Cool! I actually only learned of the Stasi when I saw the film The Lives of Others a couple years back. great movie. What a horrible environment to have to live in... but if you view the hour long lecture by Naomi Wolf called The End of America (it's a book as well as a lecture/documentary) you'll see we have our own version of it here in the U.S. thanks to Bush's Patriot Act. But I know no country could have enough resources to monitor everyone. Plus the NSA and FBI and CIA don't necessarily work cooperatively. And anyway here they target journalists, primarily. That's why the popular news media here is nearly worthless. [I'm not on a watch list though My last airline ticket purchase only had a single "S" on it. That's the lowest in terms of internal threat level. The rating scale is "S" to "SSSS".]iratasan wrote:
entropy & , i think you have just given me my next possible print ideas. free prints coming up after release.
did you know that the stasi only had 10% of the population under serveilance + matching file? that was enough to raise the widespread paranoia so much that almost the whole population believed that they had a file on EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN = they'd watch EVERYONE.
i should improve my "newspeak" so that they won't put me in "room 101" at "miniluv".
Bayreuth Series 1 10 RATA
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when i was in school germany was still separated, but even though we got pretty much explained everything up to the separation, there was very little that we were told about eastern-germany in general and what's going on there. today, as i have more knowledge regarding that matter, it is all pretty shocking, especially the way western germany has simply "swallowed" up eastern germany created a cultural shock, which combined with the total lack of concept for the actual creation of a re-united germany on the politicians side lead to social and economical problems that we will most likely never overcome.
yeah, the east was a dictatorship. the state was spying on people, controlling books, music, journalism ... etc. a state that you can not leave or enter at will, surrrounded by an enourmous wall, right in the middle of europe. crazy, isn't it? people could not just simply buy a car. they had to APPLY for a car. as far as i know there were basically 2 types of cars possible:
a trabant, which gotta be one of the most terrible cars ever produced, and a lada, but you only had a chance to get that lada, if you are a member of the party. 5 years or so later you might were allowed to buy one, if they agreed to your application.
anyway, once the wall gotten torn down the ex-DDR crowd stormed all the stores for the stuff that they have been denied over the years, which is only understandable, but the bad part is, that they got exploited for the most part. imagine a whole country, whose population was refused any knowledge of ANY market. imagine that you have never learned, what you'd need to survive in a hostyle environment like todays corrupt scioal and political system and then get thrown into exactly that environment.
they were exploitable and sadly gotten exploited to the fullest. some sold their houses or even whole compannies for ridiculously low prices or got tricked into obvious scam which then ended for many in huge financial loss.
THAT is the politician's fault AND the fault of all the people that used it as a possibillity for enourmous personal gain at the cost of other people's personal loss, yes even misery or ruin. the prime minister at that time prefered to celeberate himself as the re-uniter of germany in those times of chaos after the borders were opened, instead of figuring out a plan to let both states together. well, therefore it never happened. not really. the german democratic republic was basically swallowed by the west. i could not instantly name a single company that had a huge name in the east that is not today owned by a huge western company, the job situation there is terrible, therefore the social system is in the shitter and over the years left a lot of disappointment and anger.
and as if that all would not be enough, it opened doors for more exploitations. a lot of people wish back their old dicatorship, because in the end they were better off in their eyes and in some way they really were. that brought a wave of "eastalgica", which lead them to buy the products that they remembered from the old days, forgetting that a) it is now owned by a western company so they are actually feeding the system that they think they'd refuse by buying "eastern" products b) it was not like they had chosen it over a different product in the GDR, they were forced into it.
and the kicker is, as it always in todays society, the politicians at the top don't do anything to improve it. as usual billions get spent on senseless fudge and the true problems don't even get considered.
i gotta check out "The Lives of Others", thank you very much for the tip.
the informations regarding the 10% surveilance = the impression of 100% surveilance i actually have from the "End of America" docu. it was a truly frightening experience to get all those extra informations, especially in direct comparison to what is happening in the USA. that's some truly frightening stuff.
yeah, man. that "watchlist" was one of the craziest parts. so, if you are related to someone that has done nothing, but shares the same name or even just a similar name to someone that the state considers suspicious then you are one the watchlist, even if your relative was an honoured war-hero? wow. just wow.
yeah, the east was a dictatorship. the state was spying on people, controlling books, music, journalism ... etc. a state that you can not leave or enter at will, surrrounded by an enourmous wall, right in the middle of europe. crazy, isn't it? people could not just simply buy a car. they had to APPLY for a car. as far as i know there were basically 2 types of cars possible:
a trabant, which gotta be one of the most terrible cars ever produced, and a lada, but you only had a chance to get that lada, if you are a member of the party. 5 years or so later you might were allowed to buy one, if they agreed to your application.
anyway, once the wall gotten torn down the ex-DDR crowd stormed all the stores for the stuff that they have been denied over the years, which is only understandable, but the bad part is, that they got exploited for the most part. imagine a whole country, whose population was refused any knowledge of ANY market. imagine that you have never learned, what you'd need to survive in a hostyle environment like todays corrupt scioal and political system and then get thrown into exactly that environment.
they were exploitable and sadly gotten exploited to the fullest. some sold their houses or even whole compannies for ridiculously low prices or got tricked into obvious scam which then ended for many in huge financial loss.
