The dialogue in another thread made me realize how complex a world we live in today. Specifically the unacknowledged ripple effects that great historical events must inevitably have. Action and reaction, germ adn antibody. Like my old high-school buddy liked to say, "No Christ without Hitler, no Hitler without Christ." Sometimes you need to give credit to Evil for provoking the rise of Good. Or vice versa. The abysmal conditions of the working class in the 19th century produced Karl Marx and Das Kapital.
In the other thread, I had to refer to the influence of the Russian Revolution and the astonishing, world-beating material successes of the U.S.S.R. from 1923 to 1939 on the lives of the working class in America. Generally IMHO a most beneficial influence, yet almost completely unacknowledged. This is because Russia and communism are "bad." Not "mostly bad" or 99% bad but absolutely purely incontrovertibly 110% BAD. And America, and American employers are GOOD. So, given the dichotomy, it is impossible for something bad like Russia to have a good effect on something good like America. In the eyes of the True Believer, this is (a) laughable (b) impossible and (c) blasphemous.
It's possibly the key to "conservative" thinking.
