The Russians Are Coming

[poliphilo]

I grew up during the Cold War. I remember playing a game called "Russian spies" which involved talking in a silly voice and brandishing crayoned drawings of space rockets. My friend and I never could figure out what Russian spies actually did. It was fun drawing the space rockets but the rest of it palled very quickly.

So I've got this conditioning. Russia is the "Evil Empire"- all that Reaganite crap. 

But

When I was a little older I discovered the Russians had written the best books in the world. Later I found out they'd also made some of the best films.

AND they defeated Hitler.  Yes they did. We helped out at bit, but they were the ones who fought the biggest battles and took the biggest losses. 

So LJ is now owned by the Russians. 

Yes I know the President of Russia is a scary bloke. (So is  the President of the USA if you hadn't noticed.)

But he's less likely to want to kill us- right- now we're his customers.  

We live in a global economy. And in a global economy this is what happens. Russians also own Chelsea football club and much of London.
 
The shop's new owner has a funny accent. Get over it. 

A capitalist is a capitalist is a capitalist. Are you trying to tell me  Russian capitalists are intrinsically more evil than American capitalists? (Or British capitalists, or Australian capitalists). That's silly. Go read some history. 

Comments

Them Russians...

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

Over time we Americans became more like the Russians while they became more like us!
Back in the fifties we thought it deplorable that little Russian children as young as three years were farmed out to day nurseries so that their mothers could work. Today in my country they are popped into child care around six weeks of age. They are in "school" almost from birth until age 21 when they graduate from college. Since the philosophy of public education is aimed at building "citizens", then the kids today are being indoctrinated, not educated.
We thought it deplorable back then that Russian people were not free to speak as they felt. Meanwhile, here today we have PC, which dictates the words I may use or not use (Swear words are OK, but "mankind" is not).
Back in the sixties and seventies we became more socialistic in our US economy, and beginning in the eighties the Russians became more capitalistic. Interesting!
All I can do is hope that we do not switch roles completely because I really dont want to see us become they way they used to be. I also dont want them to become completely like us.
There were, by the way, some good things going on in Russia in those days, for example, any student with the ability to do the work could go to college at the expense of the State, and the gifted and talented could study ballet or music gratis. The poor of America could use some of that free higher education!
I'm with you. I love Russian novels. And the music of Russian composers. And the Russian ballet companies on tour in the US make our local ones pale by comparison.
I remember in the fifties when refugees came to the US - some of them attended school with me. They knew so much more about science and math and foreign language than I did, and their grades put us all to shame. It made me think that not everything was evil in the "evil empire".

Re: Them Russians...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The USA has a complex 18th century political system that was designed to keep too much power from being concentrated in the hands of any one person or clique. It's a great system but it's being put under a lot of pressure right now from You Know Who.

The Russians, on the other hand, are new to democracy. They only emerged from feudalism in the mid 19th century and spent much of the 20th century in the grip of one of the nastiest and most inefficient tyrannies the world has ever known. It seems there's very little to keep them reverting to autocracy.

I watch the progress of both great nations with my heart in my mouth.