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Propaganda and the Death of Stalin

05 March 2019 • by Bob • History, Politics

Here is a simple thought from Voltaire on the anniversary of Josef Stalin's death: "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."

The preceding image is from the time of Stalin's death, and the text above it reads, "Народы чтут память вождя," which translates as, "The people honor the memory of their leader." The mourners in that photo were obviously staged for propaganda purposes, but still - few people who haven't studied Russian history fail to realize how many Russians loved Stalin, even though he put nearly three times as many of his own citizens to death as the Nazis. Stalin's level of adulation was primarily due to the USSR's disinformation machine, which spent years elevating Stalin's cult of personality to epic proportions. For many Russians, Stalin was their hero, their savior, their loving parent, and the sole victor of WWII.

When I was studying Russian, I was once involved in a heated discussion with one of my instructors. (In Russian, of course). She had recently defected from the Soviet Union, and she had yet to learn some of the actual facts about her own country; she only knew the propaganda that she had heard in her childhood. All the other students in the class were backing my discussion points, and the instructor broke down in tears while lamentably exclaiming, "But I'm Russian! I should know my own history!" All I could say was, "Yes, you should, but you need to visit a library because you've been deceived." (It's amazing that our group of students didn't get in trouble for making an instructor cry.)

While it is inarguable that every industrialized nation - to include the US - has used propaganda to further its respective agenda, Communist nations like the USSR (and a few of its Communist allies) used a two-phase approach of propaganda together with purges in order to subdue the population.

Propaganda

Propaganda is, of course, the use of state-controlled press and media to feed a carefully-constructed narrative to the masses, and it was used with particular effectiveness in Stalinist-era Russia, the result of which was that the average Russian - the peasants, the hawkers in the streets, the poorly-educated, and the bulk of the population - actually believed the lies. And wouldn't they? The propaganda is all they knew from what little education they had, and there were no other sources of information; the press and the media were both controlled by the Communists, and those who possessed enough knowledge to put up an intelligent argument were either killed or imprisoned.

Purges

Purges were used to reduce the numbers of those who are too intelligent [and therefore a perceived threat to the state], and to terrify those left alive into silence. Stalin's purges killed an estimated 9 to 60 million people, and permanently altered the course of Eastern European history. (Of course, Stalin's Communist purges weren't the only crimes against humanity committed by Communists throughout the 20th century, but more about that later.)

Conclusion

It is an indisputable fact that the US and its allies have used some form of propaganda at one time or another, but the "state" controls neither our press nor our media, nor have we resulted to purges in order to wipe out mass segments of a dissatisfied population. As a result, we have had both the knowledge and the freedom to say, "This president sucked," or "That president sucked," or "We should vote every member of Congress out of office and start over."

However, the US has never resorted to the purges that Stalin inflicted on millions of his own people. While the US has certainly treated one group or another horrendously unfairly - such as Native Americans, Africans slaves, Japanese Americans during WWII - the US has never slaughtered millions of its citizens simply because they disagreed with whomever is in power.

POSTSCRIPT:

True confession: the impetus for this post was a social media post that I had made with the first image and the quote from Voltaire. Most people saw it for what it was meant to be - a simple observation of human nature when people have been deceived. However, one misguided individual on social media objected to my post and launched into a ludicrous defense of Communism, while at the same time condemning the US for its many heinous crimes, most of which were - in all honesty - complete fabrications. Against my better judgment, I engaged this gentleman (term used loosely and inappropriately) in a discussion, our conversation wandered through a series of topics.

One of his claims was that there was a "post-WW2 demonization of communists" that rivaled anything that Communism had wrought, and I replied that Stalin's Communist purges weren't the only crimes against humanity committed by Communists throughout the 20th century. There were Lenin's Communist purges, and Mao's Communist purges, and the North Vietnamese Communist purges, and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge's Communist purges, and Cuba's Communist purges, and the North Korea's Communist purges, and Eastern Europe's Communist purges, etc. I stated that it is a concrete statement of fact that in every state where the Communists gained power during the 20th century, whole populations of people were eradicated. Communism has emerged as the single-greatest cause of deaths in human history; more than all of the disparate diseases and wars combined. And yet, the "post-WW2 demonization of communists" that he mentioned resulted in a only handful of arrests for acts of treason or conspiring to commit treason, and a few deportations, and a few misguided defections to the east, and several pro-Communist Hollywood script writers losing their jobs.

