Kawabata's Master of Go is a gorgeous and enigmatic story of a luminous talent overtaken by the passing of time. I've read it several times and recently during the pandemic. It's beauty is what's left unsaid.
I just wanted to pop in and say I've had a great day rereading and listening making notes on the Globalisation post, and on this post. Then I read more "Civilization". I'm about to listen to the Proms, Benjamin Brittain's "War Requiem". So most of today's pleasure ha been Burning Archive related, the rest the LSO. Thanks, I finally got my head around the difference between the media's idea of globalisation and that of internationally focused historians. Now I need to source the books on the subject.
That’s not the same as being assassinated, obviously. Keep facts and interpretation separate. I was quite enjoying this substack until I read this discredited theory presented as fact.
On checking you seem to be correct although it does appear to be a suicide under duress. Do you know if there is a book on the 1973 military coup that you would recommend and is not too affected by Western intelligence agency bias? (Since they are clearly interested parties) Thanks for correcting me.
It was absolutely a suicide under duress. A lot of suicides are basically homicides IMHO. You can quite literally drive another person to suicide if you are cruel or wicked enough. In these cases, the person who drove the person to their death is responsible for their demise. They have blood on their hands. Sure it's not homicide de jure nor should it be, but morality transcends law for my and Jeff here anyway. Not so sure about you, Ansis. Keep honking your horn for Mr. Pinochet, sir. May you follow in his footsteps soon enough. Sorry Jeff I really hate fascists.
That's exactly what it was. He was under bombardment and they were trying to kill him. He was in the last part of the building that was not wrecked and they were continuing to bombard the building. Out in the streets, Ansis' friends the fascists were tying peoples hands behind their backs and stacking the bodies up like cordwood. The mass executions had already begun. If he would have surrendered, of course he would have been executed. All the rest of his government was.
There are some excellent write-ups out there on the web from an unbiased Left POV.
In my opinion Allende screwed up by being too nice. He should have politicized the military. They did it in Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela. It was the right thing to do. That's why there have been no coups in those countries while under ordinary circumstances Chavez and Ortega would have been couped long ago.
As a semi, a little bit, kind of, sort of, maybe, sometimes, perhaps, now and then, quasi Marxist, this just shows once again that Lenin was right that the peaceful road to socialism (parliamentary cretinism) will never work. It's a great idea but it's doomed to failure because capitalists never sit back and allow any kind of a socialist state no matter how much the people want one.
So you need to put a dictatorship of the people OVER the contras. I like the way China is doing this a lot. They have the highest democracy score in the world - 95% of Chinese are satisfied with the level of democracy in their country! Normally I'm not ecstatic about dicatatorships, but the fascists and capitalists (always the same thing) just force our hand and leave us no other choice.
Simply put, power does not give up without a fight, and the peaceful road to socialist is not a fight. If you do do this, you end up like Nicaragua or Venezuela where the contras wage a nonstop revolution trying everything they can to overthrow the government by force (because they can't win at the ballot box).
No matter how fair and decent you try to be, the fascists will never be satisfied and you will deal with endless coup (military, legislative, judicial, lockout, capital flight, economic war) and assassination attempts until they get rid of you, then they put in a fascist dictatorship and set up death squads that run around murdering everyone who was in the Left government. They were still murdering people associated with the Arbenz government in the 1990's in Guatemala.
Guatemala.
The mass murders are also an object lesson that says, "This is what will happen if you try this again. We will coup you and then run death squads to murder all of you for the next 40 years."
Thanks Jeff. I really like your writing. I don’t have any book to recommend. I have two Chilean half-brothers though so much of what (little) I know comes through them and discussions in Chile.
Oh dear. I think Jeff shouldn’t say he was assassinated when he wasn’t. You might make the same claims of Hitler: he was going to killed anyway!
But he committed suicide. That’s that. It’s just the truth; no need to hide it or try to ramrod and twist it into conspiracy theories or emotional support narratives. And just because someone is inclined to be more careful with facts than you doesn’t mean anything about their politics or views.
It doesn’t seem to me you’re interested in history so I am not sure why you’re here. Try not to be so rude. I am not sure what you think you accomplish with that.
Kawabata's Master of Go is a gorgeous and enigmatic story of a luminous talent overtaken by the passing of time. I've read it several times and recently during the pandemic. It's beauty is what's left unsaid.
