Thursday, December 23, 2010

The saddest thing about the Cold War. . .

. . . is that every single thing that each side's propaganda machine told people about the opposing side was utterly, absolutely, and completely TRUE.

The people, though, knew that it was propaganda, and took it to mean that the opposite of what the propaganda was telling them was the case. And that was a huge mistake. We should have believed our respective propaganda machines, to begin with. Just imagine how many unpleasant surprises would have been avoided if we had.

3 comments:

eric said...

I remember Zizek wrote something to the effect that, the most subversive thing to do is to take the dominant ideology at face value. Something else to put in the "Quotable Zizek"...

Anonymous said...

The ideal case would have been to have access to both Soviet and US television. Apart from a few diplomats, nobody had that.

I tried to watch both during the Russo-Georgian conflict and had a lot of fun.

Anonymous said...

Can you please expalin Truman side of the seesaw. He looks a bit like a clown. I am sure this was not right??
Understand the bear side but not the circus man.He was more intelligent surely?

Please help.
Thanks