocking crime pictu re.
its po llution a nd the greedy misuse
of our natural resources in a n econ–
omy increasingly gea red lo ovcr–
cons umpt ion a nd wastefu lness.
Only One Way to Peace
T he time is not fa r away now
when all nations great and small -
a nd God says tha t all na tions of this
wo rld a re but a "drop in the bucket"
to him - will be fo rced to look in a
d irecti on t bey have never sought in
orde r to find t he way - th e o nly
way - to peace, ha ppiness and eter–
na! life fo r all.
As certain as the risi ng of tomo r–
row's sun , the scene described in the
second cbapter of l sai ah in you r
Bible will surely take place: " lt shall
come to pass in the latter days tha t
thc mountain of th e house of the
Lord shall be established as the
highest of the mountains ... and a ll
the na tions sba ll fl ow to it. and
ma ny peop les sha ll come. and say:
'Come, let us go up lO the mounta in
of the Lord. to the house of the God
of Jacob ; tha t he may teach us his
ways and that we may walk in his
pa ths.' . .. He sha ll j udge be tween
the nations, a nd sha ll decide for
ma ny
peopl e~;
and they sha ll bea t
their swords into plowsha res, and
their spears in to pruning hooks; na–
tion shaU no t lift up sword against
na tion, neither shall they lea rn war
any more" (fsa ia h 2:2-4, RSV).
What a contrast with the world
today!
o
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