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Squaring the Circle (1984)

Five years before the Fall of the Berlin Wall there was Squaring the Circle on television. It was a TV play written by Tom Stoppard (born Tomáš Sträussler), and was about exploring the rise of the Polish movement Solidarity and its confrontation with the communist regime.

The reviews praised the writing greatly for its artistic interpretation of historical events and its insightful look at the tension between individual freedom and state control. During his long career Stoppard has received numerous awards and honours including an Academy Award, three Laurence Olivier Award, and five Tony Awards.

The TV play itself examines the clash between the communist state and the burgeoning democratic movement, highlighting the struggle for freedom and the impact of Soviet influence. Personally, I find it to be one of Stoppards best works, and I'm amazed that it has become almost invisible and unknown.

While the play ends on a rather bleak note (half a dozen years before the real fall of the Iron Curtain afterall), it was certainly a real harbinger of things to come. Always remember, folks, "Poland Is Not Yet Lost"

[media=https://youtu.be/gJcAGX_3Bjw]
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Thinkerbell · 41-45, F
About 15 years ago, I had a colleague who had received his university education in communist Poland in the 1980s. He told me about the compulsory courses in Marxism that everyone had to take.

These courses were taught by professors who were (or at least pretended to be) True Believers, as were maybe 10% of the students. Those students were the ones who hoped to get cushy lifetime sinecures working for the government. The other 90% or so didn't believe a word of what was being taught, but knew how to give the "correct" answers on examinations. They also (quietly) made jokes about the True Believer professors.

The handwriting was already on the wall.
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@Thinkerbell China raised half a billion people out of poverty and past US middle class life expectancy in forty years. Not for the West! You're doing what I want. You're not surviving. And politics is the way out! Exit straight up ahead for the Western population!
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Poland is anti Russia and rabidly violent, ready for NATO. Solidarity is just nationalism. Nothing nobody here knows nothing bad about! So, continue! War will solve you.
val70 · 51-55
@Roundandroundwego Did you awake or is it just sunstroke?
@val70 you brought it up. Poland is not embarrassing?

 
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