"Lawrence H. Bulk" wrote in message
...

Information and education were really what brought down the
communists. I met some individuals from Czechoslovakia and Hungary
during the "cold war" and while they had some potent arguments for the
merits of their system, their failings, once exposed to them and to
their people, outweighed any advantages their system might have
offered. Once their people really knew about the outside world, they
themselves brought down their governments and their failed system.


OK, you're right about that. The propaganda war was central to the success
of the conatainment strategy. I've no doubt that, had the communists
actually been able to entirely close off and censor their countries, they
could have created their own dark age.

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the
others."

Were the communists a scourge of mankind? Of course they were
(20,000,000 Russians killed by Stalin, among other atrocities), but
their system at least started out with some noble purpose. It just
worked out exactly the opposite of what its founders envisioned.

Well, the Bolsheviks lost their moral superiority, probably sometime before
they decided to murder the Czar's family. But that's the sort of thing true
believers will do.

The Communists, at least at the start, were every bit as much a bunch of
true believers as the Christians during the Dark Ages or as the fanatic
Muslims are now.

But the real evil of true believer orthodoxy is the limitation of people's
choices. Life is unpredictable, even for people we like to think are
"smart". Let a religion or party choose the one true path, and that path
will certainly end up being wrong. But those in charge of the true path
will never blame their doctrine, they'll blame the people.


(This is a poor point here in this argument, but how many Americans
[native, black, etc.] have been killed with the tacit acceptance of
the government?)

I don't know the number. But influential people dehuminized Blacks and
Indians, and the government followed along. The shame is these people
didn't get Constitutional protection from the get go.



The "religious" broacasters have no noble purpose. Just MONEY.

That depends which religious broadcasters you're talking about. There's a
large number of standard theology evangalists on the radio. I think the
style and content of EWTN's broadcasts are somewhat similiar in character
and tone to the some of the calmer old propaganda broadcasts. The Christian
Scientists run their newspaper and ran thier SW station as part of their
religious mission.

However, guys like Brother Stair get most of the attention. And while I
certainly believe Brother Stair is an old reprobate con-artist, I can't
prove it.



That's hardly unique to religion. Fool/Money/Parted.

But these "religious" broadcasters prey (no pun intended) on it. That
is their sole (again, no pun ...) reason for existence.


But people have the choice! And it's never been easier to do the research.



They are very entertaining!!

Maybe they give you a good laugh but I can tell you that, among other
things, they are ruining the shortwave hobby


They are adding to the hobby. The religious broadcasters do sell radios and
add listeners. The programs may feature a different sort of propaganda, but
none of these programs are forcing any of the old line broadcasters to go
away.


(as well as being
inherently evil).


The extreme religious broadcasters may very well be evil. But, again, we
have plenty of choices. A theocracy, or other government of true believers,
would be far more evil.


I have given shortwave receivers as gifts to four
individuals, three youngsters and one adult. I have shown them how to
use these radios, as much as one can do in an hour or two. After a
month or somewhat more, they all had the same complaint: nothing but
"religious" shows on shortwave. Sure I tell them where to tune, but
the complaint persists. No shortwave converts here. Regardless of what
anyone says or even believes, this ("religious" broadcasts), more than
anything else I can think of, is very damaging to the hobby, in my
opinion.

I doubt more than 5% of the public ever cared for SW radio, and the interest
probably peaked in the prewar, preTV era. Is there any reason to think that
your friends would have any interest in SW, no matter what the programming?
After all, Radio Nederland and the BBC, among others, can still be heard
most of the time.

Shortwave broadcasting has gone through several changes in the US. Ignoring
the spark era, the first broadcast era was centered around several domestic
SW stations, most of which simulcast programming from a local station. The
propaganda era started with WW2 and started decling with the fall of the
Berlin Wall. Now we're in the religious broadcaster era. It seems likely
that the small number of listeners from one era would find another one a
disapointment. For example, a prewar listener who liked hearing local radio
content from across the country might very well find the propaganda
broadcasters annoying. Why not, that's not what got him into the hobby!
And the hobby never had much appeal to most people anyway.



These hucksters are not interested in shortwave, or even,
again in my opinion, in true religious beliefs. They only want MONEY!


Maybe. Let's be glad they can't be theocrats.



Sorry for the diatribe, but I really feel strongly about this. I love
listening to the shortwaves for the fun of it (there is still
something magical about it that the internet can never replace) and
for the information it brings about countries that I shall never have
the opportunity to visit. Are the opinions biased? Certainly they are,
but all human opinions are biased in one way or another. At least
these foreign broadcasts have mostly a decent purpose behind them,
whether or not you believe in their system

The purpose wasn't entirely decent, at least in the case of the communist
propaganda broadcasters. I'm sure they employed decent people, but they
were there to put a pleasant face on a bad system. A system which would put
the world into a Dark Age of orthodoxy every bit as stifleing as the ones
the theocrats cooked up.


(I have no use whatsoever
for Fidel Castro, but look at the record: he has outlasted nine US
presidents [and who knows, he may outlast George W. Bush]. If there
have been any assassination attempts by his own people against him, I
am unaware of them. (Of course they wouldn't make that a headline on
Radio Havana!) You and I don't like him, all the refugees don't
either, but maybe some of his people do!


No doubt, and they can go straight to Walterboro if their current bearded
guru kicks the bucket!


I have just as much contempt for the "religious" broadcasters as I do
for Castro.

Castro's worse. He limits choices to keep himself in power, including the
ultimate limitations of the prision and the firing squad.

Brother Stair says "If you don't believe me, stop listening!!"

Again my apologies. You certainly have every right to believe the way
you do (and you don't need my "permission" to do so).

Nothing to apologize for!

Lawrence

Frank Dresser