It is interesting to note that the pseudonymous Baghdad blogger Salam Pax is considering supporting the secular Iraqi Communists in the aftermath of Ba’athist Socialism:
[May Day], workers of the world unite. The Iraqi Communist Party and the Iraqi Communist Workers Party are covering a lot of walls with red posters. I have not heard that Nadia Abdul Majeed of the Communist Workers Party is in Baghdad. I am still offering to volunteer if they do some cosmetic changes to their name. They have their hearts in the right place, unlike most other parties who have their hearts near their wallets.
Now as he is a member of a minority by virtue of his private and personal lifestyle choices, I am amazed he finds the slightest intellectual or emotional pull towards any system which takes a collectivist view of the world. To be a collectivist is to have a vision of society which argues that not only should ‘society’ have the right to decided what you (and I do mean YOU as an individual) and a willing other person can do together peacefully, be it exchanging good, money, ideas or bodily fluids, but that ‘society’ also has the right to use violence (i.e. law) to compel you to act as the state wishes. This should logically be a hard sell to any group which by its’ very nature will always be in the minority and hense always politically vulnerable.
Islamic collectivists will not tolerate things like homosexuality or charging interest on a loan, even between willing participants, and will use The State to enforce their views… Communist collectivists will not tolerate exchanging goods or even your own labour privately, even between willing participants, and will use The State to enforce their views. But the core principle underpinning all collectivism is that agreements between consenting adults, be it in the market place or the bedroom, are not something that can be allowed without the ‘political community’ accepting it: in other words, regardless of endless claims to the contrary there is no such thing to a collectivist as civil society, just The State, which is to say, everything is political and politics is about the use of FORCE.
Nothing is private and personal under a collectivist system because everything is subject to politics. It is not a survival trait to be a quirky eccentric or outsider in a collectivist system. Under a non-collectivist system you are free to form communes, pray to Allah (or not), have sex with anyone who is willing. But under collectivism, interaction means politics and politics means laws and laws mean force… and as laws are not optional, you cannot just opt-out and pursue an alternative lifestyle.
If the Iraqi Communists, unlike the Iraqi Party of God, will not persecute someone for being gay, that is not because they think such matters are a private issues… there are no private issues under collectivism… it just means they will allow you to do this or that, not that they think you have the right to do as you please. Remember that before you start sticking up pro-collectivist posters in Baghdad, Good Mister Pax.
I would not presume to tell Salam Pax who to vote for but I have no hesitation telling him what to vote for: What you need after Ba’athism is not just a different government but less government.
I was hoping Samizdata would comment on that. I read it too, and was somewhat shocked that someone of Salam’s skeptical disposition and sexual orientation would harbor political sympathies for communists. It never ceases to amaze me how people can advance all sorts of conspiracy theories that excoriate democratic capitalism, while throwing all their skepticism and objectivity out the window in promoting collectivist ideals. Such people seem to emphasize the costs of capitalism while excluding any consideration of the benefits, and conversely emphasize the promised benefits of collectivism while excluding any consideration of its costs. That this happens with dimwitted idealists and useful idiots is one thing, but that it happens with natural skeptics like Salam is another. What is this unholy appeal of collectivism that tricks even jaded cynics and pessimists of human nature into believing its promises?
the iraqi communist party is more of a social democratic party though isn’t it? they point to sweden as an example of what they would like iraq to be like, which i suppose you could argue is still a pretty shit place to aspire to but it’s not like they want to turn iraq into north korea or something.
I’m interested to see what happens when Salam Pax meets the outside world. I doubt he is going to be able to stay anonymous for long, and he is soon going to be hit by lots of requests for interviews, offers of book contracts and the like. What this is going to do to his blog I don’t know. It’s also interesting to read him say, for instance, that he won’t be blogging much because internet access is going to cost him $5 an hour, for instance. I suspect that his tens of thousands of readers between them could probably manage to pay the five bucks for him. There is a contradiction here, and I will be interested to see how it is resolved.
I also wrote earlier today about the mutual admiration society that seems to have sprung up between Salam Pax and cyberpunk novelist William Gibson.
