Hard Communism is a better teacher
One of Polistra's frequent themes is learning from ex-Soviets like Dmitri Orlov and Vaclav Klaus. Eastern Europe learned about Communists the hard and lethal way, directly experiencing a quick change from normal national culture to hard Stalinism in 1948, then a quick change back to normal national culture in 1989. The Commie period was short enough that both changes were within living memory for many people, so there was no need to trust verbal reminiscences.

Here in the Anglosphere we've had a much slower and more confusing shift, which is still progressing apace.

In 1948 Stalin began to subvert government, education and media. Initially there was a healthy immune response by other parts of government. In 1954 the immune system was destroyed by the Army-McCarthy trial. Since then the Commies have been able to instantly stop any immune response in its tracks. McCarthyite, racist, homophobe, etc. You know the drill.

The confusing part happened in 1968 when the Left switched from Marxism-Leninism to Gramscian-Leninism. Marx's nominal goal of flattening the wealth curve was replaced by Gramsci's goal of putting all the wealth and power in the hands of the elite. Leninism, a set of tools to smash normal human culture, remains as the operational part.

Most low-level "conservatives" still don't understand this switch, which means they are unable to fight it effectively. Most "conservative" leaders (the Bush family, McCain, Romney, etc) are Gramscians. They prefer to have the peons thinking in terms of Marx because this makes it easier for the brand-R Gramscians to compete with the brand-D Gramscians. We call you Marxists, you call us Fascists, but we're all Leninists under the T-shirts. More to the point, we're all Goldman.

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Current news brings us an encouraging report of another unconfused Soviet-bloc politician who is finally in a position to make a real difference. Unlike Vaclav Klaus, whose office is ceremonial, Janusz Lewandowski of Poland is the head of the Budget Committee of the EU. He is thus able to shape the actual agenda by controlling the money.

The row among the Conservatives reflects a wider disagreement within the EU over toughening the carbon targets. Although more than 70 large businesses, including Google, Unilever and Scottish and Southern Energy, recently came out in favour of the stiffer cuts, many business lobby groups oppose them.

The move comes as EU environmental policy was undermined by one of the most important figures in the European commission, causing alarm in Brussels. Janusz Lewandowski, the commissioner in charge of fraught negotiations on the future of the EU's €130bn budget, cast doubt on the science of climate change and the future of emissions policy.

In an interview with a Polish newspaper he said: "We already have overambitious agreements on CO2 emission reduction. There is a notion that the thesis that coal energy is the main cause of global warming is highly questionable. Moreover, more and more often there is a question mark put over the whole [issue of] global warming as such."

Lewandowski said the CO2 targets "are too ambitious for the Polish economy … Polish politicians have to persuade that there cannot be a quick jump away from coal. For Poland it would be a disaster."

His remarks were all the more pointed as the Poles at the European council blocked progress on the carbon roadmap to 2050, which the commission hoped would be the basis of a strengthening of climate policy. Poland will hold the revolving presidency of the EU from 1 July.

I love that word undermined.

I note also that Poland is in the catbird seat since the primitive superstitious Krauts received a Prophetic Vision from Planet Goddess Gaia, ordering them to stop generating electricity. The primitive superstitious Krauts will have to buy lots of coal-generated electricity from Poland, so they're no longer able to offend Poland without consequences.

Finally, Lewandowski gets a perfect endorsement from a perfect source:

Ruth Davis, chief policy adviser at Greenpeace UK, said: "It's terrifying that the man in charge of Europe's budget is someone you might expect to see in Sarah Palin's Republican party.

"He has a huge influence over all of our economic futures and yet not only does he deny the overwhelming evidence of climate change, but he's also opposing measures that leading businesses say would drive green growth and create millions of new jobs in Europe's clean industries."

When Greenpeace compares him to this year's Big Satan of the left, you know he's effective!
  ¶ 2:17 AM