Soviet Paradigm

From: MOB <mrmob_at_ozemail.com.au>
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 14:34:04 +1000


G'day all,

Soviet Paradigm

Andrew Barton agrees that there's a lot of useful stuff to be got out of the Lunar/Soviet analogy:

>There's one big danger though. The Soviet empire is a
>20th century empire, and a lot of its trappings don't belong
>in earlier periods. Red Square seems fine to me,
>but the Great Universal Store jars horribly.

Which is exactly why Nick said the analogy should used "in moderation".

Mr Gidlow:

>> 2: Most modern people reading about the Lunar Empire will probably see
>> nothing wrong in the Lunar Way. It seems a benevolent and reasonable
>> ideology. This is exactly the feeling which many of us (perhaps not in
>> America) have about Socialism. Yet the Soviet Union was an atrocious state,
>> with hypocrisy, corruption and down-right evil from the top downwards.

>In other words, the reality of Socialism is very different from the mask
>it shows the world. Didn't you previously state that the badness of the
>Soviet Union was just an American fantasy?

No, what Chris actually said was:

>Unlike the Americans, a lot of us Brits feel that the Evil Empire of the
>USSR was a construct as much of American paranoia as of reality.

"*as much of* American paranoia *as of* reality." I hope you can appreciate the difference.

I love Chris's Soviet/Lunar analogue (then again, I'm not American either).  I agree with him that the Soviet paradigm can be a very fruitful source of inspiration, but (as Chris, and we Reaching Moon boys have always said) not the only source.

>> USSR was a construct as much of American paranoia as of reality. And
>> Socialism is not a dirty word here. I have voted socialist all my life and

>I guess you never had relatives or relatives of friends killed by great
>brave Soviet Socialist soldiers merely for being a priest or a member of a
>priest's family.

It's a shame, but it would probably be less controversial if we exclusively used ancient analogues rather than modern ones, which some people appear to have deep and abiding personal reasons to get hot under the collar about. Of course, I'm still down on what those bastard Ummayads got up to...

James Frusetta:

>I'm not a fan of the strong Soviet model myself for the Lunars -- I
>reserve my "evil communist empire" label for the Elves, as is proper ;)
>- -- but there's a lot of elements that do lend to some fun and insight!

Love it!

Cheers,

MOB


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