| Talking of armed police... 14:17 - Jul 31 with 3717 views | bluelagos |
I did something this morning that in the 80s would have likely got me shot. Will be doing it again tomorrow and on Friday morning too.
Any takers? Cyber pint for the first lucky guess... |  |
| |  |
| Talking of armed police... on 16:17 - Jul 31 with 945 views | Mercian |
| Talking of armed police... on 16:10 - Jul 31 by TheReturnOfCthulhu |
Ah,so it wasn't getting on the 70 bus to Braintree at the Bus station in Colchester, when your bus pass was only really valid from the Hospital then? Crazy days |
Or nearly getting tasered for walking with your friend around a lake near Swadlincote. Oh, wrong decade. That was in 2022. |  | | |
| Talking of armed police... on 19:33 - Jul 31 with 869 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Talking of armed police... on 15:49 - Jul 31 by bluelagos |
My partner is Eastern European and took part in protests just before the wall came down. She was a teenager at school and her teachers took her down to protest the evils of communist rule.
At a similar age, the extent of my political activism was a couple of anti-apartheid rallies. |
Bizarrely, I was on hallucinogenics for both The Tianamen Square thing and also the collapse of the Berlin Wall TV coverage.
My only regret is that I wasn’t old enough to have done the same for the Moon Landing.
As hat tricks go that would have taken some beating. |  |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 19:52 - Jul 31 with 854 views | bluelagos |
| Talking of armed police... on 19:33 - Jul 31 by Lord_Lucan |
Bizarrely, I was on hallucinogenics for both The Tianamen Square thing and also the collapse of the Berlin Wall TV coverage.
My only regret is that I wasn’t old enough to have done the same for the Moon Landing.
As hat tricks go that would have taken some beating. |
My experiences of drugs is very tame, though I did once spend.an evening dancing to the Happy Mondays with some tripping bushmen in the Kalahari desert, as you do. | |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 19:54 - Jul 31 with 855 views | bluelagos |
| Talking of armed police... on 16:10 - Jul 31 by TheReturnOfCthulhu |
Ah,so it wasn't getting on the 70 bus to Braintree at the Bus station in Colchester, when your bus pass was only really valid from the Hospital then? Crazy days |
Dave Cobb was a pr1ck, but I don't think shooting us was ever on the agenda.
Drunken Eric though... | |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 20:14 - Jul 31 with 827 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Talking of armed police... on 19:52 - Jul 31 by bluelagos |
My experiences of drugs is very tame, though I did once spend.an evening dancing to the Happy Mondays with some tripping bushmen in the Kalahari desert, as you do. |
That sounds exquisite.
I can’t remember being in a situation with any tribal people, although I am planning a couple of weeks on the Amazon next year so there is always hope. | |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 20:16 - Jul 31 with 822 views | Kropotkin123 |
| Talking of armed police... on 16:15 - Jul 31 by baxterbasics |
Still some like to sport the hammer and scythe (or sickle?) as a political statement. I don't know why we don't treat it with the same contempt as we do the Swastika, honestly. Communism has killed more after all. |
Communism has a more diverse history than fascism, like overcoming colonial rule, or ousting dynasties and dictators, and so on. It can't be seen through a narrow lens like Mao's China or Stalin's Russia, unless you are seeking to deliberately miss-represent.
If we take such a narrow view, we would need to retire many nation-state flags, such as the union jack, which has overseen the subjugation of ~400 million people and killed 10s of millions through wars and avoidable famines. |  |
| Submit your 1-24 league prediction here -https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/514096/page:1 - for the opportunity to get a free Ipswich top. | | Poll: | Would you rather | | Blog: | Round Four: Eagle |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 20:38 - Jul 31 with 794 views | bluelagos |
| Talking of armed police... on 20:14 - Jul 31 by Lord_Lucan |
That sounds exquisite.
I can’t remember being in a situation with any tribal people, although I am planning a couple of weeks on the Amazon next year so there is always hope. |
Yeah, was some evening.
South America is proper cool, you can reconnect with your rebellious side. Loads of anti establishment revolutionaries to meet and engage with. Loved seeing black mariahs with multiple dents from various riots.
They do it properly from what I saw. | |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 21:11 - Jul 31 with 764 views | jontysnut |
| Talking of armed police... on 15:40 - Jul 31 by blueasfook |
Did you bump into David Hasselhoff? |
Or George Smiley? |  | | |
Login to get fewer ads
| Talking of armed police... on 21:11 - Jul 31 with 766 views | Mercian |
| Talking of armed police... on 19:33 - Jul 31 by Lord_Lucan |
Bizarrely, I was on hallucinogenics for both The Tianamen Square thing and also the collapse of the Berlin Wall TV coverage.
My only regret is that I wasn’t old enough to have done the same for the Moon Landing.
