[WS:] They have something similar in the old country, which roughly translates "The law is like a fence - the lions will jump over it, the
snakes will crawl under it, and the sheep will be held by it.
As to your comment about the role of propaganda - I do not deny, but growing up in Eastern Europe I also recognize it limitations. Propaganda is not very effective if it contradicts what sociologists call "stock knowledge" or a set of beliefs taken for its face value without any proof and considered "self-evident." Propaganda works very effectively when it is grounded in stock knowledge and reinforces it, but it becomes very ineffective if it runs against the stock knowledge.
The chief difference between the US and Soviet propaganda is that the latter run mostly against the stock knowledge 9in fact one if its stated goals was to challenge the 'received wisdom" of the backward societies.) The US propaganda, by contrast, is firmly grounded in the stock knowledge of small time shop keepers and petite bourgeoisie. That explains its extreme effectiveness.
I is a mistake, however, to see only the propaganda part, and forget about the shopkeeper - petite bourgeois stock knowledge of the majority of US population. If I were to estimate the relative contribution of each to maintaining the reactionary status quo I'd give propaganda about 33% and stock knowledge 67%.
On an unrelated subject - I am 4th day without electricity in the capital of what passes for the greatest empire on Earth. It looks like is going be a few more days like this. Fucking third world is what comes to mind. I understand that this is how the majority of world's population lives, but then the majority is prepared for it, and the US is not. In any case, my laptop battery is running low, so I am logging off until I have a chance to recharge.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."