Comments on: Harry Harrison’s Response to the Pravda Piece

By: Schwingmann

Schwingmann — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:47:33 +0000

Ultimatly, the only history that matters is written by those that scurry about, collecting tid-bits of solid fact here and there,
In this case, our Mr Harrison is quite right, unfortunately, so are the furor’ers surrounding him, at that point in time, it was “really quite ok” to own other people, but, if you stop and think for a second, what is a wage slave?
Someone who cannot afford not to do a crappy job for crappy $$ per hour,
in effect, they are financial slaves, just as we have economic migrant workers. Perhaps we don’t quite have teleportation yet, but we have the next best thing: travel [for a price] to any point in the world, in a matter of days. and we are free to express our opinions in that part of the world as well.
How, that opinion will be decanted to the masses, however…

By: Paul Tomlinson

Paul Tomlinson — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:04:03 +0000

I’m happy to post anyone’s comments or opinions here – but let’s not start calling each other names, eh?

If anyone else refers to another comment or commenter as ’stupid’ I’ll just bin the comment…

Take the fights out into the playground, guys.

By: TheAdlerian

TheAdlerian — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:24:40 +0000

Andrea,

You don’t know your history or philosophy.

Tom was rich, but I’m sure he believed he got that way on his own. That’s the point, as opposed to inheriting wealth and being part of a “royal line” which is what the first Americans were against.

Don’t be so quick to react to a subject you know nothing about.

It’s stupid.

By: Andrea Harris

Andrea Harris — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:44:09 +0000

That should be an ending parentheses, by the way, not a smiley face. WordPress has these little problems.

By: Andrea Harris

Andrea Harris — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:43:38 +0000

“it’s an Aristocracy based on wealth”

Oh for chrissakes, that’s incredibly stupid. And for what it’s worth, Thomas Jefferson (only one of “the founding fathers”) was a plantation owner who also owned slaves, and who though always in debt (because plantations cost a lot of money to run) was considered quite wealthy.

By: Michael Swanwick

Michael Swanwick — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:17:23 +0000

Harry, I never doubted for an instant that you’d said various reasonable things which were deliberately distorted and manipulated. Slanted journalism is the same everywhere in the world.

Though the Pravda article was a particularly egregious example.

By: TheAdlerian

TheAdlerian — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:46:52 +0000

I’m a huge Harry fan, so he can express himself as he likes.

Really, the US isn’t fascist (which promotes one type of class) but instead it’s an Aristocracy based on wealth. The founding father, Jefferson especially, never intended for the US to have Paris Hiltons and Donald Trumps who inherit wealth and then pass it down to the next generation. That’s de facto royalty, and royalty is exactly what guys like Franklin couldn’t stand because it suppresses the development of bright but poor people.

It’s my theory that royalists subverted the American ideals before they could even get started.

By: Joe Iriarte

Joe Iriarte — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:01:52 +0000

I’m glad to know this. I was taken in by the original story when I saw it. I should have known better than to believe something I read only in Pravda.

By: Alan Dean Foster

Alan Dean Foster — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:37:22 +0000

Hi Harry;
I think most of us knew better. Pravda means truth, and Izvestia (the other big ol’ Russian paper) means News. And as the very old Russian saying goes, “There is no Pravda in Izvestia, and there is no Izvestia in Pravda” or in English “There is no truth in News, and there is no news in Truth.
‘Nuff said. Be well.