(Stoic Russian peasants get the daily news from Pravda. Everyone was happy, without exception, except for malingerers and social misfits who needed long-term professional care. Photo Wikipedia).

Yesterday was a day when belief was suspended. There was so much to process this week- so much of it sad and depressing after the excitement of a wonderful trip that included the fellowship of friends old and new, the miracle of the next generation doing what generations do: striving, changing diapers, rising in the world.

There are several people who will not enjoy any of that, not after the gunfire of this week.

I ignored the television and any media inputs that were not directly delivered to the screen in front of me. I swam and continued to listen to my audiobook “Child 44,” a horrific account of disgraced MGB officer exiled to the provinces who seeks redemption in the search for a serial killer in Stalin’s Russia.

The effective hook in the book is that no one is interested in what we would call justice. To be accused is to be guilty; to associate with someone is to take the risk of being denounced by those who dislike or envy your associate; that criticism of the State is grounds for a stiff 25-year sentence to the Gulag, or something quicker and worse.

It is depressing to be cheering for the success of a disgraced MGB officer- but Tom Rob Smith brings it off. The account of citizen interactions with the Border Guards and the Militia, the routine humiliation and real fear of what could happen to anyone at random…it is not what I would have chosen to listen to this week, if I knew what was coming.

There are more things that echo in the spoken word of that dark time, when the ironic jest went: “There is no news in Izvestiya, and no Truth in Pravda.” If you dared to jest, that is. Better to remain silent and not express a view, or do nothing, rather than face the prospect of being accused of incorrect thought or action. Such behavior could cost you a career, a family or even a life.

The Party vanguard was ushering Soviet Citizens on their way to a perfected world, one of complete equality. Of course, even the Party acknowledged that there might be imperfections that needed to be crushed along the way to the bright future.

I could go on. The Russia I had a chance to visit in 1998 had evolved a bit, but there was still a hint of the old ways in the state institutes we visited, and there has been considerable backsliding since under Mr. Putin. But I am struck by the number of things that oddly resonate from the dark days of the USSR to these days in the Good Ole’ USA.

Political Correctness is just one of them. Notice something obvious and you can be accused of failure to adhere to the accepted line. There are higher truths. Noted Academics have said so. If you do not recognize them, you could be accused of anti-science flat-world views, which must be expunged in the interest of the glorious future.

I could go on about some of the more blatant examples, fresh just this week, but why be a lightning rod for the wrath of true believers? You could be electronically stoned in the court of Twitter or Instagram, publically humiliated for the failure to adhere to the simple truth. If one pointed out that super-heated rhetoric about just about anything- say, Law Enforcement- can have dramatic- and not unforeseen- consequences, one could be accused of insensitivity or much, much worse.

I have noticed a certain tendency in my work of late toward self-censorship. I dislike it, but I am a veteran apparatchik and know from experience how this works. There are topics I simply will not raise in public. Well, maybe at the Front Page Bar, but I have no idea if there are informers there. Or whether my internet account has been flagged by the people at The Fort, who are just keeping us safe from ourselves, right?

I mean, now that the cat is out of the bag regarding the Too Big to Fail and Too Important to Jail aspect of the new order, it is only common sense.

We must adhere to the Agreed Narrative, right? We should not deviate from the pre-determined arc of history that will bring social justice to us all, right?

It is all in the interest of something or other. Doubt it? You can always pick up a copy of Izvestya, or whatever we are calling it here. The News?

Copyright 2016 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com