On the one hand, I’m not a specialist, so I can’t evaluate Mary’s work technically. On the other hand, she seems to emote sanely, (by no means a universal trait among historians), so, there’s that.

I guess I sorta agree with the balanced view of East Germany. First, it was not a second German totalitarian state—no racist war, no genocide, despite the presence of a normatively speaking unlawful repression of some people some of the time. (I mean, the Stasi was bad, don’t get me wrong, but too much paranoia: COVID restrictions in 2020 were the second Nazi dictatorship, maybe the second Holocaust—here we go! Where it stops, nobody knows!) But second, it was a dictatorship, albeit a non-totalitarian one, that favored some and repressed others, and could not in the end pay its bills. East Germany was not a happy place. In the first years, paranoid socialists scowling at the people who had grinned at the death camps, and the last few years, the economy fell apart.

Part of the reason that I decided to get this book is that it’s a girl’s take on general history, white man’s history, which in this case paid off I think, because the 49th percentile man’s man historian is usually pretty—To war! Down with the capitalists! They rob us! And down with the socialists! They take our freedom! Fight, fight—fight on! —Which especially in the non-apocalypse scenario isn’t that helpful much of the time. (I do say the 49th percentile, and not everyone all the time.) And it’s also non-Nazi German history, general German history, which despite the endless demonic appeal of Hitler is nice. The demons don’t bring home all the bacon, just most of the animal-product bacon, lol.

…. It kinda comes across as sorta similar to the West, but a sort of knock-off version. They had similar problems—they had an unkind class system, youth/elder conflict, and the steely gaze of bureaucrats, but less money for everything. No genocidal war, but, you know.

—I think that the most important thing is not to have a leader named Hitler.
—That’s right! Everybody wins! *confetti or whatever and lights and carnival sounds* Everybody wins in the future, and the future is now!

But, you know. Gotta allocate resources. ^^

…. Of course, I don’t really know how I’d do it myself, if I could read German and all the rest of it, but I see a caution—I mean, there is a reason, because I wouldn’t normally see lying down in front of the tanks or (indeed) cracking heads to be positive engagement with society, but since there’s this Cold War paranoia about everything for some people, then you end up stressing the soul in the street, you know…. who just wants to get wasted and not take sides! (Everyone blames it on the outside agitators, but it’s everywhere the same, there’s no Ground Zero of drunkenness in world history.) It’s better to be engaged, to engage positively, to, in a way, take a side…. as poorly as speakers act, you know, when they feel entitled (in one way or another) to an audience. (Epictetus: Do philosophers issue invitations to a lecture, as though they were having a party? [No!].)

…. The thought hadn’t really occurred to me before, that a society could become less grounded or whatever in disputes about class, economic class, because of ‘atomisation’. It could, though, couldn’t it. You’re not ‘working class’, if it’s just you and the dog, and you growl at anyone who gets close enough to ask about meetings, let alone ‘unions’, lol! Interesting word! —No, I don’t want to unify with you! Rover! Rover! —K, Bye! (crazy old man).

…. And, yes, there was fear and control in East Germany; I wouldn’t make excuses for them, in that sense, like, for Anna Conformist it was swell!, you know, although it’s not a competition, right—Because they lived in Forbiddenland, I don’t know. Things were forbidden, and they were Them, and That is forbidden! lol. [Lol they hate their people and we hate their people.]

But either way you look at it there are a lot of societies that don’t want you to know what goes on in their prisons, you know.

…. What a boring place Germany can be. You forget, and yet it’s so obvious.