Quote Originally Posted by Eric C. View Post
"socialist paradise", "workers paradise". ...
Guys, Eric in particular; where are you getting this silly terminology from? Nobody here has claimed that modern Belarus or the USSR were a "paradise". (Quotes are supposed to indicate something that somebody has actually said.) No leader of any socialist country made such claims. They knew that they had a very long way to go. I agree with Gromozeka - if this is supposed to be irony, then you are hitting the wrong note. If you are really interested in such things, then read some Marx or Weber and get the terminology right! Otherwise I suggest you pass completely.

The idea of simply rolling back time and bringing the USSR, or even socialism back, is not realistic.
The most important thing is that people in Russia and the CIS countries get governments that are not corrupt and work to improve things for the population as a whole. The ideology is irrelevant, it's the results that count and there is no easy answer or solution. Anyway, the problem is common across the world.

Unfortunately in the world at large, things are moving in the exact opposite direction. Capitalism (large corporations, banks, media empire, defense industry) is getting increasingly greedy, corrupt and aggressive across the world and regular people are just pawns, at best. Traditional socialism never adapted itself to counteract modern capitalism. Socialism was "beaten" because it's opponent, capitalism, was more adaptive and more ruthless.