Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I can't watch The Americans.

Don't get me wrong: it's awesome.  Well executed (pardon the pun).  I haven't seen many anachronisms breaking the setting of the early eighties. 

But.

I can't watch it.  It scares the crap out of me. 

I was born in '79.  I don't remember the early eighties, but I do remember the Iron Curtain.  I remember the pressure Regan put on the Russians, and I remember the tension.  I remember when the wall fell, and I remember watching the relief that everyone around me felt that the cold war with Russia was "over." 

I remember thinking, "Just wait.  This isn't over, and we haven't beaten Communism." 

I remember feeling the encroachment of communism into our own government and society. 

Khrushchev was right. 

The America I remembered is falling, and is falling from within. 

Russia is re-emerging as a nasty enemy, and our own government isn't seeing that.  Because their ideology parallels Putin's. 

This time, there won't be an Iron Curtain between freedom and tyranny, because there will be no freedom.

8 comments:

  1. My wife spotted an Ikea desk, I spotted an improper scope mount (too early, wasn't introduced until a few years after the Reagan was shot). So the anachronisms are there, but they aren't too distracting from the story.

    And I think "The Americans" is meant to scare us, at least those who can make the cognitive leap from foreign agents living among us to native agents living among us craving to live under a Communist regime.

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  2. Haven't seen the show in question, but as someone who grew up during the late 70s and 80s, the idea of Russia re-strengthening scares the CRAP out of me. Especially since we once again have a Carter-esque president. (And no clear Reagan on the horizon. That would be my one hope but I just don't see anyone.)

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    1. Me, too. Only, King Putt makes Carter look competent. And the only improvements in sight are more Carter than Regan.

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  3. The whole time I was in the service during the 70's and 80's, everything was about the Russians. I couldn't go visit Poland, or Czechoslovakia, or Hungary when I lived in Italy because my wife and I were both prohibited from traveling there. My brother in law, an Army doctor, and his wife got to visit them all. We spent billions developing aircraft to counter Soviet aircraft, warships to counter Soviet warships, and then we never went at it each other so it was all pretty much a waste (Thank God.) I'd just as soon not mess with Russia. If we don't go out of our way to alienate them, our interest don't have to conflict with theirs. Us telling them what to do in Ukraine is like them telling us what to do in Mexico. The fact that we have no stable government ourselves, and our leadership makes a mockery of the word, just exacerbates the problem.

    I like the Americans. I always hope the spies will get caught but of course that would end the show. I also don't believe for a minute the husband would put up with some of the things his wife does "on the job." He may be a good communist but he's still a guy.

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    1. I'd rather not see things come down to war--cold or hot--either.

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  4. Never seen the show, but my history mirrors yours. I'm only slightly older than you (born in '78). I had the same feeling. Couldn't help but be caught up in the joy of the wall coming down, but the dread was there.

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    1. The dread is more aimed at my own government, now, though.

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