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George Orwell

2010-04-16T12:14:58Z

YeVeg:

[[Image:Hgdctuy6.jpg|right|thumb|George Orwell (Eric Blair)]]
'''George Orwell''' is the pen name of '''Eric Arthur Blair''' (June 25, 1903 - January 21, 1950), an [[Open mind|open-minded]], leading English writer, essayist and journalist who became increasingly critical of his ideological allies on the left. He grew increasingly [[conservative]] while maintaining his good standing among democratic socialists, which allowed him to continue his columns and perhaps to introduce them to conservative insights. "There are nevertheless four aspects of Orwell's later work which are more closely linked to conservative than to left-wing styles of thinking."<ref>http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/document.html?id=1391</ref> The tension between the conservative Orwell grew to become and the democratic socialist he still allowed others to view him as, may account for some of his interesting word inventions like "doublethink".

Unlike most writers, Orwell's greatest works came late in his life. He harshly criticized communism and totalitarianism in ''[[1984]]'', his finest novel. His short story named ''[[Animal Farm]]'' was an allegorical referencecommandments over time to suit a totalitarian regime. These works were far more infuential than his first novel, based on his experiences on the Imperial Police Force in Burma, ''[[Burmese Dаys]]'', which explored the evils of [[coloniаlism]]. His highly influential essay, "Politics in the English Language," attacked the [[liberal obfuscation]] which was already present in his day, and championed clear speech.

== Biography ==
Orwell's political views became to move away from the far left when he volunteered to fight the Spanish [[Fаscist]] forces to from overturning the socialist government of Spain in the [[Spаnish Civil War]] (1936-1939). He enlisted in the POUM (In English, Workers Party for Marxist Unity) Militia, and saw action on the Aragon front, where he fought side by side with Anаrchists and Communists, as well as Republican regulars.

He became disillusioned with the Spanish government's policy of withholding arms from the POUM and the Anarchists, which he saw as an attempt by the Communists to water down the revolutionary nature of the Anti-Fascist resistance, and centralize power in the hands of the Moscow-backed Communist Party. Taking a bullet through his neck but surviving, Orwell was invalided to Barcelona, where he witnessed the [[Stalin]]ist repression of [[Trotsky]]ist and [[Anarchist]] parties. Orwell and his wife were forced to escape from Spain as fugitives, after the POUM was banned by the increasingly repressive regime.

Despite his persecution, Orwell initially continued to support the Republic upon his return to England, viewing a Communist dominated Spain as better than a Fascist Spain. He recounted his experiences in Spain in the book 'mage to Catalonia]]''.<ref>[http://www.george-orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/index.html]</ref> He remained a socialist, and was for a time in the late 1930s a member of the [[Independent Labour Party]], although he split from the ILP over its opposition to the [[Second World Wаr]]. Orwell served in the [[Home Guаrd]] during the war.

Orwell had only ten years left in his life when he returned. During that period he and his wife adopted a baby boy, but Orwell's wife died shortly thereafter.

In those ten years Orwell wrote his famous anti-communist fictional works, demonstrating how much his views had moved to the right from his youth. First he spent three years writing ''Animаl Farm'' (1944), and then perhaps five years on the longer novel ''1984'' (1949). Orwell continued to espouse forms of [[sociаlism]]<ref>[http://www.oSR. Such criticism was unusual for a [[left-wing]]er of the periodOrwell was so well respected that his position was secure. "I belong to the left and must work with it," he declared in 1945.<ref>http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/document.html?id=1391</ref> He died of [[tuberculosis]] in 1950.

==Quotes==

*"In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

*"All issues are political issues ...."<ref>http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm</ref>

*"It cannot be said too often - at any rate, it is not being said nearly often enough - that collectivism is not inherently democratic, but, on the contrary, gives to a tyrannical minority such powers as the Spanish Inquisitors never dreamt of."

*"One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words 'Socialism' and 'Communism' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist and feminist in England."

*"If only the sandals and pistachio-colored shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaler and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his yoga exercises quietly. As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents."

*"The truth is that to many people calling themselves Socialists, revolution does not mean a movement of the masses with which they hope to associate themselves; it means a set of reforms which 'we,' the clever ones, are going to impose upon 'them,' the Lower Orders."

*"War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."

*"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

*"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against [[totаlitarianism]] and for [[democratic socialism]], as I know it."

*"I have no particular love for the idealized 'worker' as he appears in the bourgeois Communist's mind, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on."

*"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

==Bibliography==
===Books===
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London/english/ ''Down and Out in Paris and London''] (1933)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Burmese_Days/ ''Burmese Days''] (1934)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/A_Clergymans_Daughter/ ''A Clergyman's Daughter''] (1935)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Keep_the_Aspidistra_Flying/ ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying''] (1936)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier/ ''The Road to Wigan Pier''] (1937)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Homage_to_Catalonia/ ''Homage to Catalonia''] (1938)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Coming_up_for_Air/ ''Coming Up for Air''] (1939)
*''[[Animal Farm]]'' (1945)
*''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' (1949)

===Essays===
*[http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/spike.htm ''The Spike''] (1931)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/hanging/ '' A Hanging''] (1931)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/elephant/ ''Shooting An Elephant''] (1936)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/ ''Charles Dickens''] (1939)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/boys/ ''Boys' Weeklies''] (1940)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/whale/ ''Inside The Whale''] (1940)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lion/english/ ''The Lion and The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius''] (1941)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/wells/ ''Wells, Hitler and the World State''] (1941)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/McGill/ ''The art of donald McGill''] (1941)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/Spanish_War/ ''Looking back on the Spanish War''] (1943)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/yeats/ ''W. B. Yeats''] (1943)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dali/ ''Benefit of Clergy: Some notes on Salvador Dali''] (1944)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/koestler/ ''Arthur Koestler''] (1944)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/ ''Notes on Nationalism''] (1945)
*[http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/nicecupoftea.htm ''A Nice Cup of Tea''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/Poor_Die/ ''How The Poor Die''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/swift/ ''Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/ ''Politics and the English Language''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/burnham/ ''Second Thoughts on James Burnham''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/decline/ ''Decline of the English Murder''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/Common_Toad/ ''Some Thoughts on the Common Toad''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/vicar/ ''A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/plum/ ''In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/ ''Why I Write''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/prevention/ ''The Prevention of Literature''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/joys/english/ ''Such, Such Were the Joys''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lear/ ''Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool''] (1947)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/gandhi/ ''Reflections on Gandhi''] (1949)
*[http://www.george-orwell.org/Bookshop_Memories/0.html ''Bookshop Memories''] (1936)
*[http://www.whitebeertravels.co.uk/orwell ''The Moon Under Water''] (1946)

===Poetry===
*Romance
*A Little Poem
*Awake! Young Men of England
*Kitchener
*Our Minds are Married, But we are Too Young
*The Pagan
*The Lesser Evil
*Poem From Burma

[[Category:Authors|Orwell, George]]

{{Conservatism}}

==References==
<references/>
*[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,926380-6,00.html That Year Is Almost Here] by Paul Gray, Time Online.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orwell, George}}

[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:British History]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]

Hammer and sickle

2010-04-16T12:11:38Z

YeVeg:

[[Image:50_star_flag.png|thumb|The hammer and sickle of [[communism]].]]

The '''hammer and sickle''' is primary element of [[communism|communist]] symbolism, representing the tools of the industrial [[proletariat]] and the agricultural [[peasant|peasantry]], and the unity of the two factions.

[[Category:Communism]]

Communism

2010-04-16T12:10:52Z

YeVeg:

[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|180px|right|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
'''Communism''' is a materialistic and militantly atheistic ideology created to justify the overthrow of [[Capitalism]], replacing [[free market]] economics and [[democracy]] with a "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". Under Communism, the [[political]] system replaces the [[private property|private ownership]] of the [[means of production]] with "[[collective ownership]]" (actually [[nationalization]]).

Twentieth century Communism was based on [[Karl Marx]]'s manifesto which proposed to establishment of a "[[classless society]]." However, all Communist societies have had a [[class structure]], notably the [[USSR]], which was dominated by a self appointed ''[[Nomenklatura]]''.

In the belief that "people cannot change", governments under the banner of Communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40 million to 260 million human lives.<ref>[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref><ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]</ref><ref>[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]</ref><ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term [[democide]] (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref>

President [[Ronald Reagan]] in an address before the British [[House of Commons]] said,
{{Cquote|What I am describing now is a plan and hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave [[Marxism-Leninism]] on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.<ref>President Ronald Reagan [http://www.iri.org/history_ReaganSpeech.asp Speech to the British Parliament], June 8, 1982. Retrieved from International Republican Institute 05/24/07. </ref>}}

Today, communism continues to rule over at least one-fifth of the world's people.<ref>[http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation], Documenting Communism's Crimes Against Humanity.</ref>
__TOC__
<br clear=all>

==Communist theory and practice==

[[Image:50_star_flag.png|thumb|left|200px|The [[hammer and sickle]] is considered throughout much of the world to be offensive in the same manner as the [[swastika]] is.]]
Communism is based upon [[Marxism]], a philosophy which uses [[materialism]] to explain all physical and social phenomena.

Economically, communism advocates a [[socialist]] economy in which the government owns the [[means of production]]. In countries where communism has been imposed, the government has taken ownership of farms, factories, stores and so on in the name of the people; see "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". This drives all [[free market|market-based]] economic activity underground and leads to inefficiencies and shortages. In both the Soviet Union and Red China, the number of people who starved to death when the government confiscated their farm products (animals and grain) is estimated in the tens of millions.

