dagblog - Comments for "The Big Lie - How to Enslave the World"

Further thoughts on this one:

Orion — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 13:24:19 +0000

In reply to The Big Lie - How to Enslave the World

Further thoughts on this one:

Numerous communities, from families to ethnic groups to nations, have a "Big Lie" or two that seems to force them together. There's usually always a scapegoat, along with hostile outsiders who somehow caused a problem that obviously exists from inside. The lie exists to bind together peoples who would otherwise go their own way. Eventually there is a conflict over such a lie, often brought on by doubt.

The Soviet Union is a useful example here because it's a lie that gained a lot of steam and failed. Nazi Germany is useful as an example to a lesser extent.

I am sure that with the above statement resonated with people who read it with another example and it's up to your perspective what that example would be. It is possible that many groups do this in order to keep themselves in check.

(No subject)

Orion — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 20:29:23 +0000

In reply to Seems naive - leaders have

Seems naive - leaders have

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 14:48:00 +0000

In reply to The Big Lie - How to Enslave the World

Seems naive - leaders have always lied as needed - not just "totalitarian" ones. The lie of Communism wasn't so much whether Communism would work - that was an experiment. It was lying about the results, the lack of success or utter atrocity in so many areas. Of course Havel's experience or missed 5-year plans wasn't near as bad as those under Beria's reign of terror or caught up in the Holodomor, or the 10s of millions killed in the "Great Leap Forward" and "Cultural Revolution". And the lies that "Fellow Travellers" accepted, willingly suspending disbelief.

As for Solzhenitsyn, much of his fame came from helping erase the Stalin years if he'd tried publishing in the 50s - even after the first years after Stalin's death - he would have been censored like Pasternak (Zhivago):

As a result of the Khrushchev Thaw, Solzhenitsyn was released and exonerated, and he returned to the Christian faith of his childhood and pursued writing novels about repressions in the Soviet Union and his experiences. He published his first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in 1962, with approval from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, which was an account of Stalinist repressions.

Like with the Prague Spring, Russian opening was closed in the late 60s, so Solzhenitsyn went into exile in the US, likely having more of an effect on US audiences than Russian. Whether Solzhenitsyn's conservative religious bent fits this video's thesis is another issue.