От: "Michael Dawson -PSU" <mdawson at pdx.edu>
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Meanwhile, I love my CD player, DVDs, etc.
--- We are talking about the Soviet Union. When were DVDs invented? Any reason why the USSR could not have made DVDs if the technology existed? Actually I think the USSR did make CDs after they made their appearance, but I may be thoroughly mistaken. While we're at it, we should all look down on the Soviets for not having e-mail.
---- Washing machines you have to tend to avoid overflows? Please! --- Yes. I live in hell because of my washing machine. I may have to go shoot myself. Everybody in the Soviet Union was really sad all the time because they had to stand by the washing machine. They dreamed of nothing other than to get out and go to the West where they could have better washing machines. You know, sometimes I even wash my clothes BY HAND. Now that is awful.
I live in a Soviet apartment, you know. Aside from the TV, stereo and phone, everything in it is Soviet. Amazingly, it all works! The electricity and plumbing somehow functions perfectly normally, and, miracle of miracles, the Soviet-built radiator keeps the place warm in winter. Somehow, as well, all the Soviet cars on the roads manage to move, despite having been produced by central planning.
To be blunt, I am getting really tired of people in foreign countries lecturing me about conditions in the country in which I live. As to the accusation that I somehow am indifferent to the plight of the Soviet people for deemphasizing the godlike importance of electronic doohickeys, PLEASE! This is a very strange accusation to make against somebody living in the former Soviet Union. The great majority of people I know, let's see, most of my friends, my roommate, my girlfiend, my boss, all happen to be former Soviets.
I am not setting up goals for the Western left or indeed for Russians. I am trying to describe the everyday style of life in the Soviet Union in the Brezhnev era, and reporting people's attitudes toward it. What I find interesting is the extent to which certain people seem extremely psychologically wedded to the idea that Soviets and people in the Soviet bloc were all miserable and horribly poor (penurous!), despite the eye-witness testimony of Joanna, Wojtek and myself. This is starting to remind me of Hume's argument against believing in miracles: "It is always more likely that someone is lying about a miracle taking place than for a miracle to actually have taken place."