Who wants in? We can talk about what is was like to write a letter to your grandma or having no other way to ask someone out other than by calling them on the phone. Or checking out movies at Blockbuster or whatever your national equivalent was (we usually checked out videos at the grocery store, actually).
We’re cool because we can actually remember the USSR and “East” Germany. Although not as cool, I can remember when homophobia and transphobia was so much more widely accepted and the “default” position for most Americans. Not as cool.
One of the little pleasures of becoming commie is recalling how the GDR was portrayed in the US as some horrific nightmare state at least as awful as the DPRK is today, only to find out that, even though they had some problems, it was actually a pretty chill place to live (if anything complaints I’ve heard from former residents of the GDR was that life was a bit too boring).
An example of what I mean btw… our church had a missionary to West Germany that visited. He told us in the East, there was a bus of schoolchildren from the West driving through. The police boarded their bus and found a Bible, so they pulled all the kids out and shot them. Literally all the grown ups in my church uncritically believed this story.
Those slanderous things luckily can’t survive the internet. But the sentiment can. The lies evangelicals tell is absurd.
FWIW, it was grey as fuck, the time tax to get basic life done was pretty absurd—and typically fell on women, and the controls on movement were suffocating.
I wouldn’t wish the GDR or USSR back into being, nor would I wish this capitalist shit-show on anyone.
That’s fair, I mean I can perhaps be a bit overly optimistic about life in the GDR given what life is like here, and I’m an American so I’m not an expert. But keeping this post light-hearted so it’s all good.
True, but it was much less than now for plenty of things in the USA right now. This includes healthcare, child care, universities, education, holidays, public transport, funnily even flats at this point if you are looking at SF or Berlin.
Pretty much everything you needed for everyday life or a substitute you could get fast. What was your experience living there?
Sure there was “Bückware”, but the standard of things you could get without large time expenditure was decent and much better than it is now for plenty of poor in the USA. With the advances in productivity and technological prospects since then what level of consumption could we create now? With near instant availability and stock information for consumers, retail, logistics and producers?
With plenty of green areas in which trees had to grow (you see it now) and also a ton of Lauben/Datschas and regular holidays in greenery. Cities could’ve been much more colorful indeed.
Actually, re-reading your comment, did you grow up in the GDR? If so I would love to hear more about your experiences, even if they are critical or negative. I am fascinated by how socialism was implemented in the GDR, and what lessons we can learn from it going forward. It was the AES state that had the most developed form of capitalism when socialism was implemented, so I think there is a lot to learn from.
The “time tax” in the FRG on women was higher with the demands for sole child care with relatively little external child caring services from the ages of 0-18 (and schools which weren’t open long).