THAT is the politician's fault AND the fault of all the people that used it as a possibillity for enourmous personal gain at the cost of other people's personal loss, yes even misery or ruin. the prime minister at that time prefered to celeberate himself as the re-uniter of germany in those times of chaos after the borders were opened, instead of figuring out a plan to let both states together. well, therefore it never happened. not really. the german democratic republic was basically swallowed by the west. i could not instantly name a single company that had a huge name in the east that is not today owned by a huge western company, the job situation there is terrible, therefore the social system is in the shitter and over the years left a lot of disappointment and anger.
and as if that all would not be enough, it opened doors for more exploitations. a lot of people wish back their old dicatorship, because in the end they were better off in their eyes and in some way they really were. that brought a wave of "eastalgica", which lead them to buy the products that they remembered from the old days, forgetting that a) it is now owned by a western company so they are actually feeding the system that they think they'd refuse by buying "eastern" products b) it was not like they had chosen it over a different product in the GDR, they were forced into it.
and the kicker is, as it always in todays society, the politicians at the top don't do anything to improve it. as usual billions get spent on senseless fudge and the true problems don't even get considered.
i gotta check out "The Lives of Others", thank you very much for the tip.
the informations regarding the 10% surveilance = the impression of 100% surveilance i actually have from the "End of America" docu. it was a truly frightening experience to get all those extra informations, especially in direct comparison to what is happening in the USA. that's some truly frightening stuff.
yeah, man. that "watchlist" was one of the craziest parts. so, if you are related to someone that has done nothing, but shares the same name or even just a similar name to someone that the state considers suspicious then you are one the watchlist, even if your relative was an honoured war-hero? wow. just wow.
entropy wrote:Cool! I actually only learned of the Stasi when I saw the film The Lives of Others a couple years back. great movie. What a horrible environment to have to live in... but if you view the hour long lecture by Naomi Wolf called The End of America (it's a book as well as a lecture/documentary) you'll see we have our own version of it here in the U.S. thanks to Bush's Patriot Act. But I know no country could have enough resources to monitor everyone. Plus the NSA and FBI and CIA don't necessarily work cooperatively. And anyway here they target journalists, primarily. That's why the popular news media here is nearly worthless. [I'm not on a watch list though My last airline ticket purchase only had a single "S" on it. That's the lowest in terms of internal threat level. The rating scale is "S" to "SSSS".]iratasan wrote:
entropy & , i think you have just given me my next possible print ideas. free prints coming up after release.
did you know that the stasi only had 10% of the population under serveilance + matching file? that was enough to raise the widespread paranoia so much that almost the whole population believed that they had a file on EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN = they'd watch EVERYONE.
i should improve my "newspeak" so that they won't put me in "room 101" at "miniluv".
Wow, RATA! I'm glad you checked out The End of America. That's one of maybe 7 or 8 documentaries I wish I could mail out to each household in the U.S.
And I appreciate this thoughtful insider's view of Germany. I remember as a kid I read a fascinating 12 page essay by Neil Postman (author of Amusing Ourselves to Death) called "My German Question". It would be fascinating to compare it to your observations. It was written in 1985 though, before the tear down of the wall. He and writer Anthony Burgess (Clockwork Orange) were asked in 1985 to take a leisurely tour of Germany one summer then write down their observations. I don't remember the details, but I'd like to track down what Burgess had to say.
And I appreciate this thoughtful insider's view of Germany. I remember as a kid I read a fascinating 12 page essay by Neil Postman (author of Amusing Ourselves to Death) called "My German Question". It would be fascinating to compare it to your observations. It was written in 1985 though, before the tear down of the wall. He and writer Anthony Burgess (Clockwork Orange) were asked in 1985 to take a leisurely tour of Germany one summer then write down their observations. I don't remember the details, but I'd like to track down what Burgess had to say.
i remember reading somewhere that when the wall came down there was a massive Stasi operation already underway to destroy all of the paper evidence of their monitoring. if i can find the article somewhere, i'll post it up. i vaguely recall commercial paper shredders being destroyed as they chewed through the mountains of surveillance and then resorted to tearing by hand until the jig was up.
I hear Rata was raised in the wild by gazelles
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rata sucks.
pay via paypal, use credit card,file dispute at the 20 day mark if suspicious. don't deal with noobs. don't trade with noobs. request feedback ahead of time. there are lots of good people 'round here.