Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski

This post has 11 comments with rating of 5/511

• 
  stenka25
  October 16th, 2018
  

  

  Thanks a lot for your sharing.

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  gerynh
  October 16th, 2018
  

  Actual Bulgarian here. Haven’t read the book yet, but the story about the bears is true. I still remember seeing bears walking in the center of the town, standing up whenever their gypsy master started playing the music. Interesting fact, you could also pay money, lay down on the ground on your belly and the gypsy will make the bear walk on top of you (not put its whole weight on you, just a few quick steps). It was considered it would bring you good luck.

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  spaniel1
  October 16th, 2018
  

  

  sartre100 - thanks for sharing this book.

  gerynh - thank you for your memories. It’s always great to ‘hear’ from people from European heritage and learn from them. :)

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  caesar963
  October 16th, 2018
  

  

  I echo spaniel1 - really interesting.
  Freedom imposes a huge reponsibility on the individual and some are not ready/able for its unexpected burdens.
  Thanks sartre!

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  Buzzlitejear
  October 16th, 2018
  

  

  Definitely going to listen to this. Sounds very interesting.
  Thank you gerynh for the insights - makes me believe the author is reliable.

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  ssafe05
  October 16th, 2018
  

  Read a review of this somewhere, maybe The Economist or something and am intrigued to read this.

  Thanks satre100

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  blubberguard
  October 16th, 2018
  

  

  gerynh - Quite a story! Thank you for sharing. :)

  Thank you also, sartre100.

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  Ferodaktyl
  October 17th, 2018
  

  actually the bear walking on the back of people was done for purpose of straightening the backbone.

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  Audi0books
  October 17th, 2018
  

  

  I have a Ukrainian friend who himself is an ex-Soviet soldier, as was his father and as was his grand father who was injured in Stalingrad. We travel from work together and he pines for the days of Soviet Union. He says that Ukraine has become extremely corrupt after the end of the USSR. He says that his mother was a teacher for 50 years and she is appalled at the situation now as teachers openly ask for bribe if you want your child to pass, healthcare is still free but the doctors ask for bribe before seeing you. He says that ordinary people are dying under the weight of this corruption. Corruption hurts the poorest majority most, maybe middle class journalists can’t fathom the misery suffered by the people below. Maybe this ‘freedom’ is a middle and upper class luxury. I will definitely listen to this one. Sounds very interesting.

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  petezete
  July 3rd, 2019
  

  Thanks sartre100 for the upload and thanks gerynh and Audiobooks for your comments on experiences from Bulgaria and Ukraine/USSR. Great to hear those first-hand stories.

  The issue I always find with certain approaches, as is the one describing this book, is the logical fallacy: they start with a wrong premise and then easily attach it or defend it (whichever suits the authors) - a classical strawman tactics.

  I don’t know about the book, as I haven;t had a chance to read it yet, but the description of the book is a classical example of this logical fallacy and strawman tactic.

  Let’s see why:

  “Witold Szablowski uncovers remarkable stories of people throughout Eastern Europe and in Cuba who, like Bulgaria’s dancing bears, are now free but who seem nostalgic for the time when they were not.”

  While the metaphor of a dancing bear is true (as many can confirm), the straw man setup is in the claim that people were not free in the past. This is a classic setup. Were people really not free? Who says so? Propagandist machine? Those who left the country and got a chance in their new country to talk about the dissatisfaction with their old country? It’s a complex topic why certain groups of people see their past in certain ways, with many reasons and many layers.

  One thing is relatively easy to check: most people in USSR and in countries mentioned in the book (the former socialist bloc) were actually quite happy with their life and their society. Free housing for life, free and high quality education at all levels, free and high quality medical care at all levels, long and paid holidays frequently free of charge in what was then “workers’ hotels” (now 3-5 star hotels), free holidays in spa centers, job security, public ownership over public goods and production, low to zero crime, low to zero corruption (except for petty corruption levels that creep in from time to time), justice for all, and so on. Of course people enjoyed the system.

