Episode 198: Mirage Fighter

Talk about being misunderstood!: Artur London was one of the 11 most misunderstood men in the world, at least at the end of 1951. London was a defendant in the Slansky Trial, a "show trial" under Joseph Stalin. After suffering the most inhuman torture and brainwashing, London was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes not one of which he had come 10,000 light years close to committing. Later on, Arthur London was released, rehabilitated; and now they name streets after him. Arthur London said that his life's struggle was to differentiate between the essence of an ideal, and the form in which that ideal had taken shape politically -- a debased and wicked form, it turns out. London also said that being a Communist in a Soviet prison was like being a Christian tortured by the Spanish Inquisition. Christians, like Communists, could only survive, and persist, if they clearly separated the Thing Signified from the Sign -- the Substance from the Form. Good luck, Arthur! How'd it work for you, Paul? Way to go, Czech Communist Party. That's the way (O Mother Church)/ I Like It (KC & The Sunshine Band)