July 22, 2018
Soviets, Democrats, and the Captive Soul
By Sally Zelikovsky
Years ago, we flew into Newark airport in New Jersey after almost three years living abroad as expats -- mostly in St. Petersburg, Russia. (I realize that in today’s McCarthyesque environment with Robert Mueller at the head of the new Unamerican Activities Committee, that experience could land me in solitary confinement), but back then it was an “emerging market†and we were explorers on that frontier. While it was a dark, cold, and lonely experience, it was one that I would do again in a heartbeat.
It was living amongst the Russians that I got a glimpse into their soul through what I saw as “schizophrenic†eyes -- starving for products, stocked store shelves, decent food, shoes that fit, and mostly, the freedom to come and go as they please, vote as they please, and express themselves as they please without the iron fist and heavy boot of the State; and thrilled that the Soviet Empire had collapsed. While so many of them recognized the burden that now lay upon them -- to create a freer society than the one they inhabited for the last seventy-some years, and one that embraced capitalism as opposed to Marxism -- far too many others saw their new reality as a slap in their Slavic faces. After all, they were a superpower! Their man got into space first, they beat back the Nazis, they were more educated and cultured, they dominated the classical music and ballet world, cleaned up in Olympic after Olympic, and had vast natural resources that allowed them to be a nation unto itself without any need for anything from the outside world (except good ideas and groundbreaking innovations and, never mind the fact that they couldn’t extract most of those resources safely from the ground or bring them to market). Not only that, they were smarter than the stupid Americans.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/07/soviets_democrats_and_the_captive_soul.html