As hat tricks go that would have taken some beating. |
I once was given a tablet which looked like an asprin with a bird carved into it. It made me feel really strange in a good way and made me desire very loud high tempo music. No idea what is was. [Post edited 31 Jul 2024 21:14]
| | | |
| Talking of armed police... on 21:14 - Jul 31 with 754 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Talking of armed police... on 21:11 - Jul 31 by Mercian |
I once was given a tablet which looked like an asprin with a bird carved into it. It made me feel really strange in a good way and made me desire very loud high tempo music. No idea what is was. [Post edited 31 Jul 2024 21:14]
|
Doves
I'm gonna get proper whooshed aren't I | |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 21:24 - Jul 31 with 739 views | Trequartista |
| Talking of armed police... on 16:00 - Jul 31 by blueasfook |
I think it was to do with his song "Looking For Freedom" which just so happened to become an anthem for the Berlin wall coming down and the re-unification of Germany. |
I remember thinking if i heard Wind of Change by Scorpions one more time i would go over there and build that wall back up again brick by brick. |  |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 23:28 - Jul 31 with 700 views | Mercian |
| Talking of armed police... on 21:14 - Jul 31 by Lord_Lucan |
Doves
I'm gonna get proper whooshed aren't I |
Ha. Like when really drunk I hugged a bloke I didn't really like and told him he was a good bloke. Unlike being drunk it did not end up in fisticuffs. | | | |
| Talking of armed police... on 11:00 - Aug 1 with 618 views | GlasgowBlue |
| Talking of armed police... on 15:37 - Jul 31 by bluelagos |
Yep. Rode from what was East Germany to West Germany. There is a cutting in the trees and even an old lookout where border guards would shoot anyone looking to escape the iron curtain.
Crazy to think this was happening in my lifetime. |
My aunt was visiting from Liechtenstein. She escaped East Germany with the rest of her family when she was a child, which I always knew but he went into more detail than I was aware and it was fascinating.
Her father was old enough to fight in the last months of the war and was captured by the Russians. After a few years in a POW camp he became a school teacher in what was East Germany. They had a relatively decent standard of living compared with most but unbeknown to him his brother was working for the British security services, smuggling information out of the east and into the west in books. He had used my aunt's father as a courier once without his knowledge.
He got. phone call in the middle of the night from his brother to say that his cover had been blown and that they had fifteen minutes to leave as the Stasi would be coming for members of his family. My aunt's father packed what few possessions then could in a suitcase and drove to West Germany with the Stasi in pursuit, machine guns firing, two kids laying on the floor of the car..
They dumped the car at the border and crossed on foot. When they claimed asylum the family were split and put into a detention camp where my aunt's father was interrogated for several weeks. My aunt and her sister, as children were given meals which they had to eat with the knife and fork on chains. She says she can still remember that experience like it was yesterday.
Like you say, amazing to think such thing happened in our lifetime. |  |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 11:02 - Aug 1 with 614 views | unbelievablue |
Berlin a huge blind spot in my travel history, especially given a) History postgraduate with an interest in the Cold War and B) German heritage. I must go asap. |  |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 11:15 - Aug 1 with 608 views | GlasgowBlue |
| Talking of armed police... on 20:16 - Jul 31 by Kropotkin123 |
Communism has a more diverse history than fascism, like overcoming colonial rule, or ousting dynasties and dictators, and so on. It can't be seen through a narrow lens like Mao's China or Stalin's Russia, unless you are seeking to deliberately miss-represent.
If we take such a narrow view, we would need to retire many nation-state flags, such as the union jack, which has overseen the subjugation of ~400 million people and killed 10s of millions through wars and avoidable famines. |
I am always reminded of this cartoon when I read posts like this.
| |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 13:16 - Aug 1 with 563 views | bluelagos |
| Talking of armed police... on 11:00 - Aug 1 by GlasgowBlue |
My aunt was visiting from Liechtenstein. She escaped East Germany with the rest of her family when she was a child, which I always knew but he went into more detail than I was aware and it was fascinating.
Her father was old enough to fight in the last months of the war and was captured by the Russians. After a few years in a POW camp he became a school teacher in what was East Germany. They had a relatively decent standard of living compared with most but unbeknown to him his brother was working for the British security services, smuggling information out of the east and into the west in books. He had used my aunt's father as a courier once without his knowledge.
He got. phone call in the middle of the night from his brother to say that his cover had been blown and that they had fifteen minutes to leave as the Stasi would be coming for members of his family. My aunt's father packed what few possessions then could in a suitcase and drove to West Germany with the Stasi in pursuit, machine guns firing, two kids laying on the floor of the car..
