> BTW I really, really hate this term ["ostalgie"]. It
> implies a hazy recollection of an idealized past.
> The collapse of the USSR was only 13 years ago.
> Anybody over 30 in this part of the world
> remembers what it was like very clearly
People I know also hate a certain regional variant, "Yugonostalgia." The implication is that it is somehow silly or unrealistic to remember fondly the time before fascist gangs destroyed Yugoslavia, or to suggest that maybe it would be better for all of us to live our lives in that way (a way that actually worked for 45-odd years) as opposed to killing eachother over obscurantist nonsense.
This is also why I take issue with Wojtek's snide dismissal of socialism. It's of a piece with his generalized misanthropy, first of all -- but also, it's a straw man. Perhaps a few ridiculous utopians believe that it is possible to have "universal happiness" or what-have-you, but most of us realize that improved social arrangements do not mean "heaven on earth." That doesn't change the fact that better social and political arrangements are definitely possible, and that's what we're concerned with here in the first place.
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories