The Soviets and Berlin; Things I Wish I Learned In School

[Shiranu]

Today in shit I wish they taught in school...



When people say today is the most peaceful period in human history... it's insane to think just how much worse it was within my parent's life time, in the country my (adopted) father fled from and then fought against when it was Hitler's, and then was powerless to watch it be raped and oppressed by the Soviets and Stalin.

If anything, watching this has just hardened my resolve that we cannot give into fear of the "others", or hatred of them, because it could both be so much worse and it also leads to situations exactly like this.


(Though I will say it makes it even harder to not hate Putin's Russia, particularly knowing he was part of the KGB in East Germany)... but I understand the average Russian really has no power against Putin or his regime.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Wait, you mean that we shouldn't want to get along great with Putin and Russia the way Old Donny boy wants us to?  After all, we can take him for his word..
Yeah, things can be much worse than they are now and when I hear people say that we should trust Russia because Trump does it becomes a real head scratcher.. The history revisionists are hard at work trying to rewrite the whole bloody mess to be just a little booboo..

Here's an interesting site written by a woman who grew up in Ukraine under the Soviet regime. http://www.sras.org/once_upon_a_time_in_eastern_europe_memoirs_of_a_soviet_child
It's not so much political as it is her memories as a child..

[Cavebear]

I think we now have a troubling world where the Russian Govt is autocratic (President for Life) Putin, the Chinese govt is autocratic (they just eliminated term limits so Xi Jinping is President for Life, and Trump wants to follow their pattern by being a US Autocrat for 8 years (at least).

[Baruch]

I think we now have a troubling world where the Russian Govt is autocratic (President for Life) Putin, the Chinese govt is autocratic (they just eliminated term limits so Xi Jinping is President for Life, and Trump wants to follow their pattern by being a US Autocrat for 8 years (at least).

Kennedy family, Bush family, Clinton family shows that we are the USSA.

[Cavebear]

Kennedy family, Bush family, Clinton family shows that we are the USSA.

No individual Kennedy, Bush or Clinton ever tried for a third term nor would have gotten one.  And none ever suggested being "President For Life.  Trump, however, referred to Putin and China's Xi Jinping as "good examples"

"He's now president for life. President for life. And he's great," Trump said, according to a recording obtained by CNN (and broadcast on Fox News). "I think it's great. Maybe we'll give that a shot someday."

If you think that is a great idea, say so.

[Baruch]

Exactly.  And Trump did just say that.  So are we being trolled by Trump or not?  The Elite aren't like you or me, they consider themselves CEOs of Planet Inc.  Globalism will end in tears, that much pr126 is right about.  Megalomania always ends in tears.

[pr126]

Megalomania always ends in tears.

And mountains of corpses.

[Baruch]

And mountains of corpses.

You have to break a few eggs, and heads to make a megalomaniac omelette.  Only a crazy person wants to be a national leader (so why do we vote for them?).

[Cavebear]

Globalism will end in tears, that much pr126 is right about. 

As we went from families to clans, to tribes, to villages to cities to city-states everyone decried the change as "The end of civilization as we know it".  Well it was, but that doesn't mean things got worse.  Died of measles or smallpox lately?  Starved to death?  Got killed by a lion?  Seen a WW lately? You get the point, I hope.  Globalism betters all slowly...

[Baruch]

As we went from families to clans, to tribes, to villages to cities to city-states everyone decried the change as "The end of civilization as we know it".  Well it was, but that doesn't mean things got worse.  Died of measles or smallpox lately?  Starved to death?  Got killed by a lion?  Seen a WW lately? You get the point, I hope.  Globalism betters all slowly...

I wish you were right.  I used to believe that.  But my estimate of human nature has ... crashed.

[SGOS]

I wish you were right.  I used to believe that.  But my estimate of human nature has ... crashed.

I don't think the "era of peace" that we are now in is all that unique.  Mankind must of had other generations of peace from time to time.  Sure there were skirmishes and mini wars, just like we see during every administration today.  I don't think a century of so called "peace" is enough to establish a historical pattern, and while I have lived my short life through very good times, at least in my part of the world, I certainly don't get any impression things are getting better.  As it says on your quarterly stock prospectus, "Past Performance Is Not Indicative Of Future Results."  While it might be peaceful today, the last century has experienced more violence and devastation than ever before.  Historians can argue that with me, and they might be right, but I'll never be convinced that worse things have happened than what we went through a mere 70 years ago, that's one lifetime, part of which I can actually remember, and there is nothing about the period of wound licking I've seen in the last 70 years that makes believe it will lead to more peace.  We are poised for disaster, and too many people yearn for it, and the rest of us aren't clever enough to stop it.

[Cavebear]

I wish you were right.  I used to believe that.  But my estimate of human nature has ... crashed.

Yes that is obvious from most everything you post.  You are convinced "the end times" have come and God is the only way out to salvation.   Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...  But I don't agree.  We "apes" as you like to call us are the best survivors so far and we aren't going to die off all that easily, in spite of what your beliefs desire. 

[Baruch]

Yes that is obvious from most everything you post.  You are convinced "the end times" have come and God is the only way out to salvation.   Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...  But I don't agree.  We "apes" as you like to call us are the best survivors so far and we aren't going to die off all that easily, in spite of what your beliefs desire.

Sorry, Agenda 21 and Club of Rome are ... globalist agendas.  I will leave organized destruction of civilization to them.  And no, you project.  I don't envisage any redemption of mankind.  We are irredeemable by nature.  There is no after-life either.  Just Sheol (the grave) for us individually and collectively.  Human history will in the end, prove to be a total waste of time.

[Cavebear]

Sorry, Agenda 21 and Club of Rome are ... globalist agendas.  I will leave organized destruction of civilization to them.  And no, you project.  I don't envisage any redemption of mankind.  We are irredeemable by nature.  There is no after-life either.  Just Sheol (the grave) for us individually and collectively.  Human history will in the end, prove to be a total waste of time.

Your conspiracy theories are bothe boring and unfactual. 

Aside from that, I feel sorry for you regarding "we are irredeemable by nature".  I have hope in the resilience of us "apes" (as you like to refer to humans).  Too many philosophers have predicted the end of human civilization in the past and been wrong. 

[Baruch]

Your conspiracy theories are bothe boring and unfactual. 

Aside from that, I feel sorry for you regarding "we are irredeemable by nature".  I have hope in the resilience of us "apes" (as you like to refer to humans).  Too many philosophers have predicted the end of human civilization in the past and been wrong.

Well, a prediction of extinction will be wrong, until the day after it happens.  And redemption is a religious idea, not a secular idea.