2005-03-06 01:58:20.795024+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments
Why am I dubious that attempts to bring political change to a nation from outside of it can work? Half of Russians view Stalin in a positive light. Governments, especially dictatorships, are illusions in the mind of the governed.
[ related topics: Politics moron Sociology ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2005-03-07 17:40:23.787592+00 by: jeff [edit history]
Could this same phenomenon and philosophy be applied to many of Bush's implicit Neocon constituents in the "Red States?"
#Comment Re: made: 2005-03-07 17:45:24.631077+00 by: Dan Lyke
[Dan stuffs his fingers in his ears] "la la la I can't hear you la la la..."
I'm developing this theory about charisma versus effect, and... well... I'm not liking where the train of thought is going.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-03-07 19:12:45.645257+00 by: petronius
A one question poll like this isn't very useful. How old were these people? Did any of them have relatives who went to the GULAG? Of course, Stalin has been dead for half a century, and few who actually remember him are left alive. I also wonder how much Russian history lessons dwell on the bad old days, or if, instead, they jump right from Lenin to the Great Patriotic War to Yuri Gagarin. The Japanese certainly don't teach their children about the Batann Death March or the Rape of Nanking. The late Iris Chang couldn't publish her Nanking book in Japan because of the attacks by Japanese rightists. I should be very surprised if open disussion on the Purges, the Yezhovshina or other atrocities is encouraged, particularly in the newly authoritarian Putin republic.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-03-08 03:22:21.658924+00 by: Larry Burton
I'd just like to know what the US attitudes are toward Nixon.
#Comment Your premise, Dan, made: 2005-03-10 03:53:02.086971+00 by: baylink
is precisely the reason why the Founding Fathers tried *so hard* to protect us from ourselves in the way they structured the government.