love my Oma, she's turning 90 next week (born 1934!) and was the first person I came out as bi to. Defo hanging one or two of these up in my dorm
Whenever people imply communism = lack of incentive for human greatness, I think about how my grandparents had lower class parents and were extremely poor (even starving) in their post-war childhood, but ended up leading pretty impressive lives, despite knowing they wouldn't live much above the material reality of their neighbors for it.
My grandma was an interior architect and my grandpa an astrophysics professor and professional photographer. Both were gymnasts in their 20's (my grandpa has a couple medals below). They didn't do any of that shit for luxury, they figured they'd lead a modest life in the standard plattenblau housing block as the other working people of their town (small but cute and cozy apartment, I was there not too long ago), and that's what they wanted.
They never needed to drive a car in their lives, and often visited countries across the Eastern Bloc by bike/public transit. My grandma always had a thing for making fruit preserves and cool pottery (still killing it), and my grandpa for art from wood carving (he was also a mountain climber). They had a nice community garden they always tended to too. It's a beautiful town with a lot to see, honestly can't wait to visit again
My mom was 19 when the Berlin Wall fell. She studied english abroad when everything went to shit under capitalism. Ended up moving to the US just because she met my dad. Usually when she tells an American she grew up in the DDR, they look all shocked and ask some insane shit like if she was starving to death, or if she knew anyone who was shot and killed trying to climb the wall (💀⁉️). Certainly no one was starving by the 70s/80s. My mom and all her friends and acquaintances had great childhoods. She had a small town, middle of nowhere school system that pushed sports, music, art, multilingualism, sciences, etc. on her heavily (when I did track and field in high school she always told me how her school's facility was 10x better lmao). The DDR fostered genuine human greatness. But ig they didn't have bananas at grocery stores and a hundred car brands like the west 🤷♂️
I don't understand why they want to be more virtuous than other people, either! 😂🤦 doesn't it make much more sense to want everyone to have the same amount of virtue???
I think maybe my lack of competitiveness makes it hard for me to understand why anyone wants to be perceived as "better than" others.
It is a bit odd isn't it. Even in my occasional fantasies of ruling from a throne of skulls any power rush is just how much I'd finally be able to do to give people more agency and power over their own lives, individually and collectively. (this comment was authorised by the Campaign of Mardoniush for General Secretary of the World Union, 2035! Vote Mardoniush, Beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!)
you've got my vote
Calvinism. There's a christian ideology that holds that material status in life is a reflection of god's approval. Having less literally means one is less godly.
I don’t think it’s that lol. At least, it may just explain other phenomena in terms of theology. If you’re poor, hungry, cold, alone, and everyone you see who isn’t those things are very rich or at least richer than you, then wouldn’t it be a natural conclusion to think you must also be like that to elevate yourself from misery?
Of course, maybe you, specifically, wouldn’t think that way because of the different history and political books you’ve read. But we’re talking about the average person, and the average person back then in post war Europe and post colonial Asia, Africa, and the non-west Americas had just gone through multiple wars and slavery. I doubt they truly gave a shit about what God thought about their possessions. They know they were miserable when they were poor, and less miserable when they escaped poverty.