Monday, August 25, 2008
Sign directing visitors to the Museum of Communism in downtown Prague
UPDATE: I visited the Museum yesterday. They're very proud of their independent (non-state supported) status, and they're proud of their location near a McDonalds and a casino.
The displays described how the communists gained power in Czechoslovakia and how they held on to it for decades, despite the fact that communism was ruining the country. They illustrated how the communist government failed to feed the people, they described the way communism uses black markets, anti-Americanism, the delusion that capitalism is evil, that communism is the wave of the future AND extensive spy networks to maintain power. They showed, with many pictures, how the government destroyed the environment.
But still, at the end of the tour, the guestbook was full of comments from clueless French, British and Italian visitors proclaiming the joys of communism. Some people never learn.
UPDATE 2: El Marco's photographs from protests at the Denver convention show that we have the same problem in America. Some of these folks obviously haven't experienced firing neurons since 1969.
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I guess we know how the Czech government feels about Communism. The McDonalds as a backdrop says as much as the sign.
I don't think the government supports the Museum (the Museum is very proud of its capitalist foundation, and its location near McDonalds and a casino), but the Czech republic is definitely anti-communist.
The museum's displays showed how the communists gained power and how they held on to it for decades, despite the fact that communism was ruining the country. They showed pictures of how the communist government failed to feed the people, they showed how the government destroyed the environment - and still, at the end of the tour, the guestbook was full of comments from clueless French and Italian visitors proclaiming the joys of communism. Some people never learn.
Hope you got some real Budweiser there...
The world has no shortage of stupid people, that's for sure.....
BHG