Two Sides Of The Same Counterfeit Coin.

This evening I watched an Independent film on Cinemax, titled "The Red Violin."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Violin

The story follows the travels of a rare, hand-crafted violin through the centuries as it passes from owner to owner, across many generations and several continents. Everywhere the instrument goes, it is followed by intrigues, sacrifice, passion, and betrayal.

One particular period in the violin's travels has it in the hands of a Party Official in 1960's China. She had inherited it from her mother, from a pre-revolutionary era. The official realized that if the instrument is found in her possession, she could face serious trouble and even be killed. The official arranges to have the violin secretly stored by a music teacher who she had saved from public condemnation for his loyalty to Western classical music.

As I watched what happened during the Chinese period of the film, it struck me that the militant cultural pretenses and posturings of Maoism all looked very, very, similar to World War II Nazism. Historians teach us that Nazism and Communism are supposedly oppositional. The question I ask is, ARE THEY REALLY?

• Both systems stressed harsh conformity in ideas, behavior, speech, and dress.
• Both systems featured state control of economics.
• Both systems carried no value for individual human life.
• Both systems terrorized, oppressed, tortured, murdered, and destroyed.

Modern day supporters of Communism try to argue that there is a difference. They quibble over minor points of administration as proof, but what are we really talking about here? Oh, Please. Spare me the demagoguery. When the end results of each system are the same, such as suffering and death, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.

In my personal opinion Nazism survived, above ground, after World War II in the form of Communism. Anyone who tries to argue there is any difference, insults my intelligence. They insult the memory and disturb the peace of millions of souls who died under The Red Plague.