Wave Maker: History Repeats Itself?

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Monday, November 21, 2005

History Repeats Itself?

This is a commentary rich in history and irony.

As accurately stated (how about that) in Wikipedia, the remark "we will bury you" was made by Nikita Krushchev while addressing Western ambassadors at reception in Moscow in November, 1956:

"The translation has been controversial by being presented as belligerent out of context. The phrase may well have been intended to suggest 'we will outlast you"'as a more complete version of the quote reads: 'Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you' - a meaning more akin to 'we will attend your funeral' than 'we shall cause your funeral'.

Several online sources incorrectly claim that he made this statement at the United Nations General Assembly on October 11, 1060, when he is said to have pounded the table with his shoe (or with an extra shoe he had brought with him explicitly for that purpose).

Speaking some years later in Yugoslavia Khrushchev himself remarked, 'I once said, 'We will bury you,' and I got into trouble with it. Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you,' a nod to the popular Marxist saying, 'The proletariat is the undertaker of capitalism'."

These many years later, communism having made extraordinary concessions to the siren song of capitalism, the warning means something entirely different, as millions of poor Chinese communists labor for pennies under horrendous work conditions to produce goods that flood America, while American manufacturers cannot compete due to the standard of living enjoyed by its own workers.

Krushchev would delight in the irony, don't you think?

Posted by: Wave Maker / 4:42 PM/ |