To be blunt: if you're reading this now and you think that the post-WWII Red Scare was anywhere on the level of a Communist purge, then you have not been paying attention to history.

If the actions of a handful of leftist leaders were marginalized in the wake of WWII, that is simply a disservice to history. On the other hand, the documented deaths of over 100 million people during the Communist purges of the 20th century is a genocide of epic proportions. Once again, there is simply no comparison between the complete eradication of entire populations in the name of Communism and the meager number of arrests that were made during this period of Communist "demonization" with which this misguided individual on social media had become so fixated.

For what it's worth, I learned the Russian language from teachers who had defected from the Soviet Union, and I learned first-hand of how they had suffered under Communism. Later, I was the translator for Russian defectors in Germany during the 1980s, and I heard their personal stories of why they were forced to flee for their lives. I met and spoke with several members of the Soviet Military prior to the fall of Communism, and learned of how atrocious their living conditions were. I learned Spanish from a woman who had defected from Cuba, and she told stories of her horrifying treatment by the Communists who ruined her country. I interviewed a man who had lived 10 years in a Communist gulag, where his only crime was fighting for freedom of speech. I attended Russian schools in Western Europe that were founded by and staffed with Soviet defectors, and I listened to their lectures on the many follies and failures of Communism. One of my Russian teachers had been one of the Soviet Union's most-popular actresses in her youth, and her husband was one of the Soviet Union's most-successful directors... until they defected, and then their names were wiped clean from the pages of Russian history. She and I watched one of her movies together, where her name was stripped from the credits despite her appearance in the film, and her husband's name was removed as the director despite his work on the project. That being said, every other actor and actress involved in the film who stayed in the Soviet Union was dead - some were sent to gulags, some were arrested and never heard from again, and others killed themselves rather than continue to live under Communist rule. These people whom I have mentioned were not people from history books, these were actual Russians whom I befriended during a lifetime of studying the consequences of Communism and its caustic effects on society.

If anyone cannot see the difference between the personal sufferings that I have described and the perceived injustices that were endured by the handful of people who were described by the misguided individual with whom I was conversing, then let me be very clear: those crimes are not equal in the annals of history. Leaving someone out of the history books because you disagree with their politics is not the same as killing millions of people because you disagree with their politics.

All of this lively discussion has reminded me that it's time to watch "The Death of Stalin."

UPDATE: This post is one of several that I had written that I later discovered had never been set to "public."

Propaganda and Purges and the Death of Stalin

05 March 2019 • by Bob • Politics, Rants

Here is a simple thought from Voltaire on the 66th anniversary of Josef Stalin's death: "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Of course, Voltaire was not referring to Stalin directly, since Voltaire passed away 200 years before Stalin was born. However, Voltaire's observation is apropos when we consider the effectiveness of Communist propaganda on public opinion during Stalin's lifetime.

The text in the following photo reads, "Народы чтут память вождя," which translates as, "The people honor the memory of their leader." The mourners in that photo were obviously staged for propaganda purposes, but still - few people who haven't studied Russian history fail to realize how many Russians loved Stalin, even though he put to death nearly three times as many of his own citizens as the Nazis.

Stalin's level of adulation was primarily due to the USSR's disinformation machine, which spent years elevating Stalin's cult of personality to epic proportions. For many Russians, Stalin was their hero, their savior, their loving parent, and the sole victor of WWII.

When I was studying Russian, I was once involved in a heated discussion with one of my instructors. (In Russian, of course). She had recently defected from the Soviet Union, and she had yet to learn some of the actual facts about her own country; she only knew the propaganda that she had heard in her childhood. All the other students in the class were backing my discussion points, when the instructor broke down and started crying while lamentably exclaiming, "But I'm Russian! I should know my own history!" All I could say was, "Yes - you should know your history. But you need to visit a library, because you've been deceived." (It's amazing that our group of students didn't get in trouble for making an instructor cry.)

While it is inarguable that every industrialized nation - to include the United States - has used propaganda to further its respective agenda, Communist nations like the USSR (and a few of its Communist allies) used a two-phase approach of propaganda coupled together with purges in order to subdue their populations. Propaganda is, of course, the use of state-controlled media to feed a carefully-constructed narrative to the masses, and purges are used to: a) reduce the numbers of those who are too intelligent [and therefore a perceived threat to the state], and b) terrify those who are left alive into silence.

