--- On Mon, 6/15/09, Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> My point was that the great majority of Soviet-era
> entertainment did not have any political content. ;)
>
[WS:] That is true. There was clearly discernible demarcation line between political propaganda content - which was very formulaic and heavily scripted - and "entertainment" content especially that aimed at children - which was remarkably free of political content. As far as adult entertainment is concerned, the "crossovers" between there two spheres or "James Bond in reverse" were more frequent (especially motion pictures) but certainly not dominant.
I think this is linked to the fact that Anglo-Saxon culture tends to be particularly ill-disposed to other cultures and peoples in general, and that trope is simply exploited in political propaganda efforts. One example is British attitude toward colonised peoples - unlike the French, Portuguese or Spaniards who tended to intermingle with the locals, the Brits tended to be very condescending and aloof toward the natives and limited their interaction to highly scripted exchanges. That does not mean that there is no bigotry in other cultures, but that Anglo-Saxon bigotry has the distinctive stench of conceit and condescension toward others that is taken for granted rather than having to be manifested by physical brutalization of others.
Wojtek
Wojtek