{"id":25,"date":"2019-12-17T10:02:12","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T14:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-spring-2020\/?page_id=25"},"modified":"2020-04-08T20:01:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T00:01:29","slug":"endurance","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-spring-2020\/endurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Revitalizing Communism"},"content":{"rendered":"

We know that the communist dream ultimately failed. \u00a0But it is also true that the dream led to the creation of states that were viable throughout much of the Twentieth Century. \u00a0Why did the dream survive for so long? \u00a0A large part of the answer is that communism changed, first in the Soviet Union and East Europe and later in China, into a phenomenon the great \u00a0Czechoslovak dissident, Vaclav Havel, called \u201cpost-totalitarianism.\u201d \u00a0We will read Havel\u2019s provocative essay \u201cPower of the Powerless\u201d and see why he offers\u00a0a useful way of distinguishing between the extremes of Stalinism and Maoism and the less draconian regimes that came afterward.<\/p>\n

19.\u00a0 Tuesday, March 31<\/strong><\/p>\n

Discussion<\/em>: \u00a0Trying to rescue Communism. \u00a0Trying to renew Communism.<\/p>\n

Death is not only a time for mourning. \u00a0It is a time for renewal. (WATCH THE FIRST PART OF THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO<\/a>) \u00a0 In 1953, a single event changed the communist world forever: Stalin died! \u00a0In 1976, another communist leader performed the same heroic act: \u00a0Mao Zedong died!<\/p>\n

Stalin\u2019s and Mao\u2019s successors, Nikita Khrushchev and Deng Xiaoping, attempted to renew the original ideals of the communist revolution. \u00a0Two questions: \u00a01) how did they propose to do this? and 2) was it realistic to think that these ideals could be renewed?<\/p>\n