Propaganda and purges were used with particular effectiveness and ruthlessness in Stalinist-era Russia, the result of which was that the average Russian - the peasants, the hawkers in the streets, the poorly-educated, and the bulk of the population - actually believed the lies. And why not? The propaganda is all they knew from what little education they had, and there were no other sources of information. The press and the media were both controlled by the Communists, and those who possessed enough knowledge to put up an intelligent argument were either killed or imprisoned.

While I may agree that the US and its allies have certainly used one form of propaganda or other, the "state" controls neither our press nor our media, nor have we resulted to purges in order to wipe out mass segments of a dissatisfied population. As a result, we have had both the knowledge and the freedom to say, "This president sucked," or "That president sucked," or "We should vote every member of Congress out of office and start over."

To clarify what I said earlier when I was discussing Communist purges, I wasn't referring only to Stalin's purges - I was also referring to Lenin's Communist purges, and Mao's Communist purges, and the North Vietnamese Communist purges, and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge's Communist purges, and Cuba's Communist purges, and North Korea's Communist purges, and Eastern Europe's Communist purges, etc. It is a concrete statement of fact that in nearly every state where the Communists gained power during the 20th century, whole populations of people were eradicated. Communism has emerged as the single-greatest cause of deaths in human history; more than all the disparate diseases and wars combined.

And yet, whenever these purges are mentioned, some addle-brained miscreant who hasn't cracked open a history book will proffer a comparison to the "post-WWII demonization of Communists in the West," which resulted in a handful of arrests for acts of treason or conspiring to commit treason, and a few deportations, and a few misguided defections to the East, and several pro-Communist Hollywood script writers losing their jobs. Let me be clear, if anyone thinks that the post-WWII Red Scare was anywhere near the level of a Communist purge, then they have not been paying attention to history. The documented deaths of over 100 million people during the Communist purges of the 20th century are a genocide of epic proportions. There is simply no comparison between the complete eradication of entire populations in the name of Communism and the meager number of arrests that were made during the Communist scares of the 1920s and 1950s.

For what it's worth, I learned the Russian language from teachers who had defected from the Soviet Union, and I learned first-hand of how they had suffered under Communism. Later, I was the translator for Russian defectors in Germany during the 1980s, and I heard their personal stories of why they were forced to flee for their lives. I met and spoke with several members of the Soviet Military prior to the fall of Communism, and learned of how atrocious their living conditions were. I learned Spanish from a woman who had defected from Cuba, and she told stories of her horrifying treatment by the Communists who ruined her country. I interviewed a man who had lived 10 years in a Communist gulag, where his only crime was fighting for freedom of speech. I attended Russian schools in Western Europe that were founded by and staffed with Soviet defectors, and I listened to their lectures on the many follies and failures of Communism. One of my Russian teachers had been a popular actress in the Soviet Union during her youth, and her husband was one of the Soviet Union's acclaimed directors... until they defected, and then their names were wiped clean from the pages of Russian history. She and I watched one of her movies together, where her name was stripped from the credits despite her appearance in the film, and her husband's name was removed as the director despite his work on the project. That being said, every other actor and actress involved in the film who stayed in the Soviet Union was dead - some were sent to gulags, some were arrested and never heard from again, and others killed themselves rather than continue to live under Communist rule.

These people whom I have mentioned were not faceless people from history books, these were actual Russians whom I befriended during a lifetime of studying the consequences of Communism and its caustic effects on society. If anyone cannot see the difference between the personal sufferings that I have described and the perceived injustices that were endured by a handful of people during our government's infatuation with chasing down Communists who had infiltrated Washington DC and Hollywood, then let me be very clear: those crimes are not equal in the annals of history. Charging someone with treason because they belong to organizations that are plotting to overthrow the country is not the same as killing millions of people because you disagree with their politics.

Returning to my earlier discussion of propaganda, here is an additional thought: I was physically present on the East German border when several people lost their lives attempting the flee their Communist captors. If Communist nations were lands of Golden Opportunity as Communist propaganda actively promoted, then why were people willing to risk their lives to leave those countries? If Communism had created Utopian Societies, then why did millions of people need to be slaughtered?

All of this discussion is academic, of course. Communism has emerged as the worst ideology to infect humanity in history, and anyone who believes otherwise merely stands to gain something from it.

Having taxed my readers' patience enough, I am reminded that it's time to watch one of my favorite movies: "The Death of Stalin."

UPDATE: This post is one of several that I had written that I later discovered had never been set to "public."

