97
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 181:
Line 181: + + + +
Debate:Relationship between Socialism and athletic performance (view source)
Revision as of 00:52, February 25, 2010
, 00:52, February 25, 2010no edit summary
:TK raises a critical point which seems to have gone overlooked. Totalitarian regimes can and will employ the most brutal of tactics to "motivate" their subjects; this can, to some extent, mask the weakness of their system. This principle holds true whether discussing economics or athletics; fear is a powerful motivator. However, ultimately, it is a self-destructive one, and "successful" systems built on fear are doomed to topple. --[[User:Benp|Benp]] 19:43, 24 February 2010 (EST)
:TK raises a critical point which seems to have gone overlooked. Totalitarian regimes can and will employ the most brutal of tactics to "motivate" their subjects; this can, to some extent, mask the weakness of their system. This principle holds true whether discussing economics or athletics; fear is a powerful motivator. However, ultimately, it is a self-destructive one, and "successful" systems built on fear are doomed to topple. --[[User:Benp|Benp]] 19:43, 24 February 2010 (EST)
::That may be a valid point: I heard that under Fascism in Italy one of the players who scored a decisive goal in the final of a World Cup admitted that he was afraid of missing, cause he would have been beaten and forced to drink castor oil. I have no source for this though, it's hearsay.
Anyway, we are talking about socialism here. The debate originated from a discussion about Canada, not the Soviet Union. Socialism does not equal communism, nor does it equal totalitarianism: European states, for instance, often adopt socialist policies, and left-wing governments do go to power, but totalitarianism is not a factor in the equation.
It would be interesting to see which results we would get if we excluded Soviet bloc countries from this debate, and just focused on different "left-wing" and "right-wing" periods of the history of democratic countries. I am not convinced that we would find significant statistical differences, and "brutal tactics" would be completely out of the equation. --[[User:Maquissar|Maquissar]] 19:52, 24 February 2010 (EST)