alt Hacker News> But in the context of discussing the Eastern Bloc it does become psycho-mysticism
The comment was made by a Bulgarian who actually lived under the regime and explained what he meant. The psycho-mysticism is entirely in your head.
> the real meat is in the discussions on the grand projects like the pitfalls of monocultural forestry.
You mean like, I dunno, Gosplan? Which was the point of the comment that you so strenuously objected to?
Communism deservedly lies on the ash heap of history. Attempts to rehabilitate it by feigning nuance should be met with derision and contempt.
> The comment was made by a Bulgarian who actually lived under the regime
I’ll listen to the regime sufferers on the topic of breadlines. I don’t put any more weight to their opinions alone on topics like how the communist mind is drawn to the determinism of computers. Tsk tsk.
> and explained what he meant.
After I made my own comment.
> You mean like, I dunno, Gosplan? Which was the point of the comment that you so strenuously objected to?
Huh? That you think that it is an own to point out that the “State Planning Committee” (according to Wikipedia) was a state-seer is not obvious to me.
Yes of course the book Seeing Like a State discusses, among other places, seeing-like-a-state in Communist states. What kind of a rejoinder is that?
The reason why I brought up the book is because it is a non-infantile treatment on “seeing like a state”/totalitarian thinking seems to work (precisely by not making it the focal point). Yes, of course it is relevant to Soviet state planning.
> Communism deservedly lies on the ash heap of history. Attempts to rehabilitate it by feigning nuance should be met with derision and contempt.
Like you did with user vidarh you seem to be ascribing an ulterior motive where you have no evidence or reason to. Be careful about that.