The League

Editorial oversight, anyone?

by Will · November 9, 2009

Will

Will writes from Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington, Virginia). You can reach him at willblogcorrespondence at gmail dot com.

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Jaybird says:

November 9, 2009 at 9:42 am

Check out the movie “Good Bye, Lenin!”, if you get the chance.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301357/

It’s a fairly sweet little comedy about a woman party member who has a heart attack before the wall comes down and goes into a coma then comes out and her kids are told by the doctor “She can’t have any stress or strains or shocks at all! At all!!!” and they have to recreate a little East Germany in their apartment.

It’s a straight-up apologia for all of the party members and the stasi and the institutional lying of the previous regime, of course. That makes the movie turn bitter in my stomach, somewhat… but it’s sweet on the tongue.

Anyway, I can completely understand the defensive retort of “it wasn’t all bad!”

That said, saying “if you ignore the secret police and the wall preventing anyone from leaving and the long lines and the oppression, you remember how tight the families were” asks me to ignore a lot of things that I’m not terribly inclined to ignore.

I’m pleased for you and your family, however. Did you know that we had tight families on this side of the wall, though?Report
NL says:

November 15, 2009 at 10:53 pm

this seems like a cheap shot unless you actually refute some of her claims. who benefits if we ignore or deny unfair conditions imposed on citizens of the GDR? i don’t think she’s being an apologist, she’s merely saying that most don’t acknowledge that there were unfair costs of the transition, and that the history should be more complex than, “the west won, democracy and capitalism made everything better,” which is indeed the prevailing narrative. surely that is no better than the argument you’re accusing her of which is “everything was better before.” she is not saying that.Report