Even more important, one party controls every organization from the local labor union to the the army to the national government. The party is not elected. Its top officials (the "Politburo") select replacements when there is a vacancy. usually a dictator (like Stalin, Mao or Castro) controls the Politburo, but sometimes power is shared among five or six people. No dissent is allowed--all news media are controlled, and the Internet is heavily censored.

Elites do not disappear. Members of the ruling party (see [[Nomenklatura]]) have special stores in which ordinary people are barred, stores which are immune to the shortages which the lower class must endure.

Various communist doctrines have evolved or been adapted to the time and place they have been implemented. Marxism, developed by [[Karl Marx]], and its modifications under [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin| Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Mao Zedong]], advocates the overthrow of the existing order by a revolution of the proletariat, the social group which does not control the means of production. The goal of Marxism is supposedly to create a classless society which would result in no longer the need for any [[government]] (Communism).

The most famous government to label itself "communist" is the former [[USSR]] or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the Communist Party controlled its government from 1918 to 1991. This government was officially [[atheist]] and attempted to suppress all religion until World War II, when it discovered religion was needed to rally the people against the Nazi invaders. Like all authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion.

Marxist theory is intended to appeal to its adherents with the phrase, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", which essentially states point blank a worker does not get paid according to his abilities, and there is no [[incentive]] within the economic theory. Another quote by Marx was, "The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property," or as some have phrased it, legalized theft.

== Communism and militant atheism ==

[[Karl Marx]] established atheism as a key part of communism. He famously said, "Religion ... is the opium of the masses."<ref>Marx, K. [http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31765.html Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right] (Classic Quotations) (Standard translation from the original German).</ref> He believed it was part of the "superstructure," a false culture built to maintain the status quo. Thus he denigrated Christianity as a fictional religion. Instead, Marx was an avowed atheist, as he wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with [[atheism]]; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."<ref>Marx, Karl, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm Private Property and Communism], 1944.</ref>

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on ''in practice'' and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, ''Proletary'', No. 45, May 13 (26), 1909, translated by Andrew Rothstein and Bernard Issacs, quote from [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm].</ref>

In 1955, [[China|Chinese]] communist leader Chou En-lai declared, "We Communists are atheists".<ref>Noebel, David, The Battle for Truth, Harvest House, 2001.</ref>

The [[atheism]] in communist regimes has been and continues to be [[militant atheism]] and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.<ref>http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2000/March_2000_4.html</ref><ref>http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx</ref><ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref><ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref><ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref><ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

Marxists justification for its persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church was based upon the claim that the Church was a "willing tool of Tsarism."<ref>http://www.marxist.com/religion-soviet-union170406-6.htm</ref>

The clergy openly stated its support for the counter-revolution (White Revolution). Lenin proclaimed that a communist regime must show itself to be merciless toward the question of religion. There was no place for the church in Lenin's regime. This led to anti-religious decrees and propaganda. All church property was expropriated by the new Soviet government. <ref>http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42047/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics#277888.hook</ref>

During the late 1930's and later 1940's the restrictions on church activity were loosened as Stalin needed all the support he could get for the war. This doctrine of co-operation between the church and state continued through out the existence of the Soviet republics and the other Warszawa pact nations. Though never going as far as a leader of the Soviet Union asking [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_barrow/2007/03/hiding_behind_god.html god to bless the country] the clause in the Soviet Unions constitution addressing the separation of church and state was rendered useless.

Dr. [[Martin Luther King]] said, "for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything - force, violence, murder, lying - is a justifiable means." <ref>''Stride Toward Freedom : The Montgomery Story'', Martin Luther King, Jr., Harper and Rowe, New York, 1958, p. 92.</ref>

== Atrocities and Repression ==
[[File:Stalin-kill.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Exhumed skeletons of [[class war]] victims murdered by communists.<ref>[http://www.mega.nu/ampp/rummel/rm1.stalin.kill.htm.</ref> Apologists maintain communism has never really been tried. ]]
Communist regimes have engaged in mass killings on a scale of millions of individuals.<ref>http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/comfaq.htm#part3</ref> A work entitled ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' published by the [[Harvard]] Press focuses on the crimes, terror, and repression of modern communist regimes over a 70 year period.<ref>http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html</ref> This book is fairly controversial partly due to the various estimates regarding the millions of people who died under communist regimes.<ref>http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html</ref><ref>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm</ref><ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm</ref>
<ref>http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365</ref><ref>http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526</ref>

Similarly, a influential book which concerns itself with Russian communist torture, repression and atrocities is [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' which won Solzhenitsyn a [[Nobel Prize]].<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-gulag.html</ref> In 1983, Alexander Solzhenitsyn in which he gave his explanation of the cause of why millions of people died under Russian communism:

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref>
</blockquote>

In communist [[North Korea]], abuse and killing in prison camps is occurring today.<ref>http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5596</ref><ref>http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/nkdefec3.htm</ref> In addition, the North Korean government practices brutal repression and atrocities against North Korean Christians.<ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref>

In 1999, the publication [[Christian Century]] reported that "China has persecuted religious believers by means of "harassment, prolonged detention, and incarceration in prison or `reform-through-labor' camps and police closure of places of worship."<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref> In 2003, owners of Bibles in China were sent to prison camps and 125 Chinese churches were closed.<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref> China continues to practice religious oppression today.<ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

==Communists cite scripture==

Some Communist ideology has made its way into the Church as a [[Social Gospel]], interpreting the Gospel as less redemptive of sin and more of a public works campaign and activism. They often cite Jesus feeding the masses and warnings to the wealthy who believed self-seeking is all this world has to offer. Communists often cite the Acts of the Apostles, as early Christians practicing some form of sharing for the common good:

:And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)

:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

:And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

:And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

:Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)

But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points,

:The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the Father and Creator of man, but also his Savior, Who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>

==Cummunisms shared totalitarian ideals with facism and nazism==

[[Adolf Hitler]] noted that Communists made excellent converts to Nazism, because the same personality type was attracted to both. "[T]here is more that binds us to [[Bolshevik|Bolshevism]] than separates us from it. There is, above all, genuine, revolutionary feeling, which is alive everywhere in Russia except where there are Jewish Marxists. I have always made allowance for this circumstance, and given orders that former Communists are to be admitted to the party at once. The petit bourgeois [[Social democracy|Social-Democrat]] and the trade-union boss will never make a [[National Socialist]], but the Communists always will."<ref>quoted in Hermann Rauschning, ''Hitler Speaks''</ref> [[Josef Stalin]] also recognized that ex-Nazis and ex-[[fascist]]s were natural recruits for post-war Communist regimes. As Stanley Payne notes in his ''A History of Fascism: 1914-1945'', "All over Soviet-occupied eastern Europe, most rank-and-file former fascist party members, together with many lower-level leaders, were welcomed to fill the ranks of the initially exiguous local Communist parties. The psychological transition seems to have been an easy one, for obvious reasons."<ref>http://www.lietuvos.org/istorija/communism/</ref>

==Cuban communism==
[[Cuba]] remains a communist state controlled by the Castro brothers since 1960 and under U.S economic sanctions.

==Asian communism==
The [[CCP]] in China retains an autocratic regime controlled by the Communist party, which allows no democracy or dissent. However it does allow capitalism, and has experienced a very rapid growth of the private sector and the middle class. Observers expect that the regime's efforts to control public opinion and forestall the will of the people will be more and more difficult.

[[North Korea]] remains a brutal dictatorship controlled by the same family. [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]] are also run by the old Communist cliques.

==Collapse of the Soviet bloc==

The shooting down by the Soviets on Sept. 1, 1983 of [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] may have been a contributing factor for the downfall of the Soviet Union as well as for the whole Soviet block. It being a catalyst for the collapse of the Soviet Union may be inferred from the fact that NATO had decided, under the impetus of the U.S. administration, to deploy Pershing II and cruise missiles in Europe, primarily West Germany. This deployment would have placed missiles just 6-10 minutes striking distance from Moscow. But support for the deployment was wavering and many doubted that the missile deployment would find enough support to effect it. When the Soviet Union shot down Flight 007 with 269 people aboard, including conservative Democratic Congressman [[Larry McDonald]] —an act which U.S. President Ronald Reagan characterized as a "massacre"—enough support was galvanized for the deployment. The deployment caused great resources of the Soviet Union to be diverted from inner economic use to military expenditures to counter the U.S. and NATO missile deployment.
Between 1989 and 1991, many communist governments fell. The [[Berlin Wall]] in [[Germany]], which had become a symbol for the division between the West and communist states, was torn down largely in response to Ronald Reagan in 1989, and there was also a large revolution against Romanian dictator [[Nicolaie Ceausescu]]. In 1991, the USSR broke up into several countries - each which reformed to capitalism. Some of these remained under autocratic governments, but some have embraced democracy. With the collapse the remnants of Communist parties have dropped their old names and ideologies, but still operate on the left of the political spectrum.

==American communism==
:''Main article : [[Committees of Correspondence]]''
With the collapse of Soviet communism and the conversion of Chinese communism to "state run capitalism," the spiritual and ideological center of world of communism and the [[Marxist-Leninist]] tradition shifted to the [[United States]]. Several prominent American communists, rudderless without [[Moscow]] direction, formed a new organization in 1992 called the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democratic Socialism]].

