Steve James wrote: Personally, I'd go back to any period in time, as long as I got to be king
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Only as long as I can move to Canada. No...wait
Yeah, Steve. Technological advancement has been an incidental benefit for the most part - but what a price to have been paid! I was thinking more along the lines of societal evolution under fascism and how the lost and the losers of that process shaped the narrative oftentimes in equal standing with those whose 'side' prevailed.
I'm not an educated man. Nor am I all that well informed, so this rabbit hole is pretty shallow over here. I may bow out and just read along if this thread takes off.
I read John Reed's, Ten Days That Shook The World, a bunch of years ago so I can kind of appreciate how things shook out after Nick got greased. It was a crazy read at any rate.
Fast forward 40 years or so;
Krushchev understood the purpose 'fascism' served, and its historical significance, and importance, in transforming Russia from a backward nation to an industrialized and united country. He understood its necessity and utility in making that leap. Lenin asked, and Stalin answered when a man was needed for particularly nasty actions to be carried out - nobody else wanted the unpleasant task of putting their flesh or name to the work of Collectivization, Kulakization, securing agricultural productivity, etc...Trotsky, Bukharin, et al were silent when calls to duty such as those were made. Nobody else had the patriotic fervor to be willing to get their hands that dirty. Lenin created just the monster Russia needed to fulfill his vision. And then the monster turned on him before dragging Russia, kicking and screaming at first, and then in fearful silence, into the 20th century.