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If you look at Soros' efforts in Eastern Europe, both before and after the end of communism, it's all about building up a civil society separate from the state. That in turn was in part taken from the work by the dissidents of the seventies, particularly the Poles (specifically Kolakowski, Michnik and Kuron; plus some of Havel's stuff).

Amusingly enough these semi-ex Marxists were somewhat influenced by the early work of the founding father of Polish fascism, back at the tuwhen he was merely proto-fascist and brilliant, back at the turn of the century, not  his late phase when the antisemitism had completely rotted his brain. In particular a series of essays published in book form under the title "Thoughts of a Modern Pole" where he critiqued the Polish Romantic worship for conspiracy, clandestinity, and illegality. He argued that all of those carry immense carry large costs that are often unrecognized, and that in reality open and legal action, even when severely constrained, is more effective. He also thought violence was almost always counterproductive, since it sapped the nation of its best blood. (No moral issues - this is a guy who believed that spending resources to save a starving child of another nationality was deeply immoral and an act of treason. Still, rather a rather unusual viewpoint for a fascist).

I sometimes wonder if in a way organizing in a system where the Party-State claimed the right to directly control all organized activity, no matter how trivial, was in some ways easier. The lines were clear, much less worries about cooptation and the more insiduous forms of molding society to conformity that exist in more open societies. Perhaps that's why Soros has found it more difficult to accomplish things in the US.

by MarekNYC on Mon Sep 8th, 2008 at 09:39:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Monolithic party or state structures create single points of failure - witness how Solidarity was co-opted by the