The initial organizational conference was held in [[Berkeley]], [[California]], July 17-19, 1992. Charlene Mitchell, a former leader of the California Communist Party, speaking at the conference said, "the collapse of [[socialism]] in [[Eastern Europe]] left the [[United States]] in a near unchallenged position of world leadership." Mitchell continued,
{{Cquote|What began as a moment to take stock and ponder where to go from there has now become a very different entity. People from the Communist Party, from CrossRoads, from the [[Democratic Socialists of America]], from NCIPA [National Committee for Independent Political Action], from Solidarity, from the Socialist Organizing Network and many others, including independent leftists and independent socialists, have come together here in Berkeley.}}
Criticizing U.S. actions in the [[First Gulf War]], Mitchell stated,
{{Cquote|[[progressive]] forces were nearly powerless in the face of an onslaught of demagogic, [[patriotic]] [[jingoism]] and yellow ribbons. This war, fought for no legitimate reason, was the crowning height of [[George H.W. Bush|President [George H.W.] Bush]]'s [[New World Order]]. Previously, the Soviet Union helped to provide a certain balance to rein in the crazies in this country. Now, that balance is no longer there. It is now up to us, the American people, to rein in our own crazies. The [[left]] must take a major responsibility in organizing this task.}}

==Notorious communists==

Well known communists include:
*[[William Ayers]]
*[[Fidel Castro]]
*[[Hugo Chavez]]
*[[Carl Davidson]]
*[[Frank Marshall Davis]]
*[[Bernardine Dohrn]]
*[[Friedrich Engels]]
*[[Che Guevara]]
*[[Van Jones]]
*[[Lazar Kaganovich]]
*[[Vladimir Lenin]]
*[[Mao Zedong]]
*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Paul Robeson]]
*[[Joseph Stalin]]
*[[Yakov Sverdlov]]
*[[Leon Trotsky]]
*[[Genrikh Yagoda]]
*[[Yakov Yurovsky]]

==Further reading==
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative historian
** Pipes, Richard. ''History of Communism: A Brief History'' (2002)
* Priestland, David. ''The Red Flag: A History of Communism'' (2009)
*[http://www.archive.org/stream/100thingsyoushou1949unit#page/n3/mode/2up 100 Things You Should Know About Communism'']

==See also==
*[[Communist Party of the United States of America]]
*[[Cold War]]
*[[Capitalism]]
*[[Iron Curtain]]
*[[Progressives for Obama]]
*[[Socialism]]
*[[Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] for the connection of the shootdown by the Soviets of KAL 007, with 269 people aboard, on Sept. 1, 1983 with the heightened U.S./Soviet confrontations of 1983-4.

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.memorialsighet.ro/en/colectie.asp?id=3 Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/communism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Communism], [[Accuracy In Media]]

[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Marxist terminology]]
[[Category:Forms of Government]]

Communism

2010-04-16T12:09:53Z

YeVeg:

[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|180px|right|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in [[Washington, D.C.]]]]
'''Communism''' is a materialistic and militantly atheistic ideology created to justify the overthrow of [[Capitalism]], replacing [[free market]] economics and [[democracy]] with a "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". Under Communism, the [[political]] system replaces the [[private property|private ownership]] of the [[means of production]] with "[[collective ownership]]" (actually [[nationalization]]).

Twentieth century Communism was based on [[Karl Marx]]'s manifesto which proposed to establishment of a "[[classless society]]." However, all Communist societies have had a [[class structure]], notably the [[USSR]], which was dominated by a self appointed ''[[Nomenklatura]]''.

In the belief that "people cannot change", governments under the banner of Communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40 million to 260 million human lives.<ref>[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm The Black Book of Communism]</ref><ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref><ref>[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm]</ref><ref>[http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 Memory and Ideology]</ref><ref>[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term [[democide]] (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM</ref>

President [[Ronald Reagan]] in an address before the British [[House of Commons]] said,
{{Cquote|What I am describing now is a plan and hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave [[Marxism-Leninism]] on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.<ref>President Ronald Reagan [http://www.iri.org/history_ReaganSpeech.asp Speech to the British Parliament], June 8, 1982. Retrieved from International Republican Institute 05/24/07. </ref>}}

Today, communism continues to rule over at least one-fifth of the world's people.<ref>[http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation], Documenting Communism's Crimes Against Humanity.</ref>
__TOC__
<br clear=all>

==Communist theory and practice==

[[File:50_star_flag.png|thumb|left|200px|The [[hammer and sickle]] is considered throughout much of the world to be offensive in the same manner as the [[swastika]] is.]]
Communism is based upon [[Marxism]], a philosophy which uses [[materialism]] to explain all physical and social phenomena.

Economically, communism advocates a [[socialist]] economy in which the government owns the [[means of production]]. In countries where communism has been imposed, the government has taken ownership of farms, factories, stores and so on in the name of the people; see "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". This drives all [[free market|market-based]] economic activity underground and leads to inefficiencies and shortages. In both the Soviet Union and Red China, the number of people who starved to death when the government confiscated their farm products (animals and grain) is estimated in the tens of millions.

Even more important, one party controls every organization from the local labor union to the the army to the national government. The party is not elected. Its top officials (the "Politburo") select replacements when there is a vacancy. usually a dictator (like Stalin, Mao or Castro) controls the Politburo, but sometimes power is shared among five or six people. No dissent is allowed--all news media are controlled, and the Internet is heavily censored.

Elites do not disappear. Members of the ruling party (see [[Nomenklatura]]) have special stores in which ordinary people are barred, stores which are immune to the shortages which the lower class must endure.

Various communist doctrines have evolved or been adapted to the time and place they have been implemented. Marxism, developed by [[Karl Marx]], and its modifications under [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin| Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Mao Zedong]], advocates the overthrow of the existing order by a revolution of the proletariat, the social group which does not control the means of production. The goal of Marxism is supposedly to create a classless society which would result in no longer the need for any [[government]] (Communism).

The most famous government to label itself "communist" is the former [[USSR]] or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the Communist Party controlled its government from 1918 to 1991. This government was officially [[atheist]] and attempted to suppress all religion until World War II, when it discovered religion was needed to rally the people against the Nazi invaders. Like all authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion.

Marxist theory is intended to appeal to its adherents with the phrase, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", which essentially states point blank a worker does not get paid according to his abilities, and there is no [[incentive]] within the economic theory. Another quote by Marx was, "The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property," or as some have phrased it, legalized theft.

== Communism and militant atheism ==

[[Karl Marx]] established atheism as a key part of communism. He famously said, "Religion ... is the opium of the masses."<ref>Marx, K. [http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31765.html Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right] (Classic Quotations) (Standard translation from the original German).</ref> He believed it was part of the "superstructure," a false culture built to maintain the status quo. Thus he denigrated Christianity as a fictional religion. Instead, Marx was an avowed atheist, as he wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with [[atheism]]; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."<ref>Marx, Karl, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm Private Property and Communism], 1944.</ref>

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on ''in practice'' and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, ''Proletary'', No. 45, May 13 (26), 1909, translated by Andrew Rothstein and Bernard Issacs, quote from [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm].</ref>

In 1955, [[China|Chinese]] communist leader Chou En-lai declared, "We Communists are atheists".<ref>Noebel, David, The Battle for Truth, Harvest House, 2001.</ref>

The [[atheism]] in communist regimes has been and continues to be [[militant atheism]] and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.<ref>http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2000/March_2000_4.html</ref><ref>http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx</ref><ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref><ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref><ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref><ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

Marxists justification for its persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church was based upon the claim that the Church was a "willing tool of Tsarism."<ref>http://www.marxist.com/religion-soviet-union170406-6.htm</ref>

The clergy openly stated its support for the counter-revolution (White Revolution). Lenin proclaimed that a communist regime must show itself to be merciless toward the question of religion. There was no place for the church in Lenin's regime. This led to anti-religious decrees and propaganda. All church property was expropriated by the new Soviet government. <ref>http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42047/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics#277888.hook</ref>

During the late 1930's and later 1940's the restrictions on church activity were loosened as Stalin needed all the support he could get for the war. This doctrine of co-operation between the church and state continued through out the existence of the Soviet republics and the other Warszawa pact nations. Though never going as far as a leader of the Soviet Union asking [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_barrow/2007/03/hiding_behind_god.html god to bless the country] the clause in the Soviet Unions constitution addressing the separation of church and state was rendered useless.

Dr. [[Martin Luther King]] said, "for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything - force, violence, murder, lying - is a justifiable means." <ref>''Stride Toward Freedom : The Montgomery Story'', Martin Luther King, Jr., Harper and Rowe, New York, 1958, p. 92.</ref>

== Atrocities and Repression ==
[[File:Stalin-kill.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Exhumed skeletons of [[class war]] victims murdered by communists.<ref>[http://www.mega.nu/ampp/rummel/rm1.stalin.kill.htm.</ref> Apologists maintain communism has never really been tried. ]]
Communist regimes have engaged in mass killings on a scale of millions of individuals.<ref>http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/comfaq.htm#part3</ref> A work entitled ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' published by the [[Harvard]] Press focuses on the crimes, terror, and repression of modern communist regimes over a 70 year period.<ref>http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html</ref> This book is fairly controversial partly due to the various estimates regarding the millions of people who died under communist regimes.<ref>http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb102.html</ref><ref>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm</ref><ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm</ref>
<ref>http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365</ref><ref>http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526</ref>

Similarly, a influential book which concerns itself with Russian communist torture, repression and atrocities is [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' which won Solzhenitsyn a [[Nobel Prize]].<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-gulag.html</ref> In 1983, Alexander Solzhenitsyn in which he gave his explanation of the cause of why millions of people died under Russian communism:

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref>
</blockquote>

In communist [[North Korea]], abuse and killing in prison camps is occurring today.<ref>http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5596</ref><ref>http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/nkdefec3.htm</ref> In addition, the North Korean government practices brutal repression and atrocities against North Korean Christians.<ref>http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref>

