| | Personally, I don’t take these people seriously; they pretend to be so smart and know-it-all but could not predict the approaching collapse of the Soviet Union. I don’t believe America would be following a Russian scenario in the foreseeable future.
In Russia, the majority of population were slaves. Slavery was abolished in 1861 but the servile mentality remained. That’s why it was relatively (compared to America) easy to replace an old boss with a new one. Still, the Soviet power had to be brutally enforced, and millions died before it stabilized in some form. And here we come to the question: no matter how much brainwashing Americans get, where is a sizable chunk of population, ready to guard concentration camps, shoot people in a head, enjoy torture, and so on? Americans are heavily armed, here this kind of an occupation would also be associated with much more risk than anywhere else. While Russians and Germans had no problem finding enforcers, the Italian experiment with fascism hasn't been comparable to Russian or German “achievements.” Nations do differ (even if some former KGB types like to see it otherwise). The British may be very socialist but they have no Gulag yet.
Anybody who would try to repeat a Russian experiment in the US would find out relatively soon that enforcing socialism in the US is impossible. Americans can only do it to themselves by themselves ;-). Unfortunately, even an unsuccessful experiment can bring a lot of trouble.
On the other hand, America is changing, and will continue to change from a frontier country to a more mature state where the precious balance and social contracts are treasured far above individual freedoms and desires.
From the biological point of view, it very easy to see: when life is very hard, the amount of parasites living off the working host can only be very limited. Otherwise, both hosts and parasites would perish. The richer the nation becomes, the more people living off the working minority it is able to support; and parasites are getting more and more influence in forming the public opinion. Two biological fundamentals are in play: filling every possible ecological niche, and preservation of energy. If it is easier to pay taxes than to fight them, paying taxes is what the majority of people choose to do. America is rich enough to afford even more bureaucracy than we have now. More conflicts are coming; but just as all the rocks on the sea shore gradually become pebble, no matter what created them, a powerful volcanic eruption or a slow accumulation of sediment, any society is going to mature in time into some modicum of an illusionary stability. Technological advances only help this process.
One cannot preserve pioneering spirit in a bottle and use it as needed. Something that we are acutely missing now is a new frontier. Our planet has become too small; there is no place to escape anymore. Old ways that allowed people to feel empowered -- wars, expansion, and colonization -- are outdated, and don’t inspire any more. Also, given the modern technology, they could be self-destructive. The only place where we find new challenges and dangers, where accomplishments will have to be so enormous that there will be a real need for the great art to crown such achievements, is the Space. “Make no little plans…” – when schoolchildren will be taken to Moon excursions, to see the Earth and to take a ride in a moon-buggy (just as the one astronauts used), not only it will be a lot of fun but it will open their horizons beyond imagination. On the other hand, an attempt to resolve all our problems on Earth would be similar to a situation where a young man, instead of going out and building a new life for himself, stays home, sincerely trying to untangle centuries of family feuds. Was it ever possible?
While even in the darkest times there always have been some talented artists who simply could not do otherwise, and people who admired them, the wave of public demand for the great art always comes at times of victory, expansion, and free trade, be it Ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy or Victorian England.
In times of self-doubt, confusion and general disillusionment the great art offends the general public, for it reminds people of hopes and ideas they don’t trust anymore and prefer to forget. That’s what happened in the 20th century: destruction of the art by the elitist mafia was possible because of the general public apathy. However, it wasn't the only time when art subjects were intentionally ugly. Covered by the dust of history, old ugly things tend not to look as aggressive as the modern art scene, where the fight is still going on and the wounds are still fresh, but during their own time those old ugly things were just as bad.
I consider Frederick Hart the most talented sculptor of 20th century (at least the second half of it). It is highly symbolic that almost all Hart’s sculptures have their eyes closed in some dreamy state, floating in the clouds as if they don’t want to see, as if nothing outside is worth looking at, finding the only source of inspiration and strength inside. Depending on which path we choose, they might finally wake up, become creators themselves, and, just like Michelangelo’s David, step firmly on a ground and look straight into the world’s eyes.
And finishing with what I started – that video interview with a former KGB agent:
despite many people’s wishes to see US to be as miserable as they are, America is still different, it still does things nobody else can do. On October 4th, 2004 SpaceShipOne was the first private vehicle to make it in to space and after a second successful flight won the Ansari X-Prize.
Sorry for mixing KGB, space and modern art ;-). I took this text from my e-mail message to Alexandra York, which was mostly about art.
Recommended book “The Case for Mars” by Robert Zubrin
Also search for SpaceShipOne on YouTube – first space flight with no government financing.
(Edited by Maria Feht on 2/11, 8:09pm)
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