A listener shares his life story of growing up in Communist East Germany, living in a Gnostic cult commune in Bavaria, and learning to think for himself
Gail and I found your interview with Emanuel Goldstein fascinating. Well done! Goldstein took us down a truly dystopian path with his unusual (to say the least) life story and his (or his mother’s) gnostic perspective of Soviet communism. Contradictions abound. Soviet Marxism called religion “the opiate of the people” and banned religion, but in Goldstein’s experience the Soviet elite( meaning members of the communist party) were gnostics who (if his mother was truly representative of the gnostics) believed in magical (dare I say religious) thinking e.g. dressing a boy as a girl and assuming that this itself would actually make ‘him’ into a’her’! it’s a credit to Goldstein that he was able to survive to tell his incredible story!
Hi Mike, I really enjoyed our talk and I think it turned out great. Hope it didn't get toooo long. But, you kinda forgot to put me under "Appears in episode" - so I am just leaving a comment instead, so that people know that I have a substack as well ;-)
It was great speaking with you too, Emmanuel. I tried adding you as a co-author on the episode but it didn't work for some reason. I'll try to fix that.
Listening right now. Your podcast is never less than excellent, Mike, but "haunting" is the closest qualifier I can apply to this episode. This dude! What a life he's lived, and to come out the other end so seemingly even-keeled. Bilingually so, to boot. Amazing.
(Edit: qualifier, not classifier. Not my first language either 😅)
Yes, it really was incredible going in pretty much blind and finding out what he had been through. It was so generous of him to be so open as well. Thank you for listening!
Gail and I found your interview with Emanuel Goldstein fascinating. Well done! Goldstein took us down a truly dystopian path with his unusual (to say the least) life story and his (or his mother’s) gnostic perspective of Soviet communism. Contradictions abound. Soviet Marxism called religion “the opiate of the people” and banned religion, but in Goldstein’s experience the Soviet elite( meaning members of the communist party) were gnostics who (if his mother was truly representative of the gnostics) believed in magical (dare I say religious) thinking e.g. dressing a boy as a girl and assuming that this itself would actually make ‘him’ into a’her’! it’s a credit to Goldstein that he was able to survive to tell his incredible story!
You deserve more comments, M.F.
_____
The more things change . . .
The Political Economy of Genocide - Genocide & Economics.
https://les7eb.substack.com/p/genocide-and-economics
_____
Free to subscribe.
A fascinating interview. A testament to the human spirit.
Hi Mike, I really enjoyed our talk and I think it turned out great. Hope it didn't get toooo long. But, you kinda forgot to put me under "Appears in episode" - so I am just leaving a comment instead, so that people know that I have a substack as well ;-)
It was great speaking with you too, Emmanuel. I tried adding you as a co-author on the episode but it didn't work for some reason. I'll try to fix that.
Listening right now. Your podcast is never less than excellent, Mike, but "haunting" is the closest qualifier I can apply to this episode. This dude! What a life he's lived, and to come out the other end so seemingly even-keeled. Bilingually so, to boot. Amazing.
(Edit: qualifier, not classifier. Not my first language either 😅)
Yes, it really was incredible going in pretty much blind and finding out what he had been through. It was so generous of him to be so open as well. Thank you for listening!