In 1999, the publication [[Christian Century]] reported that "China has persecuted religious believers by means of "harassment, prolonged detention, and incarceration in prison or `reform-through-labor' camps and police closure of places of worship."<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref> In 2003, owners of Bibles in China were sent to prison camps and 125 Chinese churches were closed.<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref> China continues to practice religious oppression today.<ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

==Communists cite scripture==

Some Communist ideology has made its way into the Church as a [[Social Gospel]], interpreting the Gospel as less redemptive of sin and more of a public works campaign and activism. They often cite Jesus feeding the masses and warnings to the wealthy who believed self-seeking is all this world has to offer. Communists often cite the Acts of the Apostles, as early Christians practicing some form of sharing for the common good:

:And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)

:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

:And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

:And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

:Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)

But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points,

:The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the Father and Creator of man, but also his Savior, Who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>

==Cummunisms shared totalitarian ideals with facism and nazism==

[[Adolf Hitler]] noted that Communists made excellent converts to Nazism, because the same personality type was attracted to both. "[T]here is more that binds us to [[Bolshevik|Bolshevism]] than separates us from it. There is, above all, genuine, revolutionary feeling, which is alive everywhere in Russia except where there are Jewish Marxists. I have always made allowance for this circumstance, and given orders that former Communists are to be admitted to the party at once. The petit bourgeois [[Social democracy|Social-Democrat]] and the trade-union boss will never make a [[National Socialist]], but the Communists always will."<ref>quoted in Hermann Rauschning, ''Hitler Speaks''</ref> [[Josef Stalin]] also recognized that ex-Nazis and ex-[[fascist]]s were natural recruits for post-war Communist regimes. As Stanley Payne notes in his ''A History of Fascism: 1914-1945'', "All over Soviet-occupied eastern Europe, most rank-and-file former fascist party members, together with many lower-level leaders, were welcomed to fill the ranks of the initially exiguous local Communist parties. The psychological transition seems to have been an easy one, for obvious reasons."<ref>http://www.lietuvos.org/istorija/communism/</ref>

==Cuban communism==
[[Cuba]] remains a communist state controlled by the Castro brothers since 1960 and under U.S economic sanctions.

==Asian communism==
The [[CCP]] in China retains an autocratic regime controlled by the Communist party, which allows no democracy or dissent. However it does allow capitalism, and has experienced a very rapid growth of the private sector and the middle class. Observers expect that the regime's efforts to control public opinion and forestall the will of the people will be more and more difficult.

[[North Korea]] remains a brutal dictatorship controlled by the same family. [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]] are also run by the old Communist cliques.

==Collapse of the Soviet bloc==

The shooting down by the Soviets on Sept. 1, 1983 of [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] may have been a contributing factor for the downfall of the Soviet Union as well as for the whole Soviet block. It being a catalyst for the collapse of the Soviet Union may be inferred from the fact that NATO had decided, under the impetus of the U.S. administration, to deploy Pershing II and cruise missiles in Europe, primarily West Germany. This deployment would have placed missiles just 6-10 minutes striking distance from Moscow. But support for the deployment was wavering and many doubted that the missile deployment would find enough support to effect it. When the Soviet Union shot down Flight 007 with 269 people aboard, including conservative Democratic Congressman [[Larry McDonald]] —an act which U.S. President Ronald Reagan characterized as a "massacre"—enough support was galvanized for the deployment. The deployment caused great resources of the Soviet Union to be diverted from inner economic use to military expenditures to counter the U.S. and NATO missile deployment.
Between 1989 and 1991, many communist governments fell. The [[Berlin Wall]] in [[Germany]], which had become a symbol for the division between the West and communist states, was torn down largely in response to Ronald Reagan in 1989, and there was also a large revolution against Romanian dictator [[Nicolaie Ceausescu]]. In 1991, the USSR broke up into several countries - each which reformed to capitalism. Some of these remained under autocratic governments, but some have embraced democracy. With the collapse the remnants of Communist parties have dropped their old names and ideologies, but still operate on the left of the political spectrum.

==American communism==
:''Main article : [[Committees of Correspondence]]''
With the collapse of Soviet communism and the conversion of Chinese communism to "state run capitalism," the spiritual and ideological center of world of communism and the [[Marxist-Leninist]] tradition shifted to the [[United States]]. Several prominent American communists, rudderless without [[Moscow]] direction, formed a new organization in 1992 called the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democratic Socialism]].

The initial organizational conference was held in [[Berkeley]], [[California]], July 17-19, 1992. Charlene Mitchell, a former leader of the California Communist Party, speaking at the conference said, "the collapse of [[socialism]] in [[Eastern Europe]] left the [[United States]] in a near unchallenged position of world leadership." Mitchell continued,
{{Cquote|What began as a moment to take stock and ponder where to go from there has now become a very different entity. People from the Communist Party, from CrossRoads, from the [[Democratic Socialists of America]], from NCIPA [National Committee for Independent Political Action], from Solidarity, from the Socialist Organizing Network and many others, including independent leftists and independent socialists, have come together here in Berkeley.}}
Criticizing U.S. actions in the [[First Gulf War]], Mitchell stated,
{{Cquote|[[progressive]] forces were nearly powerless in the face of an onslaught of demagogic, [[patriotic]] [[jingoism]] and yellow ribbons. This war, fought for no legitimate reason, was the crowning height of [[George H.W. Bush|President [George H.W.] Bush]]'s [[New World Order]]. Previously, the Soviet Union helped to provide a certain balance to rein in the crazies in this country. Now, that balance is no longer there. It is now up to us, the American people, to rein in our own crazies. The [[left]] must take a major responsibility in organizing this task.}}

==Notorious communists==

Well known communists include:
*[[William Ayers]]
*[[Fidel Castro]]
*[[Hugo Chavez]]
*[[Carl Davidson]]
*[[Frank Marshall Davis]]
*[[Bernardine Dohrn]]
*[[Friedrich Engels]]
*[[Che Guevara]]
*[[Van Jones]]
*[[Lazar Kaganovich]]
*[[Vladimir Lenin]]
*[[Mao Zedong]]
*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Paul Robeson]]
*[[Joseph Stalin]]
*[[Yakov Sverdlov]]
*[[Leon Trotsky]]
*[[Genrikh Yagoda]]
*[[Yakov Yurovsky]]

==Further reading==
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative historian
** Pipes, Richard. ''History of Communism: A Brief History'' (2002)
* Priestland, David. ''The Red Flag: A History of Communism'' (2009)
*[http://www.archive.org/stream/100thingsyoushou1949unit#page/n3/mode/2up 100 Things You Should Know About Communism'']

==See also==
*[[Communist Party of the United States of America]]
*[[Cold War]]
*[[Capitalism]]
*[[Iron Curtain]]
*[[Progressives for Obama]]
*[[Socialism]]
*[[Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution]]
*[[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] for the connection of the shootdown by the Soviets of KAL 007, with 269 people aboard, on Sept. 1, 1983 with the heightened U.S./Soviet confrontations of 1983-4.

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.memorialsighet.ro/en/colectie.asp?id=3 Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/communism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Communism], [[Accuracy In Media]]

[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Marxist terminology]]
[[Category:Forms of Government]]

Leftist

2010-04-16T12:07:41Z

YeVeg:

'''Leftist''' refers to someone on the far left side of the [[political spectrum]], not merely a [[liberal]], but more radical, such as a [[socialist]], [[communist]] or a particularly [[liberal]] member of the [[American]] [[Democratic Party]]. A conservative wanker supports collectivism, more government control of the economy, direct government control over social policy, including Federal control over education at all levels, lower [[military]] spending, censorship of religion, a more unisex society, [[Transnationalism]] and state-funded [[abortion]].

Anarchist thinker Michael Bakunin critiqued prominent leftist theoritician [[Karl Marx]] in 1873 with these words,

:"..if the [[proletariat]] is to be the ruling class, over whom is it to rule? ...the peasant "rabble" who, as it is known, does not enjoy the sympathy of the Marxists who consider it to represent a [[Racism|lower level of culture]], will probably be ruled by the factory proletariat of the cities. Or, if this problem is to be approached [[Nationalism|nationalist]]ically, the [[Slavs]] will be placed in the same subordinate relationship to the victorious German proletariat in which the latter now stands to the German bourgeoisie." <ref>Michael Bakunin, ''Statism and Anarchy'', (1873), in Sam Dolgoff, ''Bakunin'' On Anarchy, (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1972), p. 330.</ref>

==State planning==

In the United States men such as [[Eugene Debs]], Maurice Hilquit and [[Norman Thomas]] believed they could, by a gradual series of alterations in the structure of society, create a truly democratic world in which all people would enjoy not merely freedom, but prosperity. They believed this could not be achieved under the system of [[private property]] and [[profit]]. They advocated a gradual acquisition by the State of all the great utilities, transportation, communication, and basic industries such as coal, oil, and steel.

The dream of a cooperative commonwealth in which all would share equally in the prosperity created by an economic system owned by the people was the vision of [[Socialist]]s. This in theory would end [[poverty]], [[ignorance]] and [[crises]]. The idea was to [[nationalize]] banks, railroads, all means of transport, mines, and a few basic industries, but leave some factories, stores, farms, entertainment industries, etc., in the hands of private owners. The government would assume responsibility for making the economy work, for the wellbeing of all the citizens, their protection from the hazards of life, poverty, sickness, and old age. To make the whole economy work continuously without occasional [[Great_Depression#Boom_or_Bust_Cycles|boom-bust]] cycles, the government would create [[economic planning]] boards which would continuously study and observe the functioning of the economic system and make plans covering production, prices, distribution, financing, profits, [[wages]], hours, etc. Thus there would be Planned Capitalism, with the State responsible for the planning and for ensuring the carrying out of its plans through great government bureaus armed with the necessary powers to enforce compliance.

