Delusions

I unwrapped the paper this morning to find a picture of one of my grad school professors on the front page-- in a story, excerpted from a new book, that I'd heard before straight from the source. From the same book, another interesting piece, particularly in connection to a conference I attended this morning at a certain libertarian think tank. The president of the institution was the first to speak. He talked about how you could just tell from walking down the streets of the then Soviet Union how communism sucked people's souls-- people averted their gaze, were flat-out unfriendly. I hate to break it to him, but that's not communism: that's the way Eastern Europeans are. Amazing how ideology can blind you to the point where you take everything as evidence. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying communism fed the soul, but I find the guy's statement laughable.