They dumped the car at the border and crossed on foot. When they claimed asylum the family were split and put into a detention camp where my aunt's father was interrogated for several weeks. My aunt and her sister, as children were given meals which they had to eat with the knife and fork on chains. She says she can still remember that experience like it was yesterday.
Like you say, amazing to think such thing happened in our lifetime. |
I kind of knew that people were desperate to escape but thought it was much more about freedom than say because they were fleeing imminent death.
We take it for granted, the right to challenge those on power, to tell it like it is, even when that is uncomfortable for those in power. I suspect I'd have lasted 5 minutes in an autocratic regime like that.
All power to your aunty and family. If they haven't you should get them to write it down, to blog it or their stories will be lost forever when they pass on. | |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 13:51 - Aug 1 with 547 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| Talking of armed police... on 11:15 - Aug 1 by GlasgowBlue |
I am always reminded of this cartoon when I read posts like this.
|
Some people are sympathetic to communism as they see capitalism creating an elite with all the power and wealth. Whereas with communism the elite…well they also have all the wealth and power, but with added purges and authoritarianism. |  | | |
| Talking of armed police... on 14:56 - Aug 1 with 527 views | unbelievablue |
| Talking of armed police... on 13:51 - Aug 1 by SuperKieranMcKenna |
Some people are sympathetic to communism as they see capitalism creating an elite with all the power and wealth. Whereas with communism the elite…well they also have all the wealth and power, but with added purges and authoritarianism. |
I am sympathetic to the ideals of Communism as conceived by Marx & Engels and their most influential predecessors (Seneca, Meslier, Restif, Hegel etc etc.). The relevance of it today? Not so sure. Das Kapital is not for 2024. The Condition of the Working Class in England is not for 2024. To apply that thinking to today is a very difficult thing, even core tenets or concepts, and ultimately quite facile.
This is not meant to be argumentative, but it feels either ignorant (fair enough) or disingenuous (a bit less fair enough) to present a blanket view of something as complex, nuanced, and politicised as the concept of Communism. [Post edited 1 Aug 2024 14:57]
| |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 15:05 - Aug 1 with 517 views | Kropotkin123 |
| Talking of armed police... on 11:15 - Aug 1 by GlasgowBlue |
I am always reminded of this cartoon when I read posts like this.
|
Not what I'm doing though, as I'm not a fan of communism, think it is proven to be a bad idea, and have a picture of someone as my avatar who was part of the first ideological group to confront the communists.
We can't deny situations like Nicaragua, where they had a three generation capitalist dynasty that murdered their own people, and the communist ideology gave them a collective courage and route out. Even with the US using money procured through illegal drugs to train paramilitaries (who systematically targeted teachers, nurses, etc in their killings), Nicaragua transitioned to a democracy, and would probably have less of a legacy of communism, if they didn't have to go through the US (capitalist) counter democratic assault.
The symbol of communism in these places is not one of starvation but one of access to food, not one of cultural revolution but one of access to education and literacy for the first time, not one of oppression but fighting an oppressor. In many ways not much to do with the ideology itself, but more the struggle.
My point stands, communism has a more varied history than fascism. If we banned the communist flag/symbols, we should ban colonial flags, such as the union jack, which have been devastating around the world too. [Post edited 1 Aug 2024 15:26]
| |
| Submit your 1-24 league prediction here -https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/514096/page:1 - for the opportunity to get a free Ipswich top. | | Poll: | Would you rather | | Blog: | Round Four: Eagle |
| |
| Talking of armed police... on 15:41 - Aug 1 with 491 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| Talking of armed police... on 14:56 - Aug 1 by unbelievablue |
I am sympathetic to the ideals of Communism as conceived by Marx & Engels and their most influential predecessors (Seneca, Meslier, Restif, Hegel etc etc.). The relevance of it today? Not so sure. Das Kapital is not for 2024. The Condition of the Working Class in England is not for 2024. To apply that thinking to today is a very difficult thing, even core tenets or concepts, and ultimately quite facile.
This is not meant to be argumentative, but it feels either ignorant (fair enough) or disingenuous (a bit less fair enough) to present a blanket view of something as complex, nuanced, and politicised as the concept of Communism. [Post edited 1 Aug 2024 14:57]
|
I’m certainly not ignorant of it, having an economics degree. I can sympathise with people losing faith in capitalism (albeit most seem to ultimately lash out at the impact of globalisation, and the results of the general decline of Western dominance). But communism is flogging a horse so dead it’s rotting in the street - ultimately giving control of virtually everything to the state is dangerous, and the totalitarianism that tends to follow is inevitable.
The one remotely successful communist country was Yugoslavia, mainly because it took a largely neutral position in the Cold War. But it was still a nation of many peoples held together with an authoritarian government - hence the bl00dy split that followed. Most of those countries, and the Eastern block now enjoy a much higher standard of living and freedoms. | | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