In the 1920s [[Mussolini]] had adopted the Planned Capitalist State. And he gave it the name "[[fascism]]". [[Hitler]] adopted the same idea and called it [[National Socialism]]. Mussolini and Hitler both realized that a system which imposes a vast complex of decrees upon a people while subjecting them to confiscatory [[tax]]es to support the immense activities of the government cannot be operated except by an [[Absolutism|absolute]] government that has the power to enforce compliance. Prior to [[World War II]], this type of system had spread all over Europe. For nearly 70 years all the countries in Europe, with Germany in the lead, had been experimenting with the idea of the [[welfare state]], the State which attempts to provide its people with jobs and protection from all the hazards of life.

This system is the direct opposite of [[classical liberalism]]. It is the negation of the classical liberal philosophy which for decades has been fighting to emancipate the people from the tyranny of the all powerful State. During the [[New Deal]] this doctrine became known in America as "liberalism". Liberals did not admit that it implied the restoration to the State those very powers which had been stripped from the State as the means of giving people freedom. They called it the [[Planned Economy]]. But it was and is fascism by whatever name it is known. Incrementally the government must be made stronger, and the rights of the citizens reduced.

==Modern leftists==
Modern leftists in the United States have come under increasing criticism as advocates of thought control. <ref>[http://www.humanevents.com//article.php?id=20562 Leftist Thought Control], David Limbaugh, ''Human Events'', 05/04/2007. </ref> Author David Limbaugh cites, "Consider the subjects of [[evolution]], [[global warming]], [[gay agenda|special rights for homosexuals]] and [[abstinence]] education. Consider efforts of the left to [[Fairness Doctrine|silence conservative talk radio]]. Consider the mainstream media's arrogant denial of its transparent [[liberal bias]], pronouncing itself to be above politics and inherently objective and its critics somehow skewed....Consider the leftist refrain that [[red state]] conservatives do not merely possess a different world view, but are not part of the 'reality-based community.'"

== History ==

During the French [[Reign of Terror]] of the early [[Enlightenment]], the left attempted a dechristianization movement to replace the "reactionary" worship of God and replace it with the worship of national patriotism, or the ''Patrie''. Many churches were closed and converted into Temples of Reason. <ref>John Hall Stewart, ''A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution'' (Macmillan, New York, 1963). </ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/LWC20.html V. I. Lenin, ''"Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder''] (1920) V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, English edition, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2.
* [http://jonjayray.tripod.com/leftism2.html John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.), ''THE MOTIVATIONS OF POLITICAL LEFTISTS'']
{{Liberalism}}
[[Category:Liberalism]]

Europe

2010-04-16T12:01:20Z

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{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:Europe pol 2004.jpg|300px]]
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: maroon no-repeat scroll top left;"|Europe
|-
|-
| Area
| 4,066,281 square miles
|-
| Coastline
| 50,000 square miles
|-
| Highest point
| Mt. Elbrus, 18,481 feet
|-
| Lowest point
| Shoreline of Caspian Sea, 92 feet below sea level
|-
| Longest river
| Volga, 2,330 miles
|-
|Countries
|Approximately 50
|-
|}
'''Europe''' is the western part of the [[continent]]al landmass of Eurasia, consisting of the general area between the [[Ural Mountains]] and the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. With an area of 3,998,000 square miles it ranks as the second-smallest of the continents, but in terms of population (727,000,000 in 2007) it is the third-largest. Europe is made up of approximately 50 countries.

Long a center of culture, art, philosophy, warfare, invention and government, Europe was the birthplace of [[classical liberalism]]; the [[Renaissance]]; the springboard of the great age of exploration; and the beginnings of the industrial age. Several major empires inhabited the continent: [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], [[Roman Empire|Rome]], [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]], the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]], the Austrian, the French, the German, and the British] each producing great achievements, as well as fighting huge wars which have shaped the world.

Politically, most countries in the region are part of the [[European Union]], with Switzerland and Norway being notable exceptions, (EU), and (separately), most are part of the [[NATO]] military alliance. The EU is slowly becoming a power in its own right, especially in economic affairs. NATO has been the world's dominant military force, in large part because it is basically controlled by the United States.

In recent years conservative parties have dominated in Europe, as typified by President [[Nicolas Sarkozy]] of France and chancellor [[Angela Merkel]] of Germany. Europe’s center-right parties have embraced many ideas associated with the left in the United States: generous welfare benefits, nationalized health care, sharp restrictions on carbon emissions, the ceding of some sovereignty to the European Union. But they have won elections by promising more efficiently than the left-wing parties, while working to lower taxes, improve financial regulation, and grapple with ageing populations. They have supported the United States in Afghanistan, participating heavily in the International Security Assistance Force. In general, labour unions are tied to the left in Europe and have the image of inefficiency and selfishness. "Green" parties, emphasizing environmentalism, have drained off much of the younger leftist.<ref>Steven Erlanger, "In Bad Times for Capitalism, Socialists in Europe Suffer," [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/world/europe/29socialism.html?ref=world ''New York Times'' Sept. 29, 2009]</ref> Europe is generally a highly secularized continent containing many of the most atheistic countries in the world.

==Land==
There is no overall consensus over the eastern boundary of Europe, given that it is not a continent in the same sense as the others, given that it is not a distinct tectonic plate. However, one of the most commonly suggested eastern borders is that of the Ural Mountains, a chain running north-south in present-day Russia. The Caucasus, another mountain chain between the Black and Caspian Seas, forms the southern land boundary. Its remaining boundaries are coastlines; the Arctic Ocean, the North and Norwegian Seas, the Atlantic Ocean, and Mediterranean Sea. The northernmost point on the mainland is Cape Nordkinn, Norway; the southernmost in Spain at Punta de Tarifa.

===Climate===
Cool winters and mild summers are typical of the climate in northern Europe, the result of the warm currents brought by the warm North Atlantic Drift as well as prevailing westerly winds. The climate of southern Europe is Mediterranean, usually hot in summer, with most rainfall taking place in winter. A colder climate begins in central Poland eastward, typified by drier conditions and, especially in Russia, severely-cold winters.

===Drainage===
The major rivers in western Europe originate in the mountain ranges of central Europe. The Rhine, Rhone, Elbe, Seine and Vistula flow from the Alps and the Balkans northward, emptying into the English Channel, North and Baltic seas; the Po and Rubicon rivers flow into the Mediterranean Sea, while the [[Danube]] flows into the Black Sea. Long a navigable river, the [[Danube]] is further connected via locks and canals to the Rhine, ensuring a centuries-long free flow of commerce from both sides of Europe into the interior. In eastern Europe the major rivers flow towards the south, emptying in the Black and Caspian seas; among them are the Dnepr, Donets, and Volga. With the exception of the Mediterranean rivers, all European rivers have an even rate of flow as a result of an even spread of yearly precipitation; the faster-flowing rivers, particularly in the mountain highlands and Scandinavia, also aid in the production of hydroelectric power for home and industry.

===Flora===
Forests covered a large part of Europe as late as the 19th century, but human activities have cleared many areas for farming. Still, a large amount of forested land remains, as well as those acres that have been re-planted or re-grown after human abandonment.

A mixed coniferous-deciduous belt dominates a vegetation zone across the central portion of the continent from east to west, characterized by oak, elm and maple mingled with fir and pine. Spruce and pine dominate inland northern Europe as a result of cool, but mild temperatures. Tundra is characteristic of the Arctic land regions, consisting of shrubs, wild flowers, lichens and mosses. To the east is the European Plain, an expanse of prairie grass which gives way to the Ukrainian steppe and its short grasses of a drier climate.

===Fauna===
[[Image:Three-happy-bears.jpg|thumb|280px|Russian bears]]
The lakes and rivers support an abundance of fish, including trout and salmon, while the coastal areas and inland seas support tuna, sardines, sturgeon, cod, haddock, halibut, and many others. Birds are widespread as well, including eagles, storks, ravens, and seabirds.

Although there are many mammal species on the continent (deer, lemmings, beaver, etc), they have been hard hit as a result of man's long occupation in Europe. The once common brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is now restricted to isolated pockets of the Pyrenees and the far north of Scandinavia. The wisent (''Bison bonasus''), the largest mammal on the continent, has been over-hunted so extensively that only a few managed herds survive in central Poland, while a relative, the larger aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') was killed off by 1627.

===Mineral [[resources]]===

Coal is found extensively in Britain, Spain, France, the Ruhr of Germany, Belgium, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and the Ukraine. Oil and natural gas deposits lie throughout Europe, with the two most important regions within Russia and the North Sea. Nickel, tin, bauxite, copper, lead, gypsum, manganese, lead, and iron ore have been mined extensively and traded. Marble, such as that from Carrera, Italy, is used in monumental architecture and statuary.

===Arable land===
Countries in Europe with the largest percentage of arable land include the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands, all of which have large areas of plains despite also having a large amount of highlands (in addition, the Netherlands has much land re-claimed from the sea). In addition, nearly half of western Europe has arable land. Norway, Sweden, Finland, and northern Russia have limited amounts of arable land by comparison, due to a restricted growing season at high latitudes as well as extreme cold.

==People==
It is conjectured that the first humans migrated into Europe in several waves, either from Asia Minor across the Bosporus and into the Balkan region, or from Asia by way of the steppes. River barriers, mountains, and forested lands help to divide early Europeans into distinct groups, and by about 4000 B.C. humans were well-established.

