In 1937 Lion Feuchtwanger travelled to the USSR and took an interview with Stalin. He described this interview in his book "Moscow, 1937". However, the original
Previously, the landlord and capitalist was a demiurge
:matt:
The idea here of essentially a bottom-up cult of personality (as opposed to the western propagandist idea of it being enforced top-down) is pretty interesting. Reminds me of the anecdote about Augustus, who was trying to tone down some of the imperial cult stuff, as part of his broader strategy of maintaining the illusion of the Republic still totally being a thing. Except, a bunch of people in the eastern parts of the Empire who didn't give a shit about the notion and aesthetics of Republicanism clearly saw that he was the big boss, and wanted to start building temples to worship him, as was tradition, which he kept trying to stop, but eventually had to give in.
The "Culture is not immediately achieved" is a good point to make too.
Yeah I think that's a good point. "Cult of personality" is just a way to disparage a bottom-up, groundswell enthusiasm for leadership that arises from liberation projects. Liberals would never chastise such a phenomenon in their own nations but they have to force enthusiasm from the top because their policies don't naturally inspire any such enthusiasm within the masses. Since they can't obtain obtain the admiration of the people in earnest, they resort to disparaging the phenomena as unhealthy and unjust.
I don't think I'm going to qualify propaganda or beneficial economic policies favoring institutions & small business as "organic". That to me is clearly driven down from the top rather than rising from the base of the population.
As for the identity component - it is more chimeric/nebulous but often these components are magnified via propaganda and people's propensity to place value on such incidental things can also be amplified by propaganda.
Carlos Martinez discusses this in his series on the collapse of the USSR. You had tens of millions of people who probably didn't have all that great an understanding of Marxism or socialism. What they do know is their material conditions improved massively under Stalin. So in a lot of ways, they may not have understood how exactly but they knew they were in a socialist system led by Stalin, to the point that "socialism" and "Stalin" become a bit co-mingled in hearts and minds. So when Khrushchev denounced Stalin, in some ways the people of the USSR interpreted that as denouncing socialism itself, doing great harm to the validity of the system in peoples' minds.
:matt:
The idea here of essentially a bottom-up cult of personality (as opposed to the western propagandist idea of it being enforced top-down) is pretty interesting. Reminds me of the anecdote about Augustus, who was trying to tone down some of the imperial cult stuff, as part of his broader strategy of maintaining the illusion of the Republic still totally being a thing. Except, a bunch of people in the eastern parts of the Empire who didn't give a shit about the notion and aesthetics of Republicanism clearly saw that he was the big boss, and wanted to start building temples to worship him, as was tradition, which he kept trying to stop, but eventually had to give in.
The "Culture is not immediately achieved" is a good point to make too.
You beat me to :matt:
Hell of a pull for a guy that Trots spent decades slandering as an intellectual third-rate.
Yeah I think that's a good point. "Cult of personality" is just a way to disparage a bottom-up, groundswell enthusiasm for leadership that arises from liberation projects. Liberals would never chastise such a phenomenon in their own nations but they have to force enthusiasm from the top because their policies don't naturally inspire any such enthusiasm within the masses. Since they can't obtain obtain the admiration of the people in earnest, they resort to disparaging the phenomena as unhealthy and unjust.
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These are fascist enthusiasts, not liberal enthusiasts.
No one organically likes these people, anything resembling "fervor" is forced from the top down through MSM
Maybe a more clear way to get my point across is they call it "Cult of Personality" abroad and "vulgar populism" domestically.
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well that goes without saying but they are a stark minority
and they are lizards.
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I don't think I'm going to qualify propaganda or beneficial economic policies favoring institutions & small business as "organic". That to me is clearly driven down from the top rather than rising from the base of the population.
As for the identity component - it is more chimeric/nebulous but often these components are magnified via propaganda and people's propensity to place value on such incidental things can also be amplified by propaganda.
Our disagreement is largely semantic.
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40k corpse emperor: NOOOO UR SUPPOSED TO BE RATIONAL ATHEISTS IM NOT A GOD NOOOO :wojak-nooo:
Citizens of the imperium: haha cathedrals go brrr :improve-society: :gigachad:
Carlos Martinez discusses this in his series on the collapse of the USSR. You had tens of millions of people who probably didn't have all that great an understanding of Marxism or socialism. What they do know is their material conditions improved massively under Stalin. So in a lot of ways, they may not have understood how exactly but they knew they were in a socialist system led by Stalin, to the point that "socialism" and "Stalin" become a bit co-mingled in hearts and minds. So when Khrushchev denounced Stalin, in some ways the people of the USSR interpreted that as denouncing socialism itself, doing great harm to the validity of the system in peoples' minds.