Finlay Pike > Recent Status Updates

But how could you do this? the man asked as he inhaled the smoke from the cigarette, sensing it would be his last. What could Dražen tell him but that he did not have a choice? It sounded like a stupid thing to say to a man about to lose his life, it sounded damned stupid. But it was the truth. Dražen was aware that the man was guilty only of being the wrong nationality, and in this he didn't have a choice either.

“The man who had entered the courtroom with an air of naiveté, compliant and ready to please the judges, but who did not have the guts to confront Mladić … this man was at last utterly revealed. In his trial was the evidence of the collapse of a society that had lost its values, of an army that had lost its honourable reputation and of the man who had lost his soul when he 'agreed to evil'.”

“All ideologies contain totalitarian elements, but these are fully developed only by totalitarian movements, and this creates the deceptive impression that only racism and communism are totalitarian in character. The truth is, rather, that the real nature of all ideologies was revealed only in the role that the ideology plays in the apparatus of totalitarian domination” (unclear if she extends this to liberalism)

2 Samuel 22:26–28
“With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down.“

Djilas continued: ….. And yet, he despised people. He likely believed, first, that the human material left behind by capitalism was flawed, and second, that people had many weaknesses and so life in society could be regulated through force and fear.”

Djilas again: "Stalin was a complex figure... Some doubt whether Stalin even believed in communism. I think he did. Otherwise, he could not have inspired millions… Of course, his concept of communism was his own, but he still believed that such a society was possible in the distant future. …….

Djilas writing about Stalin “'We are not enthusiastic,' he replied, although we are doing every- thing we can to improve conditions in Russia.' Later, he used the word 'Russia' instead of 'Soviet Union' several times. I assumed this reflected the wartime emphasis on the Russian people's role - or perhaps it was what he truly believed.”