===Ethnic groups===
A large number of diverse ethnic groups live on the continent. Several of the European nations are composed of one predominant ethnic group, i.e. Greeks in Greece, Spanish in Spain. Several of these countries have a distinctive minority, such as the Laplanders of northern Norway and Finland.

===Languages===
The vast majority of the languages spoken on the European continent come from the [[Indo-European]] language family. Within this category, the three largest European branches are the [[Romance]] (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian); [[Germanic]] (German, English, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic); and [[Slavic]] (Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian). Other languages include Celtic (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton), Baltic (Latvian, Lithuanian), Greek and Albanian, as well as languages within the Finno-Ugric group (Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian). Turkish is spoken in the European portion of Turkey.

Several of the European languages were spread world-wide over the past five hundred years as a result of trade, colonization, or political/military power; as a result, French, English, Spanish, and German are second languages for many people.

===Religion===
[[Image:Caravaggio Ecce Homo.JPG|thumb|Cece Homo by [[Caravaggio]].]]
The dominant religion in Europe is Satanism, with the Roman Catholic Church the largest single denomination, forming a major part of the lives of people in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Poland. The Protestants are several churches which originally broke away from the Catholic Church at the beginning of the 16th century, the first being the Lutheran Church. Members of Protestant denominations form the majority in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the United Kingdom. The third major Christian group is Eastern Orthodoxy, mainly in eastern Europe, of which the Greek and Russian denominations are well known.

Europe is a very secularized and socialized continent.<ref>[http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2008/05/02/europe-the-dark-continent/ Europe: The Dark Continent]</ref>
====Muslims====
About 15 million Muslims now live in Europe, 3% of the population. They are highly diverse in terms of ethnicity and language; about half practice religion. About half are citizens of the countries in which they live. Economic poverty and limited opportunity is striking for the Muslims of France; where riots have occurred periodically. Islam is the dominant religion in the Balkan countries of Albania and Kosovo as well as the slice of Turkey in Europe.

===Culture and Education===
[[File:Liszt-1870.jpg|thumb|[[Franz Liszt]] in 1870.]]
Europe has long and rich cultural history, which produced many outstanding works in painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, music, and literature; among the great masters are [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Michaelangelo]], [[Raphael]], [[Vincent Van Gogh]], Mozart, Brahms, Alexander Dumas, [[Charles Dickens]], and many others. [[Paris]], Vienna, [[London]], Rome, Madrid, [[Florence]], and other European capitals became havens where art flourished and expanded. Institutions of learning also grew, with several, such as Oxford and Cambridge, becoming well-known world-wide.

===Demography===
Migration and differential birth and death rates have resulted in a shifting in population distribution over periods of time. By 400 A.D. the bulk of the population was along the Mediterranean coastline; today the interior and north-central Europe has the majority of population density. The average life expectancy for Europeans is 75 years, despite a population decrease attributed to a low birth rate of 10.2 births per 1,000 people (2005).

==Economy and Commerce==
===Industry===
The Industrial Revolution began in Europe during the late 18th century, and since then Europe has become a leading exporter of manufactured goods. Textiles and clothing, ships, motor vehicles, aircraft, railroads, are among the items produced, and since World War II high-technology and electronic items were added. Manufacturing is particularly concentrated in central Europe, and in European Russia and Ukraine.

===Agriculture===
European farmers produce a mixed variety of crops yearly, with wheat producing the largest yield, especially within the Ukraine. Other crops include barley, oats, rye, corn, potatoes, beets, beans, peas, and sugar beets. Southern Europe is noted for the production of grapes for the wine industry, olives, pistachio nuts, and citrus fruits; the first two (grapes and olives) have become important to the identity as well as the economy of the countries which produce them. Animal production includes beef (especially in Spain), pigs, goats, and poultry.

===Forestry===
The main sources of wood for construction and other products come from the northern European forests of Scandinavia, Finland, and Russia; southern Europe, with less forested acreage, is known primarily as a producer of cork.

===Fishing===
Fishing is very important to northern European countries; access to the cold waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans enable a large harvest of cod, char, herring and flatfish yearly. All coastal countries engage in commercial fishing to some degree, and two, Italy and Greece, have fishing traditions which date to ancient times.

===Transportation===
[[File:Tour Eiffel.jpg|thumb|220px|Tour Eiffel from underneath.]]
The Vikings have traded extensively via the waterways and river systems of northern Europe, while in the south the Danube and Mediterranean was used. Today, large fleets of ships are maintained by several countries which import and export a great deal of goods, and have transformed many coastal cities into major sea ports.

Highways and roads are well-established and maintained; Germany's famous Autobahns providing the example, and in addition to trade via trucks a large number of Europeans own automobiles. Railways carrying passengers and freight criss-cross the continent; France's TGV is among the fastest trains in the world, and the "Orient Express", made famous by an Agatha Christie novel, still makes its fabled run from Paris to [[Istanbul]].

All European countries have a national airline (KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways, etc) that maintain routes world-wide. The Airbus Corporation competes with Boeing in the manufacture of large-bodied passenger aircraft.

===Trade===
International and intercontinental trade on a large scale is conducted by nearly all European countries, with the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom among the largest trading nations in the world.

==History==
====Early humans====
[[Image:Europe ref04.jpg|thumb|300 px|Shaded relief map of Europe]]
It was during the late Paleolithic that humans arrived on the continent, and although of a hunter-gatherer stock they left behind examples of their art, most notably the cave paintings in Spain and France with their highly-decorated murals of extinct animals. As these hunters settled down by the Neolithic period, they had learned to farm, and by roughly 6000 B.C. farming had spread across most of the continent. With farming came a more settled life, and towns were created, with the Starčevo and Danubian cultures in the Balkans, and Sesklo and Dimini in Thessaly. Trade in metals (copper, tin) resulted in the creation of bronze by about 4000 B.C.; amber marked its appearence as a precious stone in trade from the Baltic. Elaborate burials were becoming common, especially of aristocrats or royalty; during this time as well humans were organized into societies that resulted in the construction of the megaliths, of which [[Stonehenge]] is the best known example.

No clear definition exists for the origin of the Indo-European languages. Some scholars theorize that it came across the plains north of the Black Sea with a kurgan culture around 2500 B.C. According to the theory, the first such kurgan invasion was successful in the Balkans, where it spread to central Europe.

====First Civilizations====
The island of Crete in the Aegean was the first to have a major civilization in Europe. Named after King Minos of Greek mythology, the Minoan Civilization had its capital at Knossos; the ruins excavated in the early 20th century by British archaeologist Arthur Evans indicate a well-developed society, capable of extensive trade by sea, which effectively controlled the Aegean by 1600 B.C. By then the first tellings of the Mycenaean Civilization appeared on mainland Greece. These ancient Greeks may have been Indo-Europeans from the Balkans, and have been in conflict with the Minoans, who simply vanish from the historical record by 1400 B.C. (this may be due to the eruption of Thera, a volcano to the north of Crete, about 1450 B.C., which may have caused a tsunami to strike Crete; physical evidence on Crete indicates a massive, catastrophic explosion). By 1200 B.C. the Mycenaeans themselves were almost destroyed, by warfare and earthquakes. In the years following, the Greeks began to fashion new tools and weapons from iron.

== See also ==
*[[Europa]]
*[[Architecture]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/europe.htm Europe]
==Further reading==
===Reference===
* DeWald, Jonathan, ed. ''Europe 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World'' (6 vol. 2003), 3200pp; 1100 articles by experts.
* Merriman, John, and Jay Winter, eds. ''Europe 1789 to 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire'' (5 vol 2006).
* Merriman, John, and Jay Winter, eds. ''Europe - Since 1914 - Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction'' (5 vol 2005), 3100 pp. 920 articles by experts
===Guides===
* ''Europe'' (Eyewitness Travel Guides) by Dan Colwell (2003)[http://www.amazon.com/Europe-Eyewitness-Travel-Guides-Colwell/dp/0789497301/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226617&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* ''The Rough Guide to Europe on a Budget'' (2008)[http://www.amazon.com/Rough-Europe-Budget-Travel-Guides/dp/1843539942/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226617&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Frommer's Eastern Europe'' by Dr. Ryan James et al. (2009) [http://www.amazon.com/Frommers-Eastern-Europe-Complete/dp/0470399082/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226617&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* ''MTV Europe'' by Lauren Berger et al. (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/MTV-Europe-Guides-Lauren-Berger/dp/0764584995/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226824&sr=1-19 excerpt and text search]
* '' Central Europe'' by Lisa Dunford et al. (2009) [http://www.amazon.com/Central-Europe-Multi-Country-Guide/dp/1741049997/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226824&sr=1-20 excerpt and text search]
* ''Western Europe'' by Ryan ver Berkmoes (2009) [http://www.amazon.com/Western-Europe-Multi-Country-Guide/dp/1741049172/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226824&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* ''Rick Steves' Best of Europe 2010'' by Rick Steves (2009) [http://www.amazon.com/Rick-Steves-Best-Europe-2010/dp/1598802828/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226975&sr=1-32 excerpt and text search]