Is there any Communist regime that doesn’t persecute homosexuals for being homosexuals? It seems bizarre but as far as I know it is the case. I’d be interested in hearing any counter examples.
do you have any job openings at your website?
Is Salam Pax real?
How do we know?
Andrew: The short answer is that we don’t know. The best we can do is weigh the evidence and make a judgement. After having done that, I am of the view he is exactly who he says he is.
Am I 100% certain he is the real deal? No, I am not… but if I was a betting man, that is how I would place my wager. Opinions vary of course and only time will tell for sure.
Either way it is a great story
Let me get this straight, this guy want to give up a command economy run by a dictator and then wants to replace it with a command economy run by a committee of dictators. Hmmm
You know 24 years ago the Iranians thought that an Islamic theocracy would be a wonderful change from the Shah, I wonder what’s changed their minds?
Folks, some people just have to learn the hard way.
“the iraqi communist party is more of a social democratic party though isn’t it? they point to sweden [own emphasis] as an example of what they would like iraq to be like, which i suppose you could argue is still a pretty shit place to aspire to but it’s not like they want to turn iraq into north korea or something.”
– richard
Yes, richard, you are perfectly right about Sweden being a “pretty shit place”. Trust me (I live in Sweden), it might look good on the outside, but it’s a tyranny on the inside. No, we dont have the State running around murdering people physically, but mentally. Any libertarian would suffocate here – not a shred of real civil liberties anywhere. Anything that would resemble that is just fake. Worst of all, the level of indoctrination success is scary…so no, richard, Sweden is nothing to aim for.
(I’m gonna get out of here as fast as possible….run while I can, I suppose…)
Richard: the iraqi communist party is more of a social democratic party though isn’t it? they point to sweden as an example of what they would like iraq to be like…
And you don’t think, just maybe, that that might be a marketing ploy? They are a self avowed COMMUNIST party. From Iraq News:
Presumably they would not call themselves communists unless they belived in, well, communism.
That and Sweden’s GDP is lower than the state of Mississippi’s.
Salam hasn’t been sure about anything in his life, was not before the invasion, and still isn’t in the first messy, heady, days of anarchic freedom. He has been casting about for some sort of solid peg upon which to hang his hat, politically, personally, and all other ways.
All he has ever done via his blog is let all his bewilderments come out and hang there. Within any one post this is very evident as he switches about from topic to topic, from one view to another, and ‘drawing conclusions’ from which he then immediately departs in multiple directions.
MommaBear is quite correct… the fact Salam Pax is casting around looking for The Truth, and occasionally casting his eye in some scary directions, is nothing many of us have not done ourselves at various times in our lives. The only difference here is that he is blogging about what is on his mind and we can read it.
I do not think he is a dyed-in-the-wool communist, just a bloke looking for answers after having grown up in a seriously dysfunctional society.
Is Salam Pax real?
Look here
and
here (scroll down to Asparagirl’s comment).
[EDITORS NOTE: Please copy-and-paste the html code provided for links where you enter your comments]
We see Salam Pax as a bellweather symbol for countless millions of others, hence his importance to our continuing enquiry.
He’s not been encouraged to study the Teachings of a Persian nobleman who was exiled to Baghdad for 10 years in the late 1800’s… but those Teachings could well hold valid answers to such pressing needs as “How do we collectively decide?”
Ironic, n’est-ce pas? The Glory of God was under house arrest in Baghdad, yet tens of thousands came to love Him, and the mullahs of Iran had to send Him even FURTHER… and when the same love was evinced in Constantinople, only 8 years faster than Baghdad, the mullahs had Him shunted off to Akka, near Haifa, Palestine…
Where He pitched His tent on Mt Carmel… look at it today, Salam Pax. Look to Mt Carmel, Footstool of the Lord God Almighty… see the golden dome atop it? Holds the mortal remains of One Who was shot at point-blank range by 750 Christian Armenian soldiers, and when THAT didn’t kill Him, He was drug out again and hung up so that 750 Muslim soldiers could finish the job!
Look to Mt Carmel, Salam Pax, for there you’ll find justice. And that, in truth, is an Eye Opener.
huh?
Perry
Is it possible for an entire nation to suffer from a collective type of abused spouse syndrome? Interesting.
I like your style