Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
> [WS:] The jokes are funny, but Hart misses the point
> entirely when he contrasts the Soviet situation with
> Nazi Germany on the grounds that it was deterimental
> to human happiness. Jokes thrive in a climate where
> people question their superiors yet feel relatively
> safe from retribution. If one or the other does not
> obtain, jokes are scarce - either because people do
> not feel like ridiculing their superiors or are afraid
> of doing so.
>
It's not just that the jokes were funny, but that they definitely marked
a step forward in
human consciousness. For example, the classic
Q. What's the difference between communism and capitalism? A. Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man, whereas with communism, it's just the other way around.
Yes, this joke criticizes Communism, but it does so on the basis of the assumption that exploitation is a bad thing. They don't tell this joke in the U.S.; they told it in the communist block. In fact, there are NO political jokes in the U.S. I've never heard one. Ever! Whereas there were many, many extremely funny jokes, extremely intelligent political jokes told in the communist block, and so far as I can tell, they continue, only now they're about privatization.
Did the jokes defeat communism? No, I don't think so, but they certainly defeated the bullshit that called itself communism.
The other thing that western pundits don't understand about these jokes is that everybody told them. Everybody. Appartchiks, party members, non party members, etc. Now, that's interesting.
> BTW, one of the bigest suprprises I experienced after
> getting off the boat was to discover that many if not
> most Americans live in fear - fear of people different
> than themselves, fear of crime, fear of losing their
> job, status, fear of being poor, etc. Back in the old
> country, people had more cavalier attitudes and were
> remarkably free of fear, as far as I remember. People
> would joke in situations in which most Americans would
> be scared.
>
I don't know about that Woj. I remember a lot of very scared people in
Romania.
But yeah, they told jokes. And, really, during Stalin's time, they had
reason to be scared.
People really did get sent to jail for reading a banned book or any
number of forms of bad luck
But I agree with you that living in the U.S. is living in fear, and increasingly so.
Joanna