> At 1:20 PM -0500 2/24/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
> >Reminds me of Zizek's riff on how it's ok to be prejudiced against
> >Eastern Europeans - yeah, they're white, but, not really, you know?
>
> Among Zizek's remarks on East Europeans, I found the following most
> memorable and promising; "What is of special interest here is the
> lack of understanding between the Western Left and dissidents such as
> Havel. In the eyes of the Western Left, Eastern dissidents were too
> naive in their belief in liberal democracy -- in rejecting socialism,
> they threw out the baby with the bath water. In the eyes of the
> dissidents, the Western Left played patronising games with them,
> disavowing the true harshness of totalitarianism" ("Attempts to
> Escape the Logic of Capitalism,"
I think Zizek misses the point that what turned E.European intelligentsia to dissidents was the flattening of social hierarchies under state socialism. Many dissident were former party apparatchiks who, for various reasons, were bypassed in promotions. Other were enraged by being put on the same economic and social prestige footing as the working class. In many E. European countries (excpet perhaps Romania - Joanna?) there was no totalitarianism in any true sense of the word. True - electoral choices were very confined (e.g. Poland had only three official parties with the fixed number of seats), but that is not very different from US or Japan. The mnainstream media would reject publishing materials they found objectionable, but so do the media in this country. At best, one would not find the variety that exists in the US, but then E.Europe was a backwater of Europe - and the lack of variety was more a result of its provincialism than purported "totalitarianism."
The main complaint I remember hearing from E. Euroepan intelligentsia was to be treated as "mental worker" i.e. on the same level as any other worker. Of course, they were quite disappointed when the "market reform" genrally failed to propel them to any position of power or prestige, and instead favored assorted slimy types with money or connections to the underworld. This was a big disappointment, but since the proletrian class scored even worese, as evdienced by two digit unemployment figures, mainly among blue collar occupations, the intelligentsia generally swallowed that pitter pil withou much complaining. After all, they fared better in comparison.
As far as patronising attitudes of Western Left is concerned, I do not
think it is true either, especially on this side of the pond. I did not
find much patronizing, especially by E. European standards (which tend
to be very patronizing). Misunderstandon- perhaps, but not patronizing.
>From my onw observations, many E. European immigrants felt being
"patronised" simply because their Western colleagues did not show them
the deference they expected to receive (either in their own countries or
abroad). They wre often quite disappointed when their self-perceived
"martyrdom" did not receive "proper" recognition and appreciation.
Wojtek