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<p>Hello<br>
<br>
Eleonore wrote: "My anecdote was in response to Rasa, to highlight
that there are multiple perspectives and modalities for cultural
appropriation (and rejection)".<br>
<br>
With this war, we have landed in the situation, where its not
anymore that easy to play with "multiple perspectives and
modalities" before the ground is not clear and stable enough,
before we are not on the same page.. <br>
I wrote already, in this situation there are only clearly two
sides - either supporting Ukraine or being pro-Putin, there
doesn't exist democratic "multiple perspectives and modalities" in
this case as we don't deal with democratic country...<br>
<br>
And your anecdote just shows that there are many misleading ideas
around.. this is what I wrote in my reply to Heath: the problem is
that most of the marxist-communist-thinking people in the West
(who have read bit too much of French and Russian philosophy or
literature) today have to revise their theories, notions and
realise finally they have been following the wrong dreams
(nightmares, trust me...).<br>
<br>
So it's now your turn, dear people living in UK, and other wealthy
Western countries, to put some effort in changing your thinking,
your perspectives, and before joining the funny May day parades,
and reading 100 years old authors (who have no clue how the
communism works in real life), or listen 92 years old capitalism
critics (such as Chomsky) please re-think twice before you write
something that naive as comparing America's Disney's land
"propaganda" with Russia's aggressive invasion targeting
civilians, killing children, raping women in Ukraine, which is
happening there everyday.<br>
<br>
So why not, please do so - change your way of thinking, finally!
Please be so empathetic that you at least pretend to do so - for a
sake of Ukraine's disaster... We, people here in Eastern Europe
are used to switch our perspectives constantly, we have done it so
many times that we now even cannot answer a simple question: "and
how is your tradition (e.g. in Latvia) with the education, for
example?" I am sorry, there is no such thing as "our way or our
tradition!" we have been listening for almost 30 years British
experts, we have learned from the most amazing Finnish school
experience, and we have adapted exams from German "abitur", we
have been trying hard, and still are one of the most poor
countries in EU,<br>
BUT - I wouldn't call it "colonising", and never ever would even
think of going back to anything similar that was once called "the
Soviet Union" - NB! btw- there never was such a thing as USSR, it
was just an extended Russia'n Empire with unfairly and
aggressively occupied neighbouring countries before and during
WW2, who were forced to believe that Russians have "saved and
freed us" and that "they brought the real culture" (making us feel
lesser), but they didn't succeed, nobody inside of USSR believed
in this bullshit... Just sadly I never realized that the communist
propaganda was so effective beyond the USSR border, that some
people in West and otehr parts of the world truly believed that
USSR may be a better alternative to Western capitalism...<br>
<br>
But talking about the "Soviet times", there was even big
difference between Ryszard's and mine childhood, because Ryszard
lived in Poland, but I lived in Soviet Latvia, which was a part of
USSR, and this was such a big difference that for some time I even
didn't realize that Poland, Yugoslavia, Chechoslovakia etc.
belonged to the so called "soviet" block, because for us at USSR
(with completely cut any information or culture coming from the
West) - even Poland seemed like beautiful and shiny country
"abroad", where everything was much more better then in soviet
uni.<br>
<br>
When I went to the school in 1970s, I had to participate in
special military parade competitions every year couple of times;
we were singing the hymn of Russia and the hymn of USSR, and when
we won the competition in the school level - then we participated
in the national level..., and singing all these songs (in
Russian), marching, and shouting loud how much we love Lenin...
while at the same time, we all - everybody of us: starting from
the 1st grade children to the director of the school knew that all
this are the lies, the total bullshit, but we were not allowed to
question anything of that, we just did it, as we had to. And if
you ever asked something or initiated anything (because all things
around which I saw in my childhood were so wrong, so dirty, so
terrible, and grey...), you were shut up quickly as you gradually
realized that nothing ever can be done, neither achieved, nor
succeded... the holes on the roads would never get repaired, the
light in your corridor if once broken, would never get fixed
either, your staircase in communal house of course was never
cleaned, in the shops was only the seller herself, as nothing was
available (e.g. from drinks - only birch juice, sweet with sugar,
in 3l jars, from vegetables - stinky sourkraut...) but if it was
(some piece of meet or sausage - unexpectedly appeared), there
were so long cues.. - and I think it was done intentionally, this
is one of the KGB strategies to "zomby" people by making them to
live in ugly, non-comfortable, hopeless gray environment, and to
feed them with lies - from the age of kindergarten... nothing was
real, because the only thing soviet Russians were good at - was to
make an other great lies to pretend, to make a 'facade' for the
beautiful socialist ideas to whom only anti-capitalists in West or
Latin America believed... we here didn't believe in anything they
told us... yes, and soviets were bad even in toy production -
awful light pink plastic doll or braun (everything else..) were
the only colors they hardly succeeded to make, and I had to play
with these very few badly made toys, it was annoying and
humiliating - and you complain about the Disney! OMG - that would
have been our dream...<br>
Later, when I was in arts college in 80s, we had special trainings
in air rifle shooting, and I was very good in it, and I also had
to learn how to disassembly the Kalashnikov, which was quite a
fun, as nobody really did manage to do it properly, so we were
laughing, and making fun.. (really?) <br>
