An Apologist for Totalitarianism

What better way to commorate the fall of the Berlin Wall than by putting on the rose-tinted specs and pretending that life in the former East Germany was actually something to be celebrated? From The Guardian:

Since the demise of the GDR, many have come to recognise and regret that the genuine "social achievements" they enjoyed were dismantled: social and gender equality, full employment and lack of existential fears, as well as subsidised rents, public transport, culture and sports facilities. Unfortunately, the collapse of the GDR and "state socialism" came shortly before the collapse of the "free market" system in the west.

It is particularly bold to state that there were genuine "social achievements" under the brutal, utterly oppressive totalitarian regime that was the GDR. What with it being the sort of nightmare dystopia that people literally died trying to escape from. If one was so inclined then one could probably find the genuine social achievements of the Nazi regime. Of course, any such social achievements would not stop the Nazi regime being one of the most hideous administrations in twentieth century history. Just as subsidised rent doesn't change the fact that the GDR was a brutal dictatorship that rendered its people as something less than human.

And to talk of a "lack of existential fears", as well as being deeply subjective, is also taking a very limited view on fear. Because even if there were no "existential fears" in the GDR, there was the constant, practical fear of imprisonment for lengthy period for "crimes" such as not agreeing with the state. If it is a choice between having freedom of speech and having subsidised sports facilities, I'll probably pay a bit more to go swimming and go for the former. Except, of course, I won't have to make that choice since most governments in liberal democracies subsidise sports facilities any-fucking-way.

Also, it is worth pointing out that the collapse of state socialism was completely comprehensive - it was rejected both as a political and economic model. The GDR - and the Soviet Union - collapsed under the weight of maintaining their own terrible hypocrisies. By contrast, the "free market" system in the West has never actually been tried; and the mixed economy model favoured in the West is still going strong, despite a major wobble with the latest dip into recession. Neither free market capitalism or a mixed economy is perfect; however, they are not based on a web of paper thin lies and do at least allow the people to critique those systems. Whereas in the GDR, you'd go to prison for doing such a thing.

It is telling that the writer laments the "demonisation of the country I lived in and helped shape." Because, and make no mistake about this, she is an apologist for a disgusting, totalitarian regime. She is defending the indefensible. Imagine if this article had instead appeared in The Daily Telegraph and defended apartheid. There would be a national outcry, with the like of The Guardian screaming about how terrible the article was. Yet there is very little difference between the old regime in East Germany and the former racist regime in South Africa. Both were about the suppression of the people. And the author of this article is no different from the South African who bitterly complains that life was better under apartheid. The only reason why the demise of the GDR is perceived as a bad thing is because it was bad for the author herself. But that doesn't change the fact that, just as the South African lamenting the end of apartheid comes across as a racist reactionary, so the person shedding tears of the death of the GDR is a communist apologist mourning the end of a sickening, totalitarian regime.