Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
I'm not so sure about that. I mean, I don't think our grandparents were all stupid and cowards. I think the opposite would better reflect the reality. People were idealistic, progressive, strove to overthrow worn and torn stigmas etc. I think the communistic ideology is smart and cunning, not the primitive and straightforward.
"Primitive and straightforward" was not about ideology. It was about brainwashing technology.

Of course there is nothing about "stupid and cowards". В тридцатые годы в СССР происходило что-то очень странное и уникальное. Какие-то очень глубокие и непонятные запредельные вещи. Современному человеку это представить невозможно, для него такое может быть только в измененном состоянии сознания: "вещества" и т.п. Существовала острая эйфорическая атмосфера какой-то немыслимой экзистенциальной свободы, в том числе и в лагерях, независимо от убеждений и судеб. До нас она доходит отражениями в тогдашних фильмах и книгах как прямо (Герман, Гайдар, Каверин...), так и косвенно (Булгаков, Ильф&Петров...) и даже через вторые руки (Искандер, "Стоянка человека", например.) Кстати, Михалков в первых "Утомленых солнцем" ухитрился ее воспроизвести. Обычные рациональные трактовки здесь не срабатывают. Я долго думал над этим и отчаялся подвести под какой-то шаблон.

Но сама технология, то есть последовательность действий властей, была достаточно простая.

like the word "USA" exactly. Even if you watch the reaction of Hanna some of the forum members here, you'd notice that. And that being said of the [relatively] open and intellectual members.
Yeah, you can say this is subjective and a problem of degree, not of quality. There are no exact proofs, still I feel a big difference between prejudice+templates and physiological rejection. It is very different. First is a controllable simplification tool of the intellect, second is an uncontrollable block for it.

Black or white? It's all relative, as usual.
Let us assume someone say you that black is white. What is your reaction? My reaction is: "oh, really? So, give the definition of black and white, let us see, maybe in some context it is really true". I can be skeptic but I can play around. The brainwashed in "black and white" guy (if such were) will fall into hysterics and start to abuse an interlocutor in a way he normally would find unacceptable himself.

I don't think the brainwashing is evil. It's just a part of the culture.
Everything is either a part of nature or a part of culture, still there are things we can get rid of. There are people invulnerable to that (I don't mean myself ) maybe there are even invulnerable cultures idunno.