Hmmm.....

stumbled over this BBS during some random surfing.

First off the above posting takes the bulk of it's message from a Michael Radu (Phd) of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Therefore most readers would assume that it came from a nuetral academical research body with no axe to grind and pursueing truth alone.

In fact it is funded by some very right wing organisations ( The Bradley Foundation, The Olin Foundation, the Sarah Scaife foundation et al) to the tune of millions of dollars, and therefore anything it chooses to report or say should be regarded as tainted till checked against other sources.

Nevertheless.. I would agree with the thrust of the article.........except for it's implicit conclusions which are that "free market capitalism" = Good.. Socialism.. (in any form)..= Bad.

Mugabe is an oppertunistic thug........and you'll find plenty of those across the political spectrum... after all, the following is a very short list of CIA and/or conservative proteges who brought misery to thier peoples.... Noriega .. Saddam Hussain.. Pinochet... Osama Bin Laden (who recieved cryptography training in the 80's when he was regarded as an ally against the russians in Afghanistan).

Capitalism does not equal democracy.... in some important respects it is the enemy of democracy... after all.. Capitalism concentrates wealth and power into a few, non-accountable, non-elected hands. Power that can cripple states and ruin thousands of lives, Enron for example.

The suggestion that we should now censor what our children should be allowed to learn (as if that does not happen already) is a dangerous one.

As things stand, students in US and British Universities may learn that there are other fairer, more intelligent ways of organiseing a society then the version of free market capitilism currently practised ... but by the time they learn it it will be too late for them to take what they have learned and put it to use. Why? Because they will be in deep debt by the time they complete their education with no choice but to join the "Free Market Capitilist" roadshow in an effort to pay off that debt.