- One of the most intoxicatingly irritating things about the past is people being absolutely floored and gobsmacked by things that seem quite ordinary.
- I am joking, mostly. Social mores evolve and public morals change, and in many
ways the history of the 20th century is the history of people rapidly getting used to things that once seemed absolutely inconceivable. - Still though. I’ll read something about the riots at the premiere of The Rite of Spring, or about people becoming weak and hysterical at a Fauvist exhibition and I just think: grow up.
- It’s impossible to imagine myself into the mind of someone who would have their world rocked by something like that.
- I do not say this in an effort to come across as “urbane” or unshockable. It’s more just that I never feel as disconnected from previous generations as I do when thinking about how the grandparents of Britain became inconsolable at the thought of The Beatles. Just GROW UP.
- This is why “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences” is so good. I have no trouble at all in grasping that it was one of the most shocking things its audience had ever heard.
- 63 years ago today, speaking at a secret session of the Soviet Communist Party’s 20th Congress somewhere in the bowels of the Kremlin, all those men with their giant pallid faces, Khrushchev denounced Stalin in a speech that took a little over four hours.
- According to Soviet sources, some delegates were so convulsed with fear and bewilderment that they had heart attacks right there in the room. Other delegates went home and shot themselves.
- According to Leonard Michaels and his story called In the Fifties, when Khrushchev denounced Stalin, Leonard Michaels’s roommate “shit blood, turned yellow, and lost most of his hair.”
- Leonard Michaels was probably taking one or two poetic liberties, but I basically believe him when he says that the leader of the Communist Party’s public debunking of the myth of Stalin was a shocking, shocking thing. A life-changer.
- For whatever reason, it is as easy for me to understand this as it is impossible for me to understand becoming even slightly sweaty with alarm at the premiere of a Stravinsky ballet.
- I don’t know what this says about me other than, as usual, “nothing good.”
- Happy Birthday.
Rosa Lyster
Each comment or response costs a tiny ETH fee of 4.0E-5 (about 5¢ in Ethereum cryptocurrency), payable from your Metamask.io wallet (the wallet is free, and takes just a moment to add to your browser). This system helps protect Popula conversations from trolls, fakers, Cambridges Analytica and other malign influences.
If you haven’t got any ETH yet and you’re a Popula subscriber, please write to hey@popula.com with your subscriber email address and MetaMask wallet address, and we’ll send you a little bit to get started! It’s pretty easy and a lot of fun to use, Yay.
If you’d like to learn more about cryptocurrency, Ethereum, and how Popula is using these new technologies to help protect speech rights and the free press, please visit our FAQ page.
We’re having trouble checking your subscriber status. Try refreshing the page.
Welcome! To leave a comment, you’ll need to log in, and also have your MetaMask wallet ready with some ETH cryptocurrency available.
It’s easy! Just visit metamask.io to install an in-browser MetaMask wallet. If you’re a new subscriber, write to hey@popula.com for $2 in free ETH crypto!
Thank you for being a Popula subscriber! As a subscriber, you may leave comments, but you have to be logged in as commenter here first. This is an additional login—the login for your commenting privileges—and you’ll stay logged in after you log in the first time.
We’ve sent an email to your registered address at … with your commenting details. Please follow the directions in the email to open your commenting privileges and then come back here to leave your first comment!
Thanks for registering! Please log in and you can get started commenting.
You need to connect to the Main Ethereum Network before you can leave a comment. Click on your MetaMask icon so the window pops up, then select ‘Main Ethereum Network’ from the network-chooser dropdown at the top.
You’re logged in and ready to leave comments! All you need is a MetaMask wallet and a little ETH cryptocurrency, just like with our microtipping system.
If you know what MetaMask is and have it installed, activate MetaMask and refresh:
Each comment costs 5¢ in Ethereum cryptocurrency to post! Just write your comment and click the green button. Thank you, Popula subscriber, for joining us in the new world of cryptoeconomics! Please don’t forget to set your wallet address in order to receive tips on your comments.
Alas! commenting is not yet available on your mobile device. Each comment costs a little ETH cryptocurrency to post, and for now that requires a regular computer.
So please go to your laptop, install the MetaMask browser plugin, and hold forth!