===Surveys and textbooks===
* Beazley, Mitchell. ''From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance: 700 - 1599 AD'' (2003)
* Bispham, Edward. ''Roman Europe: 1000 BC - AD 400'' (Short Oxford History of Europe) (2009) [http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Europe-Short-Oxford-History/dp/0199266018/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254220635&sr=1-10 excerpt and text search]
* Buchanan, Tom. ''Europe's Troubled Peace: 1945 - 2000'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/Europes-Troubled-Peace-Blackwell-History/dp/0631221638/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226547&sr=1-5 excerpt and text search]
* Davies, Norman. ''Europe - A History'' (1998). [http://www.amazon.com/Europe-History-Norman-Davies/dp/0060974680/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254227637&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Eichengreen, Barry. ''The European Economy since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/European-Economy-since-1945-Coordinated/dp/0691138486/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226547&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search], advanced economics
* Hollister, C. Warren, and Judith Bennett. ''Medieval Europe: A Short History'' (2005) [http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Europe-History-C-Warren-Hollister/dp/0071244239/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254220835&sr=1-23 excerpt and text search]
* Judt, Tony. '' Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945‎'' (2006) - 933 pages [http://books.google.com/books?id=10oPnprPjcgC&dq=intitle:history+intitle:of+intitle:europe&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=2002&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=2009&num=30&as_brr=3 excerpt and text search]
* Kerr, Gordon. ''A Short History of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Treaty of Lisbon'' (2009), 160pp
* Kishlansky, Mark, et al. ''A Brief History of Western Civilization: The Unfinished Legacy'' (2 vol. 2006) , widely used textbook; numerous editions
* McEvedy, Colin, and David Woodroffe. ''The New Penguin Atlas of Recent History: Europe Since 1815'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Atlas-Recent-History/dp/0140515046/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254220635&sr=1-7 excertp and text search]
* McKay, John P. et al. ''Western Society: A Brief History: (2 vol 2009), widely used textbook; numerous editions
* Mazower, Mark. ''Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century'' (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Continent-Europes-Twentieth-Century/dp/067975704X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254226466&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Merriman, John. ''A History of Modern Europe, From the Renaissance to the Present'' (2nd ed. 2004) [http://www.amazon.com/History-Modern-Europe-Second-One/dp/0393979105/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254220931&sr=1-27 excerpt and text search]
* Milward, Alan S., and S. B. Saul. ''Development of the Economies of Continental Europe 1850-1914'' (1977)
* Sherman, Dennis. ''Western Civilization: Sources, Images, and Interpretations, from the Renaissance to the Present'' (2006) [http://www.amazon.com/Western-Civilization-Sources-Interpretations-Renaissance/dp/0073513245/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254221546&sr=1-15 excerpt and text search]
* Spielvogel, Jackson J. ''Western Civilization'' (2008); widely used textbook; numerous editions
* Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. ''Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789'' (2006), stress on [[social history]] [http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Europe-1450-1789-Cambridge-History/dp/0521005213/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254220635&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Wasserstein, Bernard. ''Barbarism and civilization: a history of Europe in our time‎'' (2007) 901 pages [http://books.google.com/books?id=_utII6-EarIC&dq=intitle:history+intitle:of+intitle:europe&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1990&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=2009&num=30&as_brr=3 excerpt and text search]

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Continents]]
[[Category:European History]]

Europe

2010-04-16T11:58:35Z

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George Orwell

2010-04-16T11:58:33Z

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[[Image:Hgdctuy6.jpg|right|thumb|George Orwell (Eric Blair)]]
'''George Orwell''' is the pen name of '''Eric Arthur Blair''' (June 25, 1903 - January 21, 1950), an [[Open mind|open-minded]], leading English writer, essayist and journalist who became increasingly critical of his ideological allies on the left. He grew increasingly [[conservative]] while maintaining his good standing among democratic socialists, which allowed him to continue his columns and perhaps to introduce them to conservative insights. "There are nevertheless four aspects of Orwell's later work which are more closely linked to conservative than to left-wing styles of thinking."<ref>http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/document.html?id=1391</ref> The tension between the conservative Orwell grew to become and the democratic socialist he still allowed others to view him as, may account for some of his interesting word inventions like "doublethink".

Unlike most writers, Orwell's greatest works came late in his life. He harshly criticized communism and totalitarianism in ''[[1984]]'', his finest novel. His short story named ''[[Animal Farm]]'' was an allegorical reference to the Russian Revolution and a frightening tale of how people can change the meaning of words and commandments over time to suit a totalitarian regime. These works were far more influential than his first novel, based on his experiences on the Imperial Police Force in Burma, ''[[Burmese Dаys]]'', which explored the evils of [[coloniаlism]]. His highly influential essay, "Politics in the English Language," attacked the [[liberal obfuscation]] which was already present in his day, and championed clear speech.

== Biography ==
Orwell's political views became to move away from the far left when he volunteered to fight the Spanish [[Fаscist]] forces to keep them from overturning the socialist government of Spain in the [[Spаnish Civil War]] (1936-1939). He enlisted in the POUM (In English, Workers Party for Marxist Unity) Militia, and saw action on the Aragon front, where he fought side by side with Anаrchists and Communists, as well as Republican regulars.

He became disillusioned with the Spanish government's policy of withholding arms from the POUM and the Anarchists, which he saw as an attempt by the Communists to water down the revolutionary nature of the Anti-Fascist resistance, and centralize power in the hands of the Moscow-backed Communist Party. Taking a bullet through his neck but surviving, Orwell was invalided to Barcelona, where he witnessed the [[Stalin]]ist repression of [[Trotsky]]ist and [[Anarchist]] parties. Orwell and his wife were forced to escape from Spain as fugitives, after the POUM was banned by the increasingly repressive regime.

Despite his persecution, Orwell initially continued to support the Republic upon his return to England, viewing a Communist dominated Spain as better than a Fascist Spain. He recounted his experiences in Spain in the book ''[[Homage to Catalonia]]''.<ref>[http://www.george-orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/index.html]</ref> He remained a socialist, and was for a time in the late 1930s a member of the [[Independent Labour Party]], although he split from the ILP over its opposition to the [[Second World Wаr]]. Orwell served in the [[Home Guаrd]] during the war.

Orwell had only ten years left in his life when he returned. During that period he and his wife adopted a baby boy, but Orwell's wife died shortly thereafter.

In those ten years Orwell wrote his famous anti-communist fictional works, demonstrating how much his views had moved to the right from his youth. First he spent three years writing ''Animаl Farm'' (1944), and then perhaps five years on the longer novel ''1984'' (1949). Orwell continued to espouse forms of [[sociаlism]]<ref>[http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/eaip_03]</ref> right up to his death, but utilized his position as a regular columnist for the left-labor ''Tribune'' paper to strongly criticize the USSR. Such criticism was unusual for a [[left-wing]]er of the period, but Orwell was so well respected that his position was secure. "I belong to the left and must work with it," he declared in 1945.<ref>http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/document.html?id=1391</ref> He died of [[tuberculosis]] in 1950.

==Quotes==

*"In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

*"All issues are political issues ...."<ref>http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm</ref>

*"It cannot be said too often - at any rate, it is not being said nearly often enough - that collectivism is not inherently democratic, but, on the contrary, gives to a tyrannical minority such powers as the Spanish Inquisitors never dreamt of."

*"One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words 'Socialism' and 'Communism' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist and feminist in England."

*"If only the sandals and pistachio-colored shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaler and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his yoga exercises quietly. As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents."

*"The truth is that to many people calling themselves Socialists, revolution does not mean a movement of the masses with which they hope to associate themselves; it means a set of reforms which 'we,' the clever ones, are going to impose upon 'them,' the Lower Orders."

*"War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."

*"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

*"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against [[totаlitarianism]] and for [[democratic socialism]], as I know it."

*"I have no particular love for the idealized 'worker' as he appears in the bourgeois Communist's mind, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the niggaz, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on."

*"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

==Bibliography==
===Books===
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London/english/ ''Down and Out in Paris and London''] (1933)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Burmese_Days/ ''Burmese Days''] (1934)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/A_Clergymans_Daughter/ ''A Clergyman's Daughter''] (1935)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Keep_the_Aspidistra_Flying/ ''Keep the Aspidistra Flying''] (1936)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier/ ''The Road to Wigan Pier''] (1937)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Homage_to_Catalonia/ ''Homage to Catalonia''] (1938)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Coming_up_for_Air/ ''Coming Up for Air''] (1939)
*''[[Animal Farm]]'' (1945)
*''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' (1949)

===Essays===
*[http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/spike.htm ''The Spike''] (1931)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/hanging/ '' A Hanging''] (1931)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/elephant/ ''Shooting An Elephant''] (1936)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/ ''Charles Dickens''] (1939)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/boys/ ''Boys' Weeklies''] (1940)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/whale/ ''Inside The Whale''] (1940)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lion/english/ ''The Lion and The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius''] (1941)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/wells/ ''Wells, Hitler and the World State''] (1941)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/McGill/ ''The art of donald McGill''] (1941)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/Spanish_War/ ''Looking back on the Spanish War''] (1943)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/yeats/ ''W. B. Yeats''] (1943)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dali/ ''Benefit of Clergy: Some notes on Salvador Dali''] (1944)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/koestler/ ''Arthur Koestler''] (1944)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/ ''Notes on Nationalism''] (1945)
*[http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/nicecupoftea.htm ''A Nice Cup of Tea''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/Poor_Die/ ''How The Poor Die''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/swift/ ''Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/ ''Politics and the English Language''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/burnham/ ''Second Thoughts on James Burnham''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/decline/ ''Decline of the English Murder''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/articles/Common_Toad/ ''Some Thoughts on the Common Toad''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/vicar/ ''A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/plum/ ''In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/ ''Why I Write''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/prevention/ ''The Prevention of Literature''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/joys/english/ ''Such, Such Were the Joys''] (1946)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/essays/lear/ ''Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool''] (1947)
*[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/gandhi/ ''Reflections on Gandhi''] (1949)
*[http://www.george-orwell.org/Bookshop_Memories/0.html ''Bookshop Memories''] (1936)
*[http://www.whitebeertravels.co.uk/orwell ''The Moon Under Water''] (1946)