The Ups and Downs of Illnesses

21 February 2019 • by Bob • Health, Marriage

I've had a cold for a few days now, and as of last night I lost my voice. (My wife, Kathleen, thinks this is an improvement in our relationship.)

Fun fact: when my voice disappears, so does my ability to cough loudly, so I sound like a dog's squeaky toy whenever I have to cough. (It's amazing Kathleen isn't laughing harder at my expense.)

Cow Chip Cookies on Valentine's Day

14 February 2019 • by Bob • Marriage

My wife special-ordered heart-shaped Cow Chip cookies for me for Valentine's Day. If you've lived in the Seattle area and you don't know about these cookies, then either a) you've been living under a rock, or b) you're dead.

PS - They were great, and yes - I shared.

Removing Confederate Statues

20 January 2019 • by Bob • History, Ponderings, Politics

There is a strange cult of personality that has grown up regarding Robert E. Lee, which has unfortunately given rise to several myths. With that in mind, let me discuss Lee with a few simple examples.

First, until the time that Benedict Arnold sold out his country, he was one of the greatest commanders in the fledgling United States Army. Arnold's skills were decidedly better than George Washington's. However, we have no monuments to Arnold, despite his long string of victories that helped establish our nation. Instead, Arnold's name has become synonymous with traitorous behavior.

In a like manner, Robert E. Lee may have been a decent commander, though perhaps not nearly at the level that modern-day mythology has portrayed him. Nevertheless, when faced with the decision of where his loyalties were, Lee turned his back on his nation in its hour of greatest need. Like Benedict Arnold, history should remember Lee for being the traitor that he certainly was.

Second, with regard to slavery, you cannot make the case that Lee opposed slavery while overlooking the facts that Lee was an outspoken racist who owned slaves, regardless of how well they may have been treated. Lee participated in the recapture of slaves, and following emancipation Lee felt that blacks were unequal to whites, blacks should not be allowed to vote, blacks lacked the intelligence to be involved in politics, and he supported plans to export African Americans to Liberia. Lee had many opportunities to speak publicly in opposition to slavery, yet he never did. Lee had many opportunities to speak publicly in opposition to racism, and he never did. Lee had many opportunities to speak publicly in favor of the rights of African Americans, and he never did.

In summary, Lee was not an American hero who is worthy of the misplaced adulation that many people have chosen to give him. Lee was not simply a product of his times - history clearly shows Lee was a traitor in every sense of the word, and racist to the core. The romantic vision that many people seem to possess of Robert E. Lee is completely undeserved.

Taking all of the preceding information into account, I do not consider the removal of public monuments to Confederate traitors - like Lee - as an attempt to "erase history," as some people claim. Personally, I believe that removing statues of men who sold out their country is finally putting history in its proper perspective. These men were traitors - not heroes. They are unworthy of public worship, and it is a great tragedy that our country is littered with dozens of shrines to the undeserving. However, their statues should be moved to museums, where people can still remember these men's treachery. If people truly wanted to "erase" these traitors from history, then we would be removing all mention of them from our history books, but that is not the case. Instead, our society is finally taking the time to correct a great injustice that has been done; we are reexamining the lives of these traitors, and removing testaments to their betrayal.

UPDATE: This post is one of several that I had written that I later discovered had never been set to "public."

When Essential Tremors Take Over

14 January 2019 • by Bob • Health

It has been a little over a year since I was diagnosed with Essential Tremor, and though my symptoms have been dramatically reduced by faithfully taking my daily medications, I still have my good days and bad days. In order to help prevent additional symptoms from occurring, I have tried to change the way that I live my life by doing what I can to reduce the stress in my life, and for the first time in my life I try make sure that I get plenty of sleep. (I have been the consummate "Night Person" for most of my life, so having a "normal" amount of sleep is a foreign concept to me.)

That being said, I have recently noticed an interesting development in my Essential Tremor symptoms: my tremors have seemed to take over in several unexpected ways. Here is what I mean by that: Essential Tremors are "action related" tremors. meaning that tremors develop when I am trying to complete a task, and I have mentioned in previous blogs that tremors have been especially annoying when I am trying to eat or play a musical instrument.

The way that my usual tremors have been manifesting themselves is that I begin an action, and some sort of action continues after my brain has told my body to stop moving. This often happens when I am typing on a computer, or using a mouse, or playing guitar, or turning pages in a book, or some other common action that requires fine motor skills. So the basic flow of events is for a conscious action to take place, followed by an unconscious action in the form of tremors.