  Were there issues and limitations? OF course! For example, it was against the law to say or write vulgar things about the president. So what? It was also against the law to say or write vulgar things about the Queen in the UK, but no one claims UK was a totalitarian regime. Another issue was that these systems were “younger” than their counterpart systems in the West, the countries started at lower economic levels, were less developed from the start, didn’t “enjoy” colonial past throughout centuries, didn’t accumulate stolen goods and slaves from across Africa, South America, India, didn’t invade Middle East and its oil fields, and so on, thus socialist countries really didn’t have a head start. And with this didn’t have enough educated people to run their socialist vision(s), projects, and economy in the best possible way. Things were not rosy, but far from the notion that people didn’t enjoy freedom. Women rights were much more and much faster elevated than in the West. People were “indoctrinated”, but this also meant “indoctrinated” against racism, colonialism, militarism, injustices of all sorts…

  Was that freedom or was that tyranny? You judge for yourself.

  “His on-the-ground accounts provide a fascinating portrait of social and economic upheaval and a lesson in the challenges of freedom and the seductions of authoritarian rule.”

  Again, was it really a challenge of freedom if people already enjoyed freedom in their previous (socialist) societies?

  Were those authoritarian rules, or were those political systems in which everyone participated and everyone gave inputs and politicians came from the ranks of ordinary people all the time (not from families running oil-related empires or from the super rich)? Was it wrong if people participated? Was it wrong if in every company workers had equal rights to elect representatives to represent their interests and if cleaners could vote together with upper managers and their vote and voice be heard? Was it oppression if cleaners could send their children to schools and universities in the short 30-40 years of socialism in East Europe?

  Seduction? Or a system that allowed people to take their destiny in their own hands and run their own collective?

  And yes, it was never easy to become THE ONE who sits on the top of the pyramid, be it USSR or USA or UK, simply because of the many layers of filtering and because there can be only one (or a small group) at that level, just as each company can have ONE CEO and smaller board (not hundreds at the CEO level). Everything else, everything below that final level, was open for everyone and positions were taken by ordinary people with no family connections. While it is true that in some socialist countries there were leaders who stayed in power for years and even decades, some of whom were competent doers and visionaries and some of whom were incompetent fools, this still doesn’t mean people didn’t enjoy good life and freedom.

  After all, freedom means different things to different groups. For some, freedom means to carry guns in urban places, in cities, in the 21st century, as if imaginary enemy or wild bears can attack any moment. For some others, freedom means to stand up against colonialism, racism, aggression, invasion, injustice. For some, freedom is an echo chamber in which “we are the most powerful, our armies are the strongest, we are the smartest, we are the chosen nation” echos from every radio and TV for the past 100 years. For some other, freedom is to live better than before, to have a job, to see new factories grow, new hospitals, new schools, to send children to school and see children become smarter than their parents and everyone enjoy higher quality of life than before while being satisfied with the ethics of such growth.

  Freedom is not unique, it is complex.

  What is not freedom? Invasion and war on other people and countries under the excuse of the protection of your own interests. That’s not freedom, that’s danger, that’s where Austria was in 1914 and where Germany was in 1930s and what led to WW1 and WW2. That’s not freedom, that’s collective madness. Mass media fuels that madness.

  Anyhow, straw man tactic… Bears did dance and, contrary to the claims of the book’s description, people were not deprived of freedom - people actually enjoyed both freedom and life; their countries just didn’t have as much accumulated wealth (that came with colonialist iron rule) as did some countries in the West. Those who immigrated to the West either criticized the East, or longed for East. If critical, we call them dissidents. If longing, we label them apologetic and not understanding freedom. Funny how this works exactly the same in really tyrannical systems…

  Something to think about.

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski
• 
  akoleva
  April 8th, 2021
  

  

  Great book, thank you!

  Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny - Witold Szablowski

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