I can tell you that the tactics used by so called justice seekers are exactly the same we had in my dear soviet union. I don't know where it is heading but because America decides the course if the western civilization, I feel uncomfortable.
Peterson is doing great work. I hope he can handle the pressure.
Can you expand on this at all? Your comment fascinated me, and I’m now very curious about what the climate was like in the Soviet Union. Any book or movie recommendations?
One of the many propaganda topics during the civil war was that the Russian Empire was oppressing many minor ethnicities and cultures. They called the Russian culture velikoderzhavny (a kind of “imperial”) chauvinism. And the USSR was made to unite all ethnicities and make everyone equal. Everyone except Russians. Bolsheviks worked hard to build a new culture without that ”imperial culture”. So they killed or imprisoned many scientists or educated people born in the Empire, tried to build new culture, etc. The main personal trait of those activists was the absolute moral superiority over “imperial oppressors”, which was especially useful during tortures and mass executions — they were exterminating a class, not individuals, so there were nothing personal in murders (this is a citation of Martin Latsis [1]).
Of the post civil war USSR I can recall one thing that was common. One could only have a successful career provided that they was “clean”: non educated parents, no bourgeois relatives in the past, relatives helping build the communism (e.g. in charge of mass executions).
So, the “clear” understanding of what’s good and what’s evil together with the moral superiority make justice trivial.
Society was saturated with a paranoia of not appearing to think or act the wrong way. Any accusation of having ideas that could qualify of being outside the acceptable boundaries was very dangerous. The accusations were often pulled out of thin air to neutralise intellectuals, political opponents, or disliked people in general. Effectively. That type of mentality is partly what inspired wrongthink in Orwel's "1984".
If you would like to experience what the atmosphere was like living in the Soviet Union, a good book to read is Peterson's often recommended "The Gulag archipelago".
Something that would probably be good to read (or listen to) is The Gulag Archipelago. I haven't gotten through it yet. But a great story early on is one about a speech Stalin gave.
SnowProblem|8 years ago
throwaway294712|8 years ago
Of the post civil war USSR I can recall one thing that was common. One could only have a successful career provided that they was “clean”: non educated parents, no bourgeois relatives in the past, relatives helping build the communism (e.g. in charge of mass executions).
So, the “clear” understanding of what’s good and what’s evil together with the moral superiority make justice trivial.
P.S. Throwaway for obvious reasons.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Latsis
lubernator|8 years ago
If you would like to experience what the atmosphere was like living in the Soviet Union, a good book to read is Peterson's often recommended "The Gulag archipelago".
supreme_sublime|8 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOP0HQUTSo0 This video has a pretty good summary of the story.