<br>
and if someone, anyone, who thinks that it was bad as you were
culturally "colonisied" by Disneyland in the 80s and therefore
were dreaming of living in Soviet Union, I can only say one thing
- please mind, this is a very very dangerous idea as you should
now rather become aware of that you have been brainwashed by
Russia's imperialism, who has been running a very sophisticated
propaganda machine for almost a century long.. <br>
<br>
and if you still think, here can be "multiple perspectives", I
also would recommend to apply for residency in Russia, could be an
interesting and useful experience... But also coming to Poland or
Baltic countries may 'heal'... it's quite an adrenaline living
here in these difficult times, following the news on Ukrianan
Telegram every day hour by hour, while reading Western
intellectuals' messages full of unnecessary tolerance and critic,
or utopian pacifism promotion.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Rasa</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 18/07/2022 00:26, xname wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:0c6b33f2c4bdab60e0501a8f38b28416@xname.cc">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<p>Hello Ryszard,</p>
<p>Thanks for your email, and for sharing your view and
experience.</p>
<p>I'd clarify here: my childhood desire was towards the unknown,
that which was not described, as no one was telling us what was
really going on in Russia, all we had was the fake American
dream (which included the commodification of female bodies) and
literature from the past. I am also aware that I was very lucky
and privileged growing up in a house full of any sorts of books,
also having access to many libraries.</p>
<p>My anecdote was in response to Rasa, to highlight that there
are multiple perspectives and modalities for cultural
appropriation (and rejection).</p>
<p>I am not disputing what was better or worse, or whose childhood
was happier. The idea was to acknowledge that also in the West
some had a curiosity or a wish that that which was not the
status quo could be better than the real they had to experience.</p>
<p>And I am not at all saying that being under Russian influence
is in any way a good thing, I am simply saying that the game at
stake is a power game, it is unfortunately not about anyone's
freedom, or better interest, but profit.</p>
<p>I am sorry if my email was unclear and you had the impression I
was trying to decide where to move to, it couldn't be further
away from what I was trying to express.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Best wishes</p>
<p>Eleonora X, PhD.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p id="reply-intro">On 2022-07-17 21:47, Ryszard Kluszczyński
wrote:</p>
<blockquote type="cite" style="padding: 0 0.4em; border-left:
#1010ff 2px solid; margin: 0">
<div id="replybody1">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space;
line-break: after-white-space;">Dear Eleonora,
<div> </div>
<div>let me quote you:</div>
<div>"During my childhood, in Milan in the 80s, I had an
opposite experience than yours: my country had been
culturally colonised by the US (cinema TV clothing etc),
and they did think they were better. Most people did not
notice at all they were colonised, because they had been
brainwashed. As I happened to dislike American cinema and
Disney's total animation, but I did read a lot of Italian
and French and Russian literature and philosophy, I must
say it did happen to me during my childhood to wish I was
in the Soviet Union instead, hoping that that would be a
better alternative from the dumb hypnotic imperialism that
had subsumed my contemporaries."</div>
<div> </div>
<div>During my childhood in Poland in the 60s, I was not so
happy as you in the 80s. You could have decided what to
read. The Soviet-Russian censorships deprived me of such
possibilities.</div>
<div>You were happy to avoid the experioence what it really
means to live in the colonised country, colonised society.
But it doesn't mean you should not try to imagine and
understand what it is really. </div>
<div>Anyway you can try to realise your desire from your
childhood. You can move to Russia to become the resident.
But resident not just visitor. </div>
<div>I understand if you don't decide to do it. A French
famous film actor who did it once (to avoid paying taxes
in France) is already back as I heard. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Good luck whatever you decide to do </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Ryszard</div>
<div><br>
<div>
<div>......................................................<br>
Prof. Ryszard W. Kluszczynski, PhD. <br>
Chair of Department of New Media and Digital Culture<br>
University of Lodz<br>
171/173 Pomorska Street<br>
90-236 Lodz<br>
Poland<br>
tel +426655133<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<div><br>
<blockquote type="cite" style="padding: 0 0.4em;
border-left: #1010ff 2px solid; margin: 0">
<div>On 17 Jul 2022, at 18:00, xname <<a
href="mailto:xname@xname.cc" rel="noreferrer"
moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">xname@xname.cc</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br class="v1Apple-interchange-newline">
<div><span style="caret-color: #000000; font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none; float: none; display: inline !important;">During
my childhood, in Milan in the 80s, I had an
opposite experience than yours: my country had
been culturally colonised by the US (cinema TV
clothing etc), and they did think they were
better. Most people did not notice at all they
were colonised, because they had been brainwashed.
As I happened to dislike American cinema and
Disney's total animation, but I did read a lot of
Italian and French and Russian literature and
philosophy, I must say it did happen to me during
my childhood to wish I was in the Soviet Union
instead, hoping that that would be a better
alternative from the dumb hypnotic imperialism
that had subsumed my contemporaries.</span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
</p>
<div id="signature">-- <br>
<pre>phantasmata and illusions
@oracle666
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://xname.cc">http://xname.cc</a>
</pre>
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