But with that in mind, there have been several unanticipated situations where tremors have recently emerged, and here are just a few examples: cold chills, yawning, and reactions to loud noises. Believe it or not, several times over the past few months those trivial actions have been enough for tremors to kick in.

Have you ever had a cold chill? Of course you have; your body shakes for a moment and then the cold chill is over. But for me, I often continue to shake or cringe painfully for a few additional moments. For all intents and purposes, my tremors have amplified my cold chills, so on cold days I find myself getting headaches from the number of shaking episodes that I encounter, and my muscles are sore by the end of the day as I try to flex my muscles to combat the unnecessary reactions. Yawning has had a similar effect; sometimes my hands will shake while I yawn, and recently my hands have continued to shake after I have ceased yawning.

Although I have to say, suffering from tremors when reacting to loud noises has completely caught me off guard. I was listening to a public speaker earlier today, and the sound guy had the speaker's volume up a little too high. As a result, I would cringe a little whenever the speaker was unnecessarily emphatic while making a point. However, my tremors would take over after I cringed, and I would react like I had just suffered a cold chill; my muscles would painfully contract involuntarily, which started to give me a headache.

All of this is to say, these new developments in my Essential Tremor symptoms were completely unexpected. I had presumed that I would continue to have problems when eating, typing, or playing guitar. But cold chills? Yawning? Loud noises? Seriously???

What a pain in the neck. (Literally.)

PS - I made hundreds of typing mistakes while writing this blog. Unfortunately, this appears to have been one of my bad days for tremors.

Tales of Christmas Past...

24 December 2018 • by Bob • Christmas, Humor

In ancient days of yore, constable Ioan McClane (of the clan McClane) routed the Visigoth Hans von Gruber from the prodigious citadel of Nakatomi...

The 12 Days of Paper Writing

10 December 2018 • by Bob • Christmas, Humor, Education

As we rapidly approach the Christmas season, we are also reaching the end of my semester in Graduate School. With that in mind, I thought it apropos to post a version of the "12 Days of Christmas" for my fellow students who are bogged down with writing academic papers:

12 Pages Of Citations
11 Primary Sources
10 Cups Of Coffee
9 Hours Of Proofreading
8 Advising Hours
7 Rhetorical Questions
6 Quotation Blocks
5 Split-Infinitives
4 Supporting Arguments
3 Complete Rewrites
2 Illustrations
And A Thesis Statement In My Opening Paragraph

UPDATE: This post is one of several that I had written that I later discovered had never been set to "public."

Examples of Bad Customer Support: LeisurePro

05 December 2018 • by Bob • Support

Let me begin with the ending: it took me nearly two months to receive an order from LeisurePro. Having said that, let me provide you with the details.

I was headed to Hawaii this past October with several family members, all of whom - like me - are scuba divers. We were going to be going on a deep, wreck dive, and one of my brothers-in-law requested that I bring my Spare Air emergency canister with me. By default, this tank has a tiny button that pops out to indicate when it's full, which is an ineffective method of determining whether the tank is ready to go before starting a dive. With that in mind, I browsed to www.leisurepro.com and ordered a rotary gauge that provides a much better way to see the tank's air pressure. The dive trip was coming up soon, so I paid an extra fee for expedited shipping, and LeisurePro sent me both an order response and a shipping tracking number. Everything seemed taken care if, so I waited patiently for my order to arrive. And waited. And waited. And... nothing happened.

On the night before I was to depart for Hawaii, I called LeisurePro, and was informed that my order had never been sent! I was understandably angry, so I demanded that the extra fees I paid for "expedited shipping" be returned, and I was assured that they would be. And with that, I headed to Hawaii for two weeks.

When I arrived home, I expected my long overdue order to be waiting for me, but that wasn't the case. I checked my email, where I discovered that the following email showed up in my inbox from the President of Leisure Pro during my absence:

I couldn't resist this offer to provide feedback, and I sent the following response (which contains a few duplicated details):

To be honest, I didn't expect a response. But much to my surprise, I quickly received the following response:

Two days later I received an email that my order was on its way, and I also received a gift card for $25 in an effort to make amends.

Bringing this tale of customer support woes to a close, I finally received the gauge today, which - as I mentioned in my opening - is nearly two months late.

UPDATE: This post is one of several that I had written that I later discovered had never been set to "public."

Gaffes of the Galaxy

02 December 2018 • by Bob • Marriage, Humor, Christmas

My wife was shopping for Guardians of the Galaxy toys to donate to charity, and the following conversation took place:

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