Ivana Dolezalova is less worried about Russian disinformation than Czech historical amnesia. A recent survey suggested that half of young Czechs had no idea what had happened in 1968. She also sees disturbing parallels between 1970s communist "normalisation" and contemporary Czech politics, which has lurched to the right since the migrant crisis.
"Of course it's taking a different shape, but it could become a kind of authoritarian regime. The problem I have with my compatriots is that lots of them would not mind it," she told me. "Many people, especially in the countryside, will tell you that if Putin was in charge at least there would be order," Ivana said. "The borders would be closed. And the worst thing is they wouldn't mind being closed in."
This is a country with tremendous wealth equality, essentially full employment, a strong economic dependence on the E.U., and absolutely no "migrant" crisis : it has far more protesters than refugees. Wealth equality and high* employment rates are laudable goals, but are useless in the face of... well, I've got at least one (probably two) colleagues who are sympathetic to Trump/Putin and others who believe in astrology and are more worried about shark attacks** than drowning. And we had a genuine Flat Earth sympathiser turn up at an open day. Oh, and for some reason there's a large group of MOND devotees here. Weird place. No stranger than Britain, I suppose...
* Not full. Full means labour shortage, so you get people doing crappy jobs who can't be fired because there's no-one to replace them. Oh, and contrary to predictions, full employment doesn't seem to cause much in the way of rising wages here. I earn less than I did as a PhD student.
** Not in the Czech Republic. That'd be a whole other level.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45168062
If I lived in eastern Europe I’d be even more twitchy than I am now.
ReplyDeleteI think if I lived in Ukraine I would’ve tried to leave by now.