Russian culture is fucking insane!

[crazycatman]

The more east and south you go the crazier Europe gets.

 

[knock]

But communism goes against human nature?How do you propose we change human nature?

Not sure I agree that "human nature" exists, but if it does, it is essentially communist.



Graeber is not the best public speaker, but if you can get past the faltering delivery he makes some very good and relevant points.

 

[Droppersneck]

lol that guy is delusional^

 

[knock]

Then you would make a lovely couple

 

[justinsayno]

anyone know what they're smashing up in the 1st vid ?
Clinics of some kind ?

 

[knock]

First video doesn't work for me Or maybe I didn't wait long enough, but the spinny thing just spins.

 

[justinsayno]

same here... had to click the youtube button thing

 

[knock]

I never thought to do that! Thanks.


ANYWAY... I guess things like krokodil don't exactly help the public image of drug dealers in Russia....

 

[justinsayno]

Watched again... theres a pipe on the door of 1st place so im guess a headshop...

And yeah krokodil cant help but i think its fair to judge their intentions by their tactics. So i think all that is more about bullying and having a laugh than anything else..

 

[Bodda]

As a general rule krokodil is made at home & not sold on the street but I agree it wouldn't help with the over all view of the subject.

 

[knock]

Ah OK that thought did cross my mind, but it wasn't looking and it got run down by the other thought. What a mess! My brain is. Right now.

 

[Okami]

As I've said in the past, but nae cunt pays any attention, Russia / USSR was never "communist". I'm not just being idealist or revising history; the Communist Party's official line, Lenin's own writings and any informed independent analysis make it clear that what they had was "State Capitalism" - the state controlled the means of production, not the workers - and Lenin's idea was that Russia was not ready for a communist revolution, so the dictatorship of the CP was supposed to be a "holding position" while the more "socially advanced" countries of Western Europe followed their lead and had their revolutions. Only then, according to Lenin, would communism be possible in the USSR.

Of course what it really proved is that "achieving communism by seizing the apparatus of the State" is a fantasy. The means of revolution prefigure the ends. Anarchist-Communism or Death!!

Don't worry I know the USSR wasn't communist but I've gotten so tired of argueing that point with people that now for simplisities sake I glide straight past it.

Droppersneck as for anarcho-communism, not it's not an oxymoron, communism is in no way anymore inately authoritarian or organised than capitalism. At it's most simplest the two things that make a communist society communist is no currency and where everyone works to the best of their abilities and takes only what they need. If in such a society we still had anything resembling shops, they would probably be more like wharehouses with shit that's produced, you'd just go in and take whatever and however much you want, no ones stopping you from taking it all other than your own knowledge that would be fucking retaaaaaaaarded.

I wanna watch that David Graeber video but my internet usage on ma dongle is reaching ma limit so I'll watch it when I'm home. But no communism isn't against "human nature". There are countless of examples of human altruism. Why are you randomly assuming that it is altruism that is learnt and selfishness that is innate? There are plenty of tribes that are pretty much communist where when the old cannea hunt they sit back at camp and still get fed. There was a really good episode on radiolab an npr show, it was called words. They told the story of how theres a theory that conciousness arose from language, and not the other way round, ie we didnt think that we needed words and then invented them to describe our thoughts, but rather we said words and from then having language we became able to have abstract thoughts. So for example without a word for time, why would anyone have a notion of what time is? They also tell a story about deaf kids in chile that is very very very shocking and interesting but is too long for me to explain so I would just recommend that you listen to it yourself. But my point is, if we grow up in a society where no one is selfish and we don't even have words to describe such behaviour we could very well just not even realise we can be. How long did it take europe to come up with the idea of communism, the idea that we could have a society that isn't inantely unfair and where we aren't ruled by a lone unequestionable authority in the form of a monarch? I think it quite simply just wasn't the culture and therefore no one thought it would or ever could be different. My parents growing up in the soviet union were convinced that the soviet union would win out in the end because it was the only natural inherent way that society could exist, just as convinced as western people are that capitalism is inevitable because we're all actually selfish dickheads.

As for the first video I posted, I'm not sure what it is, I think its just a random corner shop type thing where they also happen to sell hash (if the russian for rock is slang for hash? I doubt it could be much else though, I dont think crack is very relevant and they don't seem like the type of guys that would sell mdma or anything else that could realistically be labeled as "rock") if you know what to say.

 

[knock]

I found a new friend

I'm washing the dishes and just skimmed your post, okami, but I will return.

 

[Okami]

I found a new friend

I'm washing the dishes and just skimmed your post, okami, but I will return.

Tehe, I can't wait

Also another reason why I think they were selling hash, a comment that has a bunch of thumbs up on that video says mentions that weed hasn't ever killed anyone (they are grafiting "trading in death happens here" on the shop).

 

[Cornishman]

I bet some parts of Russia are awesome.

I admire their corruptness.

 

[Droppersneck]

Then you would make a lovely couple

Lol I just realized this is European discussion. My bad I do not have any opinions on whether or not communism would be an appropriate governing body for Euros. I do think the very nature of Europeans is much more ideal for a government wanting complete domination over its people. Population size, economies of scale, technology, and expected quality of life are all factors that make going back to an anarcho-communisttype society nothing but an idealistic pipe dream. It is much like the idea of libertarian-ism in the US. You may have an argument if a world crushing catastrophic event occured.. Also I watched like 20 minutes of that video and that guy is a wind bag imo

 

[knock]

Still doing the dishes, but Dropper, you're probably right. Don't worry about it. Take it easy.

 

[Okami]

I do think the very nature of Europeans is much more ideal for a government wanting complete domination over its people.

Lol what? I think you have a fundmental misunderstanding of what the word communism means. But you may very well be deep seated in your beliefs enough that it's going to be pointless trying to shake out the McCarthist connotations of the word (that comment wasn't meant to be an insult by the way). I will say that communism has literally nothing to do with government controlling people or telling them what to do (like at all in any way shape or form).

 

[knock]

it's going to be pointless

I'm familiar with Droppersneck's earlier work.

 

[knock]

Not only have I now washed the dishes, I have also made them dirty again.

There was a really good episode on radiolab an npr show, it was called words.

Thanks for this, Radiolab is new to me. Listening now!

My parents growing up in the soviet union were convinced that the soviet union would win out in the end because it was the only natural inherent way that society could exist, just as convinced as western people are that capitalism is inevitable because we're all actually selfish dickheads.

Exactly, what we see as "human nature" is really just the reflection of the dominant values of the society in which we live. The institutions of any hierarchical society will seek to promote the values of those at the top of the hierarchy. So in capitalist society, bourgeois institutions promote bourgeois values - individualism, self-interest, competition, etc. We are moulded from the day we're born, but it gets serious from the age of 5 where we have an entire industry devoted to moulding people, and everyone gets at least a decade of moulding. And of course it continues in less explicit but more potent and insidious ways when we enter the world of work.

And as the people around us are shaped by society, they start to promote those values themselves, just by acting according to expectations. So the system of indoctrination is self-reproducing.

Human nature my arse.