Another socialist blog

Since the flags continue to fly at half-staff in memory of Ronald Reagan, it’s worth showing you this piece by Isaac Asimov on the subject of the Reagan Doctrine. Asimov dissects Reagan’s infamous comment, regarding the Soviet Union, that “No one who disbelieves in God and in an afterlife can possibly be trusted.”

If this is true (and it must be if the president says so), then people are just naturally dishonest and crooked and downright rotten. In order to keep them from lying and cheating every time they open their mouths, they must be bribed or scared out of doing so….

It’s a little depressing, if you come to think of it. By the Reagan Doctrine, there is no such thing as a person who keeps his word just because he has a sense of honor. No one tells the truth just because he thinks that it is the decent thing to do. No one is kind because he feels sympathy for others, or treats others decently because he likes the kind of world in which decency exists.

Reagan’s supporters did not think it strange then, and do not think it strange now, that a habitual liar would lecture us on whom we should trust.