Would any of ye have liked to live in a communist country?

mzungu

mzungu wrote: »

I think Communist propaganda has a lot to learn from Capitalist propaganda. In general, propaganda plays a huge role in most states. It comes in handy for stuff like patriotism, instilling a national identity, getting people to sign up for the army, getting people to buy expensive stuff they really don't need etc.

Absolutely. After all, what is advertising but the Art of Propaganda in Capitalism?

I have a vision of some far-off Communist regime holding an exhibition on Dior and Prada advertisements depicting the ideal Capitalist society.

BalcombeSt4

The Truth Man wrote: »

Plenty of Communist politicians in this country, PBP/AAA and Sinn Fein to name but 2 parties. If those guys ever get in charge we will see the full fruits of Communism!

The PBP & AAA are not communist parties. Sinn Fein is not a communist party although most of their MLAs & TDs describe themselves as democratic socialists.

The ICP, IRSP & Workers Party are communist partiies.

BalcombeSt4

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Just to talk about Communism again, what are people's opinions on propaganda?

We all know that nominally-Communist states have in the past disseminated propaganda among their own people, against the capitalists.

Do you believe that propaganda is limited to Communism, or even, all regimes except our own Capitalist regimes?

Genuine question.

Do people think they have an untainted awareness of 'the free world' as against the supposedly criminal despotisms of communism?

Is your opposition to communism real and well-considered, or just a knee-jerk reaction to the criticisms you hear of communism by self-titled captains of industry and political leaders who would lose under communism?

How many people know what communism is?

Look at Fox News for 10 minutes and tell me what you think.

Every system from Ancient Greece to the Incan Empire has used some sort of propaganda and other techniques of control and manipulation.

Greentopia

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I'm living and working in Frankfurt at the moment. Quite a few of my colleagues would have grown up living in East Germany. It sounds like an appalling place to have grown up. Even worse than rural East Galway. At least we had the Commodore 64 and no threat of being wrenched out of school because Dad spoke ill about the Government over tea break.

Even today you can spot the former East German in the wider German society. It's especially true if they have made some money. A propensity towards vulgar looking Swiss watches set with diamonds and gold, low end Italian supercars, a second home in the French riviera.

My fiancee is from Thuringia, which was in the former GDR. He has his own successful business in Stuttgart but no vulgar consumer trinkets or second home in the Riviera I can assure you (wouldn't be with him if he was into that crap).
So please don't paint them all with the same brush mmkay?

He said the GDR wasn't such a bad place to live actually and has happy childhood memories growing up there. So long as you worked hard and kept your head down you had a reasonable standard of living with guaranteed healthcare, education and housing for everyone and no unemployment, no homelessness and they had a strong sense of solidarity and community where people looked out for each other. They didnt have the shiny baubles of capitalism but they had enough to eat, good standard of housing and all their basic material needs were met. Of course it had it's faults too as we all know. Lack of being able to travel and the oppressive police State being major ones.

One thing I'll say-I've been in Stuttgart many times now and met the friends he's had since childhood who also moved West after the fall of the wall and I find them and other 'Ossies' to be generally kinder, more friendly and have more time for people than those brought up in the West.

And my fiancee says that while he may have more materially now that doesn't mean he's any happier than what his life was like in the East because happiness is based not on material wealth but on the values I mentioned that he shared with those in his community, and those are ones which no longer really exist in the capitalist Germany of today. The GDR was a much more equal society and extensive studies have shown that happiness is greatest for people in societies that are more equal-the book 'The Spirit Level' and other research has shown that to be the case.

There's another side to life in the old GDR than is told to us in the media which a lot of people like him miss despite the controls and restrictions they experienced.

Greentopia

seamus wrote: »

Brutalist architecture is ugly as sin as well as being really depressing, but hundreds of thousands of these things went up all over the world, and a ridiculous amount of them in the soviet union. .

Certainly is ugly, and you don't need to go to Eastern Europe to see it, there's enough examples of it in this country... I had a conversation with a friend of mine (English chap, retired architect) and he pointed out a prime example of it across the river in Arklow-the hideous shopping centre there :pac:, and there's a lot more like it around the country that were built in the bubble.

BalcombeSt4

BalcombeSt4 wrote: »

Look at Fox News for 10 minutes and tell me what you think.

I agree, although I think it's more ingrained and deep-rooted than Fox. Fox News is a very obvious example of Capitalist propaganda.

Consumerism, the cult of freedom, and the elevated status of private property, and the liberal refrain of "human rights!" have blinded most people from the capacity to see the sadistic nihilism of capitalism, and an inability to engage with alternative ways of thinking.

If you ask the man on the street how many people have been killed in the name of communism he'll say 'oh, millions'. You ask him how many hundreds of millions have been killed in the name of capitalism, and he won't know what you're talking about.