I just wanted to pop in and say I've had a great day rereading and listening making notes on the Globalisation post, and on this post. Then I read more "Civilization". I'm about to listen to the Proms, Benjamin Brittain's "War Requiem". So most of today's pleasure ha been Burning Archive related, the rest the LSO. Thanks, I finally got my head around the difference between the media's idea of globalisation and that of internationally focused historians. Now I need to source the books on the subject.
Allende committed suicide.
That’s not the same as being assassinated, obviously. Keep facts and interpretation separate. I was quite enjoying this substack until I read this discredited theory presented as fact.
And an AK isn’t a machine gun.
On checking you seem to be correct although it does appear to be a suicide under duress. Do you know if there is a book on the 1973 military coup that you would recommend and is not too affected by Western intelligence agency bias? (Since they are clearly interested parties) Thanks for correcting me.
https://www.npr.org/2011/05/31/136831116/chile-investigates-ex-presidents-cause-of-death
It was absolutely a suicide under duress. A lot of suicides are basically homicides IMHO. You can quite literally drive another person to suicide if you are cruel or wicked enough. In these cases, the person who drove the person to their death is responsible for their demise. They have blood on their hands. Sure it's not homicide de jure nor should it be, but morality transcends law for my and Jeff here anyway. Not so sure about you, Ansis. Keep honking your horn for Mr. Pinochet, sir. May you follow in his footsteps soon enough. Sorry Jeff I really hate fascists.
That's exactly what it was. He was under bombardment and they were trying to kill him. He was in the last part of the building that was not wrecked and they were continuing to bombard the building. Out in the streets, Ansis' friends the fascists were tying peoples hands behind their backs and stacking the bodies up like cordwood. The mass executions had already begun. If he would have surrendered, of course he would have been executed. All the rest of his government was.
There are some excellent write-ups out there on the web from an unbiased Left POV.
In my opinion Allende screwed up by being too nice. He should have politicized the military. They did it in Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela. It was the right thing to do. That's why there have been no coups in those countries while under ordinary circumstances Chavez and Ortega would have been couped long ago.
As a semi, a little bit, kind of, sort of, maybe, sometimes, perhaps, now and then, quasi Marxist, this just shows once again that Lenin was right that the peaceful road to socialism (parliamentary cretinism) will never work. It's a great idea but it's doomed to failure because capitalists never sit back and allow any kind of a socialist state no matter how much the people want one.
So you need to put a dictatorship of the people OVER the contras. I like the way China is doing this a lot. They have the highest democracy score in the world - 95% of Chinese are satisfied with the level of democracy in their country! Normally I'm not ecstatic about dicatatorships, but the fascists and capitalists (always the same thing) just force our hand and leave us no other choice.
Simply put, power does not give up without a fight, and the peaceful road to socialist is not a fight. If you do do this, you end up like Nicaragua or Venezuela where the contras wage a nonstop revolution trying everything they can to overthrow the government by force (because they can't win at the ballot box).
No matter how fair and decent you try to be, the fascists will never be satisfied and you will deal with endless coup (military, legislative, judicial, lockout, capital flight, economic war) and assassination attempts until they get rid of you, then they put in a fascist dictatorship and set up death squads that run around murdering everyone who was in the Left government. They were still murdering people associated with the Arbenz government in the 1990's in Guatemala.
Guatemala.
The mass murders are also an object lesson that says, "This is what will happen if you try this again. We will coup you and then run death squads to murder all of you for the next 40 years."
I suspect all political suicides are under duress, from Cleopatra onwards …
Thanks Jeff. I really like your writing. I don’t have any book to recommend. I have two Chilean half-brothers though so much of what (little) I know comes through them and discussions in Chile.
Oh dear. I think Jeff shouldn’t say he was assassinated when he wasn’t. You might make the same claims of Hitler: he was going to killed anyway!
But he committed suicide. That’s that. It’s just the truth; no need to hide it or try to ramrod and twist it into conspiracy theories or emotional support narratives. And just because someone is inclined to be more careful with facts than you doesn’t mean anything about their politics or views.
It doesn’t seem to me you’re interested in history so I am not sure why you’re here. Try not to be so rude. I am not sure what you think you accomplish with that.