>Sure. Who wants the hoi poloi to read someone who pours scorn on
>those who would set the state free? In the FSU and the ex-bloc,
>"Marxist" education was based on indigestible boring texts, and not
>on Marx. I once had a smart Ukrainian emigre student, an engineer,
>who was absolutely astounded when he came to read Marx after growing
>up with a M-L education in the former USSR. "No wonder they don't
>teach this!" he said. "They wouldn't last a week if they did!" It
>didn't chamnge his mind--except about Marx. --jks
But, as the much-maligned Slavoj Zizek argues, the "dissidents" in EE and the FSU drew their legitimation from that very socialist ideology - reality failed to live up to the regimes' promises. When the regimes collapsed, the dissidents faded from view.
Doug