When Communism ended (although not it seems totalitarianism), in Eastern Europe, it might have been expected that there would be some sort of swing to the right, but maybe not quite as far as seems to be the case. After all the old USSR had fought a bloody four year campaign against Hitler's Nazi Germany, which had scarred the collectivity memory of a generation of post war Russians in the USSR.
To many of the former population of the Soviet Empire, it would seem almost sacrilege to embrace the ideology of the Nazi's, in what after all was the heartland of the Soviet Union. However it seems that their children don't think in the same way. Rather in fact, such is the low esteem with which the Communists and their ideology are held by many of the younger people of the post communist Russian society, that they seem happy to embrace elements of Nazism and the symbols of its ideology.
Now admittedly, football fans and followers of Nationalist or Neo-Nazi groups, are not entirely representative of all of Russian youth, but the fact that the outward signs of the Nazi regime are publicly tolerated, to a degree that they wouldn't be in Western Europe, is still very surprising.
I have reported before on the rise of Nazi ideology in places where it should be least likely to do so, but even so it still takes me by surprise. We truly live in a world turned upside down ....
To many of the former population of the Soviet Empire, it would seem almost sacrilege to embrace the ideology of the Nazi's, in what after all was the heartland of the Soviet Union. However it seems that their children don't think in the same way. Rather in fact, such is the low esteem with which the Communists and their ideology are held by many of the younger people of the post communist Russian society, that they seem happy to embrace elements of Nazism and the symbols of its ideology.
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| Spartak Moscow Fans Fly Swastika |
Now admittedly, football fans and followers of Nationalist or Neo-Nazi groups, are not entirely representative of all of Russian youth, but the fact that the outward signs of the Nazi regime are publicly tolerated, to a degree that they wouldn't be in Western Europe, is still very surprising.
I have reported before on the rise of Nazi ideology in places where it should be least likely to do so, but even so it still takes me by surprise. We truly live in a world turned upside down ....
We truly live in a world turned upside down ....
ReplyDeleteIndeed we do. Memories are short as far as the Nazis are concerned but worryingly long according to nationalist and/or cultural agendas.
The reason for this topsy-turvyness is perhaps explained by the following observation :
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt" [Bertrand Russell]
....or is this just a symptom? rendering my comment ironically back-to-front.
There is a film 'Idiocracy' which explores the theme of a world run by the stupid (who really are cocksure - as they out breed the intelligent people). You should watch it, as its both funny and actually makes a very good point - which is rather slyly delivered and of course ignored by the cocksure.
DeleteI suspect that memories are so short is because we no longer teach history in context ... as for 'Idiocracy' I have seen it and it is funny .... and maybe prophetic
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