Aside: I was shocked that HBO green-lighted such an obviously anti-socialist piece of work. Good for them!
As we watched characters die of radiation poisoning while the government leaders told the people preposterously false stories that there was no danger, wife kitteh asked, "How did they get to the point where they would do this to their own citizens?"
I pondered it and came up with this: Chernobyl is what happens when a society is built on a mountain of lies and those lies are more important than people. "Leadership knows what it's doing so you must obey their orders! Our power plants are safe and Soviet nuclear technology is world-class! Our workers, underpaid with nothing in the stores to buy, are dedicated, sober and competent!"
If you disagreed or pointed out contradictions, you were arrested and sent to the gulags or simply shot. The lies had to be preserved no matter the cost.
There are a few modern-day, American examples of this as well that I'll blog about in later days, but I wanted to share that one with you. Below is a collection of videos from the accident that I found interesting. Enjoy?
"How did they get to the point where they would do this to their own [subjects]?"
ReplyDeleteFor communists, this was moral progress: they used to *intentionally* murder their subjects, by the thousands and millions, and just to show that they could.