> feudalism as a model of social identity. Shevardnadze seems to be making
> the same sort of "blood is culture" argument that Black nationalists and
> Christian Identity White Separatists in the United States share in their
> mutual assaults on multicultural (Internationalist) identity.
Before we hang Shevardnadze, let me squeeze in a cultural insight: not
that I am from Georgia (?) but at least from the same side of teh world,
politically at least. The problem in his country as in mine, Poland, is
that there are mechanisms missing to sieve through the dangerous
influences from the positive ones. And let's not kid ourselves nor are
they that present in the US. They may just be talked about differently, or
involve slightly different dimensions but yet of the same problem: isn't
it true that to become a president you still MUST be born in teh US? Can
one think of a better example of discrimination in relation to the ones in
the former USSR-political block?
So the problem is: if you bring the other kind, which is emotionally tied
to the other land, the countries as vulnerable as all postcommunist places
are find themselves in a danger that they are being sold out by those who
have money and so get to power and then legally sell our countries,
without necessarily resorting to the old tricks like military occupation
etc: money buys if not everything that most that counts in history.
Additionally these countries have no experience in self-ruling as the US
as well as the other good brothers of ours managed to help against this
discrimination which cost them little and in fact contributed, arguably,
to their growth at the cost of others and their lives. Remember that
people inpower now who ar ebetween 4--60 years of age spent if not all
then most of tehir lives in a system of brutality, murder, and tough
survival ethics. And if one thinks that countries like the US have a long
way to go while they did not experience a virtual coma-and deprevation
period in their history, think for the Georgian, Poles etc. There is a
good reason why I left and am not coming back: you've got to be a hero to
be able to live through it: I chose an easier path.
ania