Γράφει σήμερα ο Φαληρεύς της Καθημερινής:
Υπάρχει το πολύ χρήσιμο κείμενο της Wikipedia:
Αντιγράφω το λήμμα από το Political Dictionary του William Safire:
«Βέβαια, το κείμενο μιλάει γι’ αυτό εξ απαλών ονύχων», είπε χθες ο Γιώργος, από το βήμα της Βουλής, και οι βουλευτές της αξιωματικής αντιπολίτευσης πιάσαν αμέσως την καζούρα. Ήθελε, προφανώς, να πει «ακροθιγώς» ή κάτι παρεμφερές, αλλά —τι να κάνουμε;— δεν έμαθε τα ελληνικά εξ απαλών ονύχων. Εδώ πού φθάσαμε, όμως, ελάχιστη σημασία πλέον έχουν αυτά. Ας μιλάει αλαμπουρνέζικα. Το θέμα είναι πώς θα γλιτώσουμε από το μέλλον που μαγειρεύουν η Αλέκα και ο Αλέξης, με τη συνδρομή εκείνων που ο Λένιν θεωρούσε «χρήσιμους ηλίθιους»...
Μέρες του Ίντερνετ είναι, καλό θα ήταν να μη βάζουμε τα λάθος λόγια στα λάθος στόματα. Ξέρουμε πια ότι οι useful idiots δεν υπάρχουν έτσι ακριβώς στα γραφτά του Λένιν.Υπάρχει το πολύ χρήσιμο κείμενο της Wikipedia:
In political jargon, the term useful idiot was used to describe Soviet sympathizers in Western countries and the attitude of the Soviet government towards them. The implication was that though the person in question naïvely thought themselves an ally of the Soviets or other Communists, they were actually held in contempt by them, and were being cynically used.
The term is now used more broadly to describe someone who is perceived to be manipulated by a political movement, terrorist group, hostile government, or business, whether or not the group is Communist in nature.
The term is commonly attributed to Lenin, sometimes in the form "useful idiots of the West", to describe those Western reporters and travelers who would endorse the Soviet Union and its policies in the West. In fact, the earliest known usage is in a 1948 New York Times article on Italian politics. In 1987, Grant Harris, senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress, said "We have not been able to identify this phrase [useful idiots of the West] among [Lenin's] published works."
The term is now used more broadly to describe someone who is perceived to be manipulated by a political movement, terrorist group, hostile government, or business, whether or not the group is Communist in nature.
The term is commonly attributed to Lenin, sometimes in the form "useful idiots of the West", to describe those Western reporters and travelers who would endorse the Soviet Union and its policies in the West. In fact, the earliest known usage is in a 1948 New York Times article on Italian politics. In 1987, Grant Harris, senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress, said "We have not been able to identify this phrase [useful idiots of the West] among [Lenin's] published works."
Αντιγράφω το λήμμα από το Political Dictionary του William Safire:
useful idiots of the West
Communist derogation of liberals, dubiously sourced to Lenin but later seized upon by hard-liners.
In 1987, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, interviewed in Business Week, derided “fellow travelers who support this [Soviet] propaganda effort in Western Europe. We call them ‘useful idiots.’” Also in that year, Zbigniew Brzezinski used “useful idiots of the West” in deriding “so-called notables who were convened as props for Gorbachev’s speech”; those foreign-affairs experts included former Secretaries of State Cyrus R. Vance and Henry A. Kissinger and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Jeane Kirkpatrick.
John Vinocur wrote in the International Herald Tribune: “Maarten van Traa, the Dutch Socialists’ international secretary, insists that the party is not playing the role of the useful idiots for the Russians, a phrase used by Lenin to describe left-liberals and Social Democrats.” The phrase has also been used about Central American politics, as in The New York Times headline “Lenin’s ‘Useful Idiots’ in Salvador.” Frequently attributed to Lenin, the phrase has not been found in any of his writings. Grant Harris, senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress, said, “We get queries on ‘useful idiots of the West’ all the time. We have not been able to identify this phrase among his published works.” Neither Tass, the Russian news agency, nor Communist Party headquarters in New York City can offer the source.
Harris suggested a source put forth by former Colgate Professor Albert Parry, who reviewed the 1966 book People and Portraits: A Tragic Cycle. That book was written by Yuri Annenkov, a painter who was commissioned by the Communist Party in 1921 to do a portrait of Lenin and who had access after Lenin’s death to the leader’s personal papers at the Lenin Institute in Moscow.
Here is Annenkov’s quote, taken supposedly from Lenin’s handwritten notes: “To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie’s aim. The whole world’s capitalists and their governments, as they pant to win the Soviet market, will close their eyes to the above-mentioned reality and will thus transform themselves into men who are deaf, dumb and blind. They will give us credits.... They will toil to prepare their own suicide.” (The italics, characteristic of Lenin’s style, are added from the Russian edition of Annenkov’s book.) To translate that into the English “useful idiots of the West” is quite a stretch. That last sentence, however, may be the source of another frequent Lenin attribution, “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them.”
The apocryphal useful idiots of the West quotation is more powerful than unwitting dupe, but less damaging than the outmoded fellow traveler or the discredited comsymp.
Communist derogation of liberals, dubiously sourced to Lenin but later seized upon by hard-liners.
In 1987, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, interviewed in Business Week, derided “fellow travelers who support this [Soviet] propaganda effort in Western Europe. We call them ‘useful idiots.’” Also in that year, Zbigniew Brzezinski used “useful idiots of the West” in deriding “so-called notables who were convened as props for Gorbachev’s speech”; those foreign-affairs experts included former Secretaries of State Cyrus R. Vance and Henry A. Kissinger and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Jeane Kirkpatrick.
John Vinocur wrote in the International Herald Tribune: “Maarten van Traa, the Dutch Socialists’ international secretary, insists that the party is not playing the role of the useful idiots for the Russians, a phrase used by Lenin to describe left-liberals and Social Democrats.” The phrase has also been used about Central American politics, as in The New York Times headline “Lenin’s ‘Useful Idiots’ in Salvador.” Frequently attributed to Lenin, the phrase has not been found in any of his writings. Grant Harris, senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress, said, “We get queries on ‘useful idiots of the West’ all the time. We have not been able to identify this phrase among his published works.” Neither Tass, the Russian news agency, nor Communist Party headquarters in New York City can offer the source.
Harris suggested a source put forth by former Colgate Professor Albert Parry, who reviewed the 1966 book People and Portraits: A Tragic Cycle. That book was written by Yuri Annenkov, a painter who was commissioned by the Communist Party in 1921 to do a portrait of Lenin and who had access after Lenin’s death to the leader’s personal papers at the Lenin Institute in Moscow.
Here is Annenkov’s quote, taken supposedly from Lenin’s handwritten notes: “To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie’s aim. The whole world’s capitalists and their governments, as they pant to win the Soviet market, will close their eyes to the above-mentioned reality and will thus transform themselves into men who are deaf, dumb and blind. They will give us credits.... They will toil to prepare their own suicide.” (The italics, characteristic of Lenin’s style, are added from the Russian edition of Annenkov’s book.) To translate that into the English “useful idiots of the West” is quite a stretch. That last sentence, however, may be the source of another frequent Lenin attribution, “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them.”
The apocryphal useful idiots of the West quotation is more powerful than unwitting dupe, but less damaging than the outmoded fellow traveler or the discredited comsymp.
