tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13588125.post114171984753246285..comments2023-10-20T22:58:52.569+03:00Comments on Botanist on Alp: Iron in their soulsstockholm slenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16909107517362691387noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13588125.post-1141802786725293862006-03-08T09:26:00.000+02:002006-03-08T09:26:00.000+02:00Oh yes, it is a huge tragedy - what makes it so bi...Oh yes, it is a huge tragedy - what makes it so bitter is that they certainly did not reserve the awful second repression that basically destroyed the activist part of the tradition. In the Soviet Karelia there was much optimism, even utopianism led by the Finnish refugees. This was so brutally destroyed in few years in the 30's. Bitter harvest. The movement remained in Finland with much vitality but ever after the leadership was paralyzed and the ideology dead at heart.stockholm slenderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16909107517362691387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13588125.post-1141766536006267142006-03-07T23:22:00.000+02:002006-03-07T23:22:00.000+02:00You did a masterful job in managin to get so much ...You did a masterful job in managin to get so much information in such a short space about the issue that I have wondered for...well for ever.<BR/><BR/>Those early sympathizers of Communism were mostly idealistic men and women with the aim to correct the prevailing and rampant injustices and thus I can not have an animosity towards them. To me so many of them exhibited noble traits such as that there must be something else out there than just trying to take the biggest peace of the cake for myself. We have entered into a very greedy and selfish times again, and I can easily feel something they must have felt at the time. Naturally, having a wisdom of a hinsight and lots of books to read about subject I will not turn to Communism in order to solve the problems but then again if it was a year 1918, I am not so sure. Those early pioneers were, in my mind, not only heroic but profoundly tragic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13588125.post-1141753446231218722006-03-07T19:44:00.000+02:002006-03-07T19:44:00.000+02:00I have often wondered about the same thing. I supp...I have often wondered about the same thing. I suppose what these ideologies give to you is certainty, a fixed purpose - basically a faith. The modern world is unmoored, chaotic, full of insecurity and danger. In these conditions the call of certainty, of these terrible simplifications, is surely very attractive, however mistaken.stockholm slenderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16909107517362691387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13588125.post-1141743421396322252006-03-07T16:57:00.000+02:002006-03-07T16:57:00.000+02:00What is it in hateful ideologies that attracts peo...What is it in hateful ideologies that attracts people? I guess politics is always essentially about compromise and those who don't want to compromise support extremist movements. Communism and fascism are essentially anti-political.<BR/><BR/>Today it seems like almost the whole political class in Finland accepts democracy and the inevitable imperfections that come with it. Still, it's not so long ago these pro-USSR youths were quite a significant group in Finnish society.<BR/><BR/>But one good thing about the 1970s is that unlike 1918 and some other times in Finnish history, the resurgent Communism did not lead to violence. The supporters of Taisto Sinisalo turned their energies into politics and they never had a chance of coming to power through elections. In other countries like Germany, France and Italy there were these misguided communist youths who turned their energies into terrorism (RAF, Action Directe, Brigate Rosse).<BR/><BR/>Of course we're always talking about small groups of extremists when talking about terrorists. It's just interesting how Finland with the terrible history of political violence culminating in a civil war would later become a country where the prospect of political violence is very unlikely compared to most other European countries.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com