Session 6 July 2024

[axj]

The most important events at that time were the tearing down of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989), the reunification of Germany (October 3, 1990) and the subsequent collapse of the USSR. But other events had to take place for this to happen:

● April 20, 1985, Gorbachev announces the Uskorenie plan, to accelerate the economic and social transformation of the USSR.

● January 1987, Gorbachev finally announces perestroika and glasnost as his two main reform trump cards.

● June 1987, laws are passed to give greater freedom to business, one of the first liberal measures in decades.

●August 24, 1989, end of communism in Poland.

● October 23, 1989, end of communism in Hungary.

● November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall falls, ending communism in the region.

I lived in the 1980s in the Soviet Union and it always seemed to me that the "opening" and fall of the Eastern Block (except China) was more of a positive thing, but was it really?

The late USSR system was somewhat repressive (much less than with Stalin), people lived in poorer conditions and could not even travel freely outside of the country. Communism was a sort of substitute religion and Lenin a kind of substitute Jesus. Religion was tolerated to some degree, but atheism was expected of everyone. Interestingly, going into space was spoken of in almost mystical terms ("being closer to the cosmos") and of course everyone was proud that the USSR sent the first person into space.

The thing is that "freedom and democracy" in the 1990s impoverished many people even more, while a few predators became billionaires and oligarchs. It was only Putin since 2000 who brought an end to the plundering, reigned in the oligarchs and as a result, the living conditions and incomes improved a lot over the following 10-15 years.

So it seems that while the USSR and the Eastern Block were pretty bad systems, their dismantling resulted in even more hardship, at least in the USSR (Eastern European countries that joined the EU seemed to fare better). China shows that an alternative would have been to reform the system to become successful economically (Russia is rich in resources), but at the same time it is questionable whether today's Chinese system is preferable to what Russia has now.

 

[Puma]

I lived in the 1980s in the Soviet Union and it always seemed to me that the "opening" and fall of the Eastern Block (except China) was more of a positive thing, but was it really?

Hi

Interesting because this event of the fall of the USSR is precisely an ambivalent event or as Laura mentioned:

(L) Yeah, well, isn't that what Mephistopheles said in Faust? You know, he who intends evil, but... something along the lines. Somebody find that quote from Faust. "He who intends evil but ends up doing good..." or whatever. ["I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good"].

For the people who lived under the communist regime it meant freedom, but after that they lived under the neoliberalism that produced Oligarchs on the one hand and poverty on the other. While for the rest of the world the effects of that event are being resolved in Ukraine and this may lead us to a Great War. The 4D Lords need to harvest and do not need many to rule/control us. The "humanero" (to quote Castaneda's word which is equivalent to chicken coop but of humans) is about to be harvested.

Ambivalent events appear to have a system-wide effect across space/time. While for some the effect may take weeks, for others it will take years or centuries, millennia? Like ripples in a pond when a stone is thrown into the water.
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You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.
Matrix, Merovingian.​