4 ms·

> I come from former communist country and you are absolutely right - everybody had to work, both men and women, not having a job was a straight ticket to long

> I come from former communist country and you are absolutely right - everybody had to work, both men and women, not having a job was a straight ticket to long and nasty jail. Of course that's artificial, so lower classes had absolutely meaningless jobs just to tick checkboxes. Come on, many jobs back then weren't what you would consider a job these days. And after work, you were free to do whatever you wanted. No on-call duties, no late-night catch-up after hours, etc. At least there was a sense of community—everyone knew and helped each other. There were a lot of bad things, especially in the economy. But there were also a lot of good things in society that were killed by capitalism and a Darwinian society.

atemerev 2y ago
Were you also living in a communist country, or you speak theoretically?
- lossolo 2y ago
  I was.
jajko 2y ago
Nobody says there was nothing good. There was no organized crime, there were no drugs apart from cigarettes and alcohol, but alcoholism was and still is rampart and ignored, and so was lung cancer. People lived in literal reality bubble compared to rest of the world and were brutally naive in many aspects (just like you would expect North Koreans to be naive about many aspects of the rest of the world). That naivity hit hard when iron curtain fell, the concept of defending democracy and 'fighting' for whats good in life and society is simply too alien, even now. As long as you kept pretending all is good and you don't mind lack of basic freedom, system largely left you alone, you just couldn't travel or say what you wanted. But that pesky freedom is something you can't keep ignoring for your whole life. But if any of your ancestors or even more distant family said or did anything even mildly perceived as non-alignment even decades ago, then your kids who could be brilliant students, were forced to do to worst trade high school (since they were mandatory just like employment) and banned from universities or many other aspects of society. This is story of my mother, 1st in economic university entrance exams, banned because my grandfather stepped away from communist party when soviet union invaded us in 1968, more than a decade before. Stories like this are everywhere if you care to ask, brilliance was punished as a threat to regime and mediocrity and bowed head was celebrated.

atemerev 2y ago

Were you also living in a communist country, or you speak theoretically?

lossolo 2y ago
I was.

jajko 2y ago

Nobody says there was nothing good. There was no organized crime, there were no drugs apart from cigarettes and alcohol, but alcoholism was and still is rampart and ignored, and so was lung cancer. People lived in literal reality bubble compared to rest of the world and were brutally naive in many aspects (just like you would expect North Koreans to be naive about many aspects of the rest of the world). That naivity hit hard when iron curtain fell, the concept of defending democracy and 'fighting' for whats good in life and society is simply too alien, even now. As long as you kept pretending all is good and you don't mind lack of basic freedom, system largely left you alone, you just couldn't travel or say what you wanted. But that pesky freedom is something you can't keep ignoring for your whole life. But if any of your ancestors or even more distant family said or did anything even mildly perceived as non-alignment even decades ago, then your kids who could be brilliant students, were forced to do to worst trade high school (since they were mandatory just like employment) and banned from universities or many other aspects of society. This is story of my mother, 1st in economic university entrance exams, banned because my grandfather stepped away from communist party when soviet union invaded us in 1968, more than a decade before. Stories like this are everywhere if you care to ask, brilliance was punished as a threat to regime and mediocrity and bowed head was celebrated.