NOT SPEAKING AND DENUNCIATION SOCIETIES | 2007-02-08
I was remembering that one hallmark of Communist societies was that nobody, not even a waitress, would smile at you. And by "me" I don't mean just a Westerner becasue he might be a spy.
What a SILLY idea!
But you did NOT smile at strangers. In old Russia smiles were as normal as in any other rural society outside New England. But when the Communists came in, you could literally DIE in the Gulags if you looked too familiar with somebody they were tracking. Their idea was to get EVERYBODY, and it was better to arrest a hundred -- to supply free labor in Siberia, after all -- than to miss one. So every expression, every peson a peroson being followed spoke to, was likely ot be picked up and precious few of those ever made it back home.
Russia was what I might call a Denunciation Society. But so was New England. Your shades were not to be closed at night, which wa a regulation laid down only for slaves in the South. You were to be watched at all times, and that was the CREED of New England. You were personal responsible for anyone you spoke to. If a stranger came into town and he happened to be a Quaker, he would be hanged (oneofhte few New England traditions I approve of) and you would be lucky to get your teth knocked out in pillory.
So in New England the height of society is "The Lodges speak only to the Cabots and the Cabots speak only to God." In the South not speaking is considered trashy. But until after the Civil War, when we beecame the Bible Belt in reaction to defeat, there wasno denunciation society in the South. There was an amazing output of open denunciations of slavery in the Deep South, even, right up till the War, though most of those who denounced the institutions, like Robert E. Lee, fought on our side.