Great piece. One of the things I've seen, though, is a re-definition of kindness. Which then will very likely lead to regulations about it, and persecution in the name of social order. Lots of folks running around saying "be kind" rarely are. It becomes another behavioral blanket enforcement process.
My parents are Polish and I ended up living in Poland for a few years. It was 8 years after the fall of communism.
If you were applying to university during the communist era, you would get bonus points on your admission exam that rewarded your “social origin” and/or what your parents did (eg were military). They would also reserve a percentage of spots for the preferred classes. Sound familiar?
Within a couple of generations Poland’s top institutions were full of incompetent, resentful people. As in the article, they also enjoyed special privileges that were not extended to the common citizen, and instead flaunted.
A similar approach was applied when allocating housing and cars - both were in short supply.
Many people had money, but there was nothing to buy, so it was effectively worthless.
Communism promised “beauty” as they were not focused on money like greedy capitalists. When I was living there, there was a lot of ugly and a lot of environmental disregard. When I visited this past spring, things are much different. It’s the “greedy capitalists” that introduced new, interesting architecture, art and cleaned up the environment.
They promised equality, but what they delivered was a hierarchy that was reorganized. The loyal party members were at the top, the intellectuals were executed (Katin massacre). Being “special” was disincentivized. “Everyone” earned the same salary… so nobody bothered to distinguish themselves. Many just drank. There was a rhyme in Polish, translated: “Whether you stand or whether you lie down, two thousand is owed to you.”
It took 30 years for Poland to recover from the damage caused by communism on the Polish psyche. Prior to that, it took 40 years of struggle to liberate itself from Communism.
"... Within a couple of generations Poland’s top institutions were full of incompetent, resentful people."
Thank you for your account here. On the surface, it looks like societal suicide. But I'm confident the orchestrators knew exactly what they were doing, as unseen real power always fills the apparent vacuum, while the lack of sunlight feeds their worst impulses and excesses, vs the needs of the population. Otherwise, when a power vacuum does not get filled, the structure literally crumbles and is overtly taken over instead.
I won't name names how this (currently of a lower-grade variety) already occurs in the U.S. except to say that it now occurs everywhere, and has been growing over the decades. Among elected officials it has nothing to do with the supposed party affiliation, except to keep the charades plausible.
Just curious if you know about the 20th century Catholic Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen who was considered the foremost authority on Communism in his time?
"First, Lao She did not commit suicide; that is a Taiwan fabrication. Second, his suicide can easily be explained by his bourgeois mentality. Third, in any case, the episode is pointless, so why harp on it?
"In other words: that didn't happen, it's good that it did, and why are you so obsessed with it? Western activists and ideologues still use versions of this tactic today."
Exactly. This is just one of the playbooks for the sophistry that I see as harder at work today in the U.S. than it ever has been. It's well beyond activists and ideologues, it's infesting government, schools, the media, and far more. Compared to what I recall of the truth battles of my youth many decades ago, lying has effectively been normalized. I consider *the* most important single issue of the modern West, yet so few acknowledge it as a foundational problem.
Spot on. The “party” leaders of today, over educated elites, desire to be the leaders on the new regime. While talking about equality, the way they live and will rule is quite the opposite.
Great piece. One of the things I've seen, though, is a re-definition of kindness. Which then will very likely lead to regulations about it, and persecution in the name of social order. Lots of folks running around saying "be kind" rarely are. It becomes another behavioral blanket enforcement process.
Fantastic article!
My parents are Polish and I ended up living in Poland for a few years. It was 8 years after the fall of communism.
If you were applying to university during the communist era, you would get bonus points on your admission exam that rewarded your “social origin” and/or what your parents did (eg were military). They would also reserve a percentage of spots for the preferred classes. Sound familiar?
Within a couple of generations Poland’s top institutions were full of incompetent, resentful people. As in the article, they also enjoyed special privileges that were not extended to the common citizen, and instead flaunted.
A similar approach was applied when allocating housing and cars - both were in short supply.
Many people had money, but there was nothing to buy, so it was effectively worthless.
Communism promised “beauty” as they were not focused on money like greedy capitalists. When I was living there, there was a lot of ugly and a lot of environmental disregard. When I visited this past spring, things are much different. It’s the “greedy capitalists” that introduced new, interesting architecture, art and cleaned up the environment.
They promised equality, but what they delivered was a hierarchy that was reorganized. The loyal party members were at the top, the intellectuals were executed (Katin massacre). Being “special” was disincentivized. “Everyone” earned the same salary… so nobody bothered to distinguish themselves. Many just drank. There was a rhyme in Polish, translated: “Whether you stand or whether you lie down, two thousand is owed to you.”
It took 30 years for Poland to recover from the damage caused by communism on the Polish psyche. Prior to that, it took 40 years of struggle to liberate itself from Communism.
"... Within a couple of generations Poland’s top institutions were full of incompetent, resentful people."
Thank you for your account here. On the surface, it looks like societal suicide. But I'm confident the orchestrators knew exactly what they were doing, as unseen real power always fills the apparent vacuum, while the lack of sunlight feeds their worst impulses and excesses, vs the needs of the population. Otherwise, when a power vacuum does not get filled, the structure literally crumbles and is overtly taken over instead.
I won't name names how this (currently of a lower-grade variety) already occurs in the U.S. except to say that it now occurs everywhere, and has been growing over the decades. Among elected officials it has nothing to do with the supposed party affiliation, except to keep the charades plausible.
Rob,
Just curious if you know about the 20th century Catholic Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen who was considered the foremost authority on Communism in his time?
"First, Lao She did not commit suicide; that is a Taiwan fabrication. Second, his suicide can easily be explained by his bourgeois mentality. Third, in any case, the episode is pointless, so why harp on it?
"In other words: that didn't happen, it's good that it did, and why are you so obsessed with it? Western activists and ideologues still use versions of this tactic today."
Exactly. This is just one of the playbooks for the sophistry that I see as harder at work today in the U.S. than it ever has been. It's well beyond activists and ideologues, it's infesting government, schools, the media, and far more. Compared to what I recall of the truth battles of my youth many decades ago, lying has effectively been normalized. I consider *the* most important single issue of the modern West, yet so few acknowledge it as a foundational problem.
Spot on. The “party” leaders of today, over educated elites, desire to be the leaders on the new regime. While talking about equality, the way they live and will rule is quite the opposite.