Saturday, October 13, 2007

I don't mind it when this blog inspires discussion, conversation, argument.

But the previous post is too fragile for any of it.

So I'm moving Elmer's comment here - feel free to discuss whether I could have meant that "the commies were not fascists" or any other such crap. Thank you.

8:06 AM, October 13, 2007

Elmer wrote:

Well, Neeka, I don't mean to spoil your melancholy mood, or if you like Duke Ellington, your Mood Indigo, but one thing contained in your write-up just about punched me in the face - the reference to fascists.

My immediate reaction - "you mean the commies were not fascists?"

Charles Aznavour certainly had his day in the limelight all over the world. So did Maurice Chevalier. The Marx brothers did a great spoof of Maurice Chevalier in one of their movies ("If a nightingale could sing like you...")

Hang on to those tapes and that old equipment. These days you can transcribe those old tapes onto CD or DVD - what a great keepsake and memoir.

Fascists - interesting.

6 comments:

  1. I'm not even sure that this comment is worth responding to, but...

    As I understand it the term "fascist" in Russian refers to the Axis powers in WWII, usually more specifically Germany, or any Nazi or neo-Nazi ideology.

    When used in English, it seems to mean "anyone we think is evil".

    Both of which are historically inaccurate; the latter more than the former.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There has never been a communist state as Marx envisioned in "Das Kapital" . This was to be the inevitable conclusion of modernization of capitalist then socialist states. Basically, he envisioned automation comprising the "means of production" so that everyone could do any or nothing they want.

    This might happen someday but both Germany and the USSR were simply horrific and genocidal socialist dicatatorships...with the Nazis only hoping to achieve the depravity of the Soviets - who killed 100 million in the last century

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elmer,
    I don't know where you're from, but I grew up in NY, and vividly recall the Cold War propaganda we were exposed to. When a Russian girl appeared in my 3rd grade class, 30 years ago, I was terrified of her. I truely believed that she was out to get all of us. She had to be an EVIL Communist.

    Maybe you're fortunate enough to have missed all the indoctrinization. If you had experienced it or had any knowledge of Soviet history, you would have realized that Neeka was not making a political statement here. She was just recounting how she has a tape of herself singing propaganda that she learned in school about the FASCIST enemy and the HEROIC COMMUNIST girl who would not betray her comrades.

    Neeka was just sharing warm memories of her childhood and showing how much she appreciated her dad's recordings of her. I have no idea why you had to interrupt her lovely musings with
    this non sequitur.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think that this is an example of how easy it is to take stuff written on the internet the wrong way.

    Elmer was wrong and, perhaps because of some polemical excesses in the past, his comment may have been taken the wrong way...

    I'd just listen to the other commentors and be a lot more charitable in the future(especially on this blog), Elmer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lily,

    "When a Russian girl appeared in my 3rd grade class, 30 years ago, I was terrified of her. I truely believed that she was out to get all of us. She had to be an EVIL Communist. "

    She was an evil communist and perhaps still is in many respects- the soviet way of thinking is morally bankrupt and thats why the Russian Mafia in NY is worse than the Italian one. Its a way of thinking that is very difficult to outgrow. Read Banfield and his thoughts on the moral basis of societies.

    Why do you take communism so lightly?

    And what part of "The Kremlin/communists killed 100 million in the last century" do you not understand?

    ReplyDelete
  6. OMG.

    Here comes another one who set out to help Ukrayina - but forgot to take his meds.

    ReplyDelete