Transplanting concepts like "race" into the "post-Soviet space" does great violence to the actual phenomena. During the bloodshed in Armenia in the early 1990s, was that a "racial" conflict? It's as if we described the Hatfield--McCoy feud as a racist concept. It makes no sense at all.
--- Adam Souzis <adamsz at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/23/05, Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > --- Adam Souzis <adamsz at gmail.com> wrote:
> > thanks for translating that, it was quite
> interesting.
> > >From a distance
> > the PDS' move toward reactionary, racist
> nationalism
> > seems part and
> > parcel with other ex-Communists parties across
> former
> > eastern bloc and
> > Soviet states.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > Strictly speaking race and racism (as opposed to
> > chauvinism or ethnic animosity) are close to being
> > meaningless concepts in most of the former Soviet
> > states. It's like talking about racism in ancient
> > Rome. Race is a European/North American meme.
> Anyway,
> > since the CPs' electorate is the disenfranchised,
> and
> > since the disenfranchised tend to be chauvinistic,
> it
> > is hardly surprising.
>
> yes, i was using the term racist loosely --
> "nativist" would have been
> more precise. Just saying "chauvinistic" seems too
> broad a term to me
> unless it has some nuance i'm not aware of.
>
> And yes, its not too surprising. Wasn't it Lenin
> himself who said
> anti-semitism is the communism of the ignorant?
>
> -- adam
>
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