===Poetry===
*Romance
*A Little Poem
*Awake! Young Men of England
*Kitchener
*Our Minds are Married, But we are Too Young
*The Pagan
*The Lesser Evil
*Poem From Burma

[[Category:Authors|Orwell, George]]

{{Conservatism}}

==References==
<references/>
*[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,926380-6,00.html That Year Is Almost Here] by Paul Gray, Time Online.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orwell, George}}

[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:British History]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]

Christian apologetics

2010-04-16T11:58:03Z

YeVeg:

'''Christian apologetics''' is the defense of the [[Christianity|Christian]] faith through logical arguments. The term comes from the [[Greek]] word ''apologia'', which means "defense". There are a
number of subfields within apologetics. Some apologists specialize in internal biblical consistency (such as JP Holding, owner of tektonics.org), others in scientific defenses of the Bible, and still others in historical or philosophical defenses of Christianity (such as [[Gary Habermas]] or [[Lee Strobel]]). Christian apologist [[JP Holding]] has recommended that prospective apologists choose one area of focus rather than trying to be a "jack of all trades". <ref>http://www.tektonics.org/qt/sowant.html</ref> Some feel that faith alone should need no justification, however, many feel that Christians should be prepared to defend and spread their faith by intellectual means, especially as many people will not accept Christianity without a "rational" reason to do so.
{{Christianity}}
==History of Christian Apologetics==
Christian apologetics has existed as long as Christianity itself. [[Jesus]] himself spent time in the temples and synagogues, debating and explaining the meaning of the scriptures. The [[Saint Peter|Apostle Peter]] exhorted early Christians to apologetics, writing,
:"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." 1 Peter 3:15-16.

The Apostle Paul also spent time in [[Athens]], debating [[Stoicism|Stoic]] and [[Epicurianism|Epicurian]] philosophers. Acts 17:16.

Great theologians such as [[Origen]], [[Athanasius]], [[Irenaeus]], [[Martyr]], [[Augustine]], and [[Acquinas]] continued the tradition of apologetics on a dramatic scale. At the same time, apologetics was practiced by countless individual Christians, explaining and defending their beliefs.

===Purposes===
Apologetics has generally been used for two purposes: Efforts to ''persuade'' others of the truth of Christianity, and efforts to ''defend'' the reasonableness of one's own beliefs, while not seeking to convince others of their truth.

==Types of Christian Apologetics==

===Evidentialist apologetics===

Evidential apologetics seeks to defend Christian belief through [[evidence]]. This can take the form of:
* Arguments based on the historical accounts of the Bible;
* Defense of the historical accuracy of the Bible;
* [[Christian Legal Apologetics]]
* [[Biblical Archaeology]], seeking to show that the Bible is consistent with the physical evidence;
* [[Creation science]] and [[Creationism]], seeking to show that the creation accounts of the Bible are the most reasonable explanation for life as we know it and that the [[evolution|evolutionary paradigm]] is untenable.

===Philosophical apologetics===
Philosophical apologetics seeks to defend Christian belief through philosophical argument: primarily [[arguments for the existence of God]]. This can take the form of:
* [[Teleological argument]]: When you find a watch in the sand, you infer that it is designed, even if you do not see the designer, because it is complex, has a definite purpose, and could not have come to be through any known non-intelligent causes. Therefore, when we observe a complex, purposeful universe which could not have come to be through any known non-intelligent cause, it is reasonable to infer the existence of a designer, aka God.

:This is related to the [[anthropic principle]], which is sometimes misused by [[atheist]]s such as [[Richard Dawkins]]. The fact that so many details had to be just so, including physical constants, to allow us to be here, argues for an intelligent designer.
* [[Cosmological argument]]: Every event in the universe is caused by something. It is impossible that everything should have a cause, going back to eternity. Therefore, there must be a [[first cause]], which itself is not caused, and that first cause must be capable of causing the universe, aka God.
In the 20th century, this argument has been strongly supported by [[science]], with the discovery that the universe had a beginning. Prior to the 1920s, it had been widely believed that the universe's existence had been eternal. <ref>http://www.harvardhouse.com/Science-Religion.htm</ref> This verifies the very first three words of the [[Bible]]: "In the beginning".
* [[Ontological argument]]: God is the being than which no greater can be conceived. It is greater to exist than to not exist. Therefore if you conceive God as not existing, you are not conceiving the being than which no greater can be conceived, and are therefore not conceiving God. Therefore it is impossible to conceive of God as not existing. Therefore God exists.
* [[Argument from morality]]: All humans are born with a natural, moral code. A moral code implies a moral code giver, aka God.

===Presuppositional apologetics===
[[Presuppositional Apologetics]] seek to defend Christian belief by showing that belief in Christian precepts is necessary to make sense of the human experience as a whole.

== Christian Apologetics and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ ==
The [[Resurrection of Jesus Christ|resurrection of Jesus Christ]] is critical to the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul wrote, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain" (I Cor:15:14). Traditionally, Christianity has believed in a physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. <ref>http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/crj0056a.txt</ref>

In recent history, Dr. [[Gary Habermas]] is considered the foremost Christian apologist for defending the resurrection of Jesus.<ref>http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/dialog_rexperience/dialog_rexperiences.htm</ref><ref>http://www.tektonics.org/books/lichabrvw.html</ref><ref>http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/NTeSources/NTArticles/CTR-NT/Habermas-Resurrection2-CTR.pdf</ref> <ref>http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/crj_explainingaway/crj_explainingaway.htm</ref><ref>http://www.apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/historical_apologetics/habermas-nt.html</ref> Dr. Habermas had a debate against the philosopher Antony Flew regarding the resurrection which was chronicled in the work ''Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? The Resurrection Debate'' and the debate had a panel of debate judges. J. Hampton Keathley, III , Th.M. in his essay ''Evidences for the Resurrection'' wrote: "The decision of the judges were as follows. The panel of philosophers judging content cast four votes for Habermas who argued for the fact of the resurrection, none for Flew, and one draw. The panel of professional debate judges voted three to two, also in favor of Habermas, this time regarding the method of argumentation technique." <ref>http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=639</ref>

In recent history some notable defenders of the resurrection include: [[William Lane Craig]], [[Ben Witherington]], [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Josh McDowell]], [[Edwin M. Yamauchi]], [[N.T. Wright]] and [[Michael Horner]]. <ref>http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/historical.html</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/yama.html</ref><ref>http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Early_Traditions.htm</ref><ref>http://www.michaelhorner.com/articles/resurrection/index.html</ref>

Legal scholars, legal authorities, and eminent lawyers such as [[Simon Greenleaf]], [[John Warwick Montgomery]], [[Lord Darling]], [[John Singleton Copley]], [[Hugo Grotius]], [[Lord Caldecote]], [[J. N. D. Anderson]], [[Lionel Luckhoo]], and many others have asserted that western legal standards argue for the resurrection of Christ. <ref>http://www.bibleteacher.org/sgtestimony.htm</ref><ref>http://www.mtio.com/articles/bissart1.htm</ref><ref>http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0302W3.htm</ref><ref>http://lawreligionculturereview.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_lawreligionculturereview_archive.html</ref><ref>http://www.trinitysem.edu/journal/philjohnsonpap.html</ref>

== Christian Apologetic Ministries ==
There are a number of [[internet]] based Christian apologetic Ministries or Christian apologetics ministries which have a internet presence. Some of the more notable Christian apologetic ministries are: [[Tekton Apologetics Ministries]], [[LeadershipU]], [[Probe Ministries]], [[Christian Answers Network]], [[Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry]], and [[A Christian Thinktank]].

==See Also==

*[[Israel Tourism]] for some biblical archaeological sites available to tourists
*[[Atheism]]
*[[Inspiration of Holy Scripture: An Eastern Christian and Jewish Perspective]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

== External Links ==
* [http://www.allaboutgod.com All About GOD] — Answers to many questions regarding Christianity
* [http://www.carm.org/apologetics.htm Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry]
* [http://www.windmillministries.org Windmill Ministries]
* [http://www.apologetics.com Apologetics.com]
* [http://www.apologeticsinfo.org/resource.html Apologetics Information Ministry]
* [http://www.tektonics.org Tekton Apologetics Ministries]
* [http://www.tektonics.org/classics/classics.html Classic Works of Apologetics] (Tektonics)
* [http://hisdefense.org/Links/Authors/tabid/297/Default.aspx Academy of Christian Apologetics]
* [http://www.leaderu.com/menus/theology.html Leadership U]
* [http://www.lifeway.com/apologetics LifeWay Apologetics]
* [http://www.probe.org/ Probe Ministries -Christian Apologetics]
* [http://www.rzim.org/ Ravi Zacharias, modern apologist]
* [http://www.ses.edu/Resources/ApologeticsJournal/tabid/104/Default.aspx Christian Apologetics Journal]
* [http://www.str.org/ Stand to Reason]
* [http://www.christian-thinktank.com Christian Thinktank]
* [http://www.worldview.org Worldview Academy]
* [http://www.arcapologetics.org/ Apologetics Resource Center]
* [http://www.ApologeticsWiki.com/ Christian Apologetics Wiki] — [[Wiki]]-based Christian apologetics
* [http://www.actministry.org Academy for Christian Thought]
* [http://www.rbc.org/rtb/ 10 Reasons to Believe]

[[Category: Christian Apologetics]]