Comments on: Twenty Years of Post Communism http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/twenty-years-of-post-communism/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:12:24 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Michael Kenny http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/twenty-years-of-post-communism/#comment-39840 Michael Kenny Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:11:32 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6991#comment-39840 I don't think I seriously disagree with anything Dr Koecher says. I would just add that I have always viewed the Czechs as West Europeans, not Central Europeans, like the other Visegrad countries. To me, the Czechs are Germans who speak a Slavic language! More interesting, perhaps, are three common American (if Mr Werbowski will forgive me!) prejudices which frequently falsify US perceptions of Europe, all of which Dr Koecher scotched (czeched?). First, the Czech-Slovak split. Americans, particularly on the left, always assume that nothing happens in this world which is not brought about by some dastardly plot on the part of the US government, which has manoeuvred the poor, naïve "natives" into doing something they don't want to do. They idea that the Czechs and Slovaks, or, for that matter, the peoples of the ex-Soviet Union or ex-Yugoslavia, might actually have wanted to split up boggles their minds! As does the idea that no one could stop them getting back together in the future if they were so minded. Second, Americans of all political persuasions always assume that only they have individual opinions and that, in every other country, people are just a mass who follow their leaders blindly. Hence the odd question pre-supposing that Czechs are "hostile" to the EU, which seems to be based on nothing other than the anti-EU pronouncements of their figurehead president. Finally, nostalgia for the old days. The American left is still largely in denial regarding the utterly corrupt and essentially non-ideological of the communist edifice and always assume that no one would willing give up such a "wonderful" system and, even sillier, that any great number of them are dying to get back to it. Nostalgia is a natural human sentiment, but nostalgia for this or that bit of the past is one thing, wanting to go back to the past (which is reaction, not nostalgia), or even believing that it is possible, is quite another. Equally, with every year that passes, some of those who remember life under the dictatorship die of old age. You might take a flight in a DC3 out of nostalgia, but would be happy if US air carriers were still operating DC3s in everyday service? I don’t think I seriously disagree with anything Dr Koecher says. I would just add that I have always viewed the Czechs as West Europeans, not Central Europeans, like the other Visegrad countries. To me, the Czechs are Germans who speak a Slavic language!

More interesting, perhaps, are three common American (if Mr Werbowski will forgive me!) prejudices which frequently falsify US perceptions of Europe, all of which Dr Koecher scotched (czeched?). First, the Czech-Slovak split. Americans, particularly on the left, always assume that nothing happens in this world which is not brought about by some dastardly plot on the part of the US government, which has manoeuvred the poor, naïve “natives” into doing something they don’t want to do. They idea that the Czechs and Slovaks, or, for that matter, the peoples of the ex-Soviet Union or ex-Yugoslavia, might actually have wanted to split up boggles their minds! As does the idea that no one could stop them getting back together in the future if they were so minded.

Second, Americans of all political persuasions always assume that only they have individual opinions and that, in every other country, people are just a mass who follow their leaders blindly. Hence the odd question pre-supposing that Czechs are “hostile” to the EU, which seems to be based on nothing other than the anti-EU pronouncements of their figurehead president.

Finally, nostalgia for the old days. The American left is still largely in denial regarding the utterly corrupt and essentially non-ideological of the communist edifice and always assume that no one would willing give up such a “wonderful” system and, even sillier, that any great number of them are dying to get back to it. Nostalgia is a natural human sentiment, but nostalgia for this or that bit of the past is one thing, wanting to go back to the past (which is reaction, not nostalgia), or even believing that it is possible, is quite another. Equally, with every year that passes, some of those who remember life under the dictatorship die of old age. You might take a flight in a DC3 out of nostalgia, but would be happy if US air carriers were still operating DC3s in everyday service?

]]>