Despre Bucurie in Est si Vest aka About Joy in The Est and West by Andrei Plesu, one of the greatest luminaries in the world http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/05/despre-ingeri-by-andrei-plesu-10-out-of.html - 10 out of 10

 

Despre Bucurie in Est si Vest aka About Joy in The Est and West by Andrei Plesu, one of the greatest luminaries in the world http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/05/despre-ingeri-by-andrei-plesu-10-out-of.html

10 out of 10

 

 

Andrei Plesu is not just the most outstanding, imposing, remarkable local intellectual, he could be placed against, close, or at the same level with any other prominent thinker on the planet, with some small, dark spots – for instance, he does not get giraffes, or crocodiles, albeit he is amusing about this and so much more

 

The essays in this book have been presented as lectures in The West, where he explained some of the differences and similarities between the communist world, in which he (and yours truly) had lived and the capitalist system, which we were about to adopt in 1990, after Ceausescu had been deposed and shot dead

At the end of these lines, the subject of the 1989 Revolution will return, because I need to boast about my small role in it, and send you to a link which shows the copy of Newsweek…but then, that will be explained later – our brightest mind looks at Joy as it had been in the land of Ceausescu, where everything was in limited supply.

 

Most often, you could not find it, but the ‘national sport’ was to get out and run, whenever something, anything was sold at the alimentara or anywhere, and wait there in the long queue, with the hope that the generally small amounts would be enough for those that were not lucky enough to be at the head…

If in The West people have taken for granted bread, our philosopher says that, while on a visit there, he would enter the bakery and ask ‘do you have bread’, used with the answer he had back home, to the astonishment of the baker, what ‘do you mean, is there bread, this is a bakery’, so the two worlds were far apart…

 

Under a communist regime, one has very little, freedoms, food, entertainment are limited or not available, the author knew something has changed dramatically when he heard his neighbor come and say with exhilaration ‘they have olives at the shop, and there is no queue’, a tale told with his usual humor

It was not all Days of Wine and Roses http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/days-of-wine-and-roses-written-by-jp.html for with the fall of Ceausescu, the country soon discovered the multitude of problems it would have to solve, one of them being the missing elites, a subject that is explained by Andrei Plesu

Just about that time, in The West, elites were the target of irritation, the tendency was to try and ‘level things up’- indeed, Boris Johnson had won the elections, in the meantime he has been disgraced and ejected, with exactly that slogan ‘levelling up’ – and have everybody on the same treatment

 

Privilege is now a dirty word, but the notion that people with skills, the know how are missing is frightening, and that was what was discovered in The East, where communism had been fighting for decades against the best, promoting instead of knowledge, the ‘agitator’, the party cadre, the sycophants

‘it was not what you know, it was whom you know’ they used to say, and nepotism is the key, look at North Korea, where you have the third scion of a dynasty however much they advertise the fairness of their system ‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’, just as George Orwell has said so well http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/nineteen-eighty-four-by-george-orwell.html

 

The communists had decimated the elites, in all fields, and thus, after 1989, we were actually facing the restoration, without a prominent leader, an old apparatchik took power, the nomenclature, regained positions, and we still pay the price today, when the second generation of the old commies have taken power

Nevertheless, in my view, we have been extremely lucky in the president we have had for some eight years now, Klaus Werner Johannis, who is one million times better than Trump, Lula, never mind outright dictators, such as Putin, Xi, MBS and so many others…the world is facing crisis in The West and East

 

The Economist has a few recent articles on the crisis in the Middle East, which could lead to some cataclysmic chain reactions – America has the war in Ukraine to support -provided the House of Representatives would play the game…they have elected a fellow, Johnson, as speaker, who is a creationist, he believes the world was created in seven days, literally, and it is just a few thousand years old, everything the Bible says, he assumes, and then he is an election denier, so you could not get any worse, except perhaps for Jordan and quite a few other lunatics on this decaying right, a Republican party that would bring destruction, if it continues down this path – and there is the War in Gaza now

What if China decides to take advantage and say that with two wars, the US will not come to the rescue of Taiwan, if they decide to invade it, after all, their official policy is to take that island, never mind that the people there do not want to live in a Chinese dictatorship – they have had the chance to see the ‘benefits’ in Hong Kong – Xi had made it clear that economic development is not paramount anymore, yes, important, but they have other priorities – and taking Taiwan is such a major goal

Besides, if they lose initially in a conflict, then they can sell the notion that the gain of such a huge prize will compensate, but let me say it again, those tyrants do not care, they are provided with the best of the best, hardship does not affect them…

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”