Hungarian Goulash Communism

[TheWannabeAnarchist]

This is an article written by a woman who grew up in Communist Hungary in the 1960s and '70s. I have to say it's very interesting:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221064/Oppressive-grey-No-growing-communism-happiest-time-life.html


I loved my schooldays, and in particular my membership of the Pioneers - a movement common to all communist countries.

Many in the West believed it was a crude attempt to indoctrinate the young with communist ideology, but being a Pioneer taught us valuable life skills such as building friendships and the importance of working for the benefit of the community. 'Together for each other' was our slogan, and that was how we were encouraged to think.

As a Pioneer, if you performed well in your studies, communal work and school competitions, you were rewarded with a trip to a summer camp. I went every year because I took part in almost all the school activities: competitions, gymnastics, athletics, choir, shooting, literature and library work.

On our last night at Pioneer camp we sang songs around the bonfire, such as the Pioneer anthem: 'Mint a mokus fenn a fan, az uttoro oly vidam' ('We are as happy as a squirrel on a tree'), and other traditional songs. Our feelings were always mixed: sad at the prospect of leaving, but happy at the thought of seeing our families again.

Today, even those who do not consider themselves communists look back at their days in the Pioneers with great affection.

I know living under state capitalism wasn't a utopian socialist paradise. But it still really helps you overcome the images you were brainwashed with in school of empty market shelves and KGB agents rampaging around eating babies. Life was pretty good in some Warsaw Pact countries.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Yeah, you right

[Sea]

This has been posted before. Oh well. It's always nice to hear that life in some capitalist countries is different than life in other capitalist countries.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Well, let's consider this. It has been said by some that the Pioneers was a program of political propaganda.

Here we have a person who went through the program defending its fantastic ways.

She may be right, and her testimony is valid, but her reliability is potentially undermined by the fact that, if it was a propaganda program (and I don't know enough about it to make a judgement either way), then she is just repeating the mantras of that propaganda program.

[Sea]

Well, let's consider this. It has been said by some that the Pioneers was a program of political propaganda.

Here we have a person who went through the program defending its fantastic ways.

She may be right, and her testimony is valid, but her reliability is potentially undermined by the fact that, if it was a propaganda program (and I don't know enough about it to make a judgement either way), then she is just repeating the mantras of that propaganda program.Including the squirrel thing?

[Tim Cornelis]

You seem kinda surprised that people had normal lives there, and had fun. Weird.

[TheWannabeAnarchist]

You seem kinda surprised that people had normal lives there, and had fun. Weird.

Well, yeah, I suppose I do, although there was no need to say it in such a condescending way.

[Црвена]

I can believe this, and I can believe that the West would try to cover it up. But it still reminds me of the indoctrinated children of 1984, who if they were suddenly put into a corporate capitalist (as opposed to state capitalist) society would still be indoctrinated.

[motion denied]

People can live in the worst baby-eating party dictatorships and still have fun, y'know.

I live in a capitalist hellhole, get beaten by the police every so often etc and still manage to come to RevLeft and have a laugh.

Some sound like DPRK apologists "I went there and people were laughing and having fun". No shit, bro, they're human beings.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

People can live in the worst baby-eating party dictatorships and still have fun, y'know.

I live in a capitalist hellhole, get beaten by the police every so often etc and still manage to come to RevLeft and have a laugh.

Some sound like DPRK apologists "I went there and people were laughing and having fun". No shit, bro, they're human beings.

The thing is, that is often forgotten in official propaganda. According to certain "Western" sources, fun is not possible in North Korea, and in fact there is probably a law against it. North Koreans are drones who spend what little time there remains after praising the glorious leader the whole day eating their children.

Likewise with "socialist" Hungary. Singing about squirrels doesn't prove anything about the class character of the MSzMP government, but it does help dispel ridiculous emigre stories.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

It's still weird and funny to me the conceptions of former and current Communist states. It's also weird to me that the West never sees how brutal and evil it actually is. It's like that douchebag at a party who's way to drunk and thinks twit douchebaggery is cool and non-offensive. The West is pretty totalitarian, you just have an invisible shock fence instead of an iron curtain.

[TheWannabeAnarchist]

The thing is, that is often forgotten in official propaganda. According to certain "Western" sources, fun is not possible in North Korea, and in fact there is probably a law against it. North Koreans are drones who spend what little time there remains after praising the glorious leader the whole day eating their children.

Likewise with "socialist" Hungary. Singing about squirrels doesn't prove anything about the class character of the MSzMP government, but it does help dispel ridiculous emigre stories.

Exactly.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Hungarian "Goulash Communism" is actually very progressive consumer policy for countries where the working class is outnumbered by the urban and rural petit-bourgeoisie. Two lessons need to be learned, though:

1) Strip this policy of "Communist" labels and illusions.
2) Strip this policy of indebtedness to foreign countries.

[DOOM]

Well, let's consider this. It has been said by some that the Pioneers was a program of political propaganda.

Here we have a person who went through the program defending its fantastic ways.

She may be right, and her testimony is valid, but her reliability is potentially undermined by the fact that, if it was a propaganda program (and I don't know enough about it to make a judgement either way), then she is just repeating the mantras of that propaganda program.

Well it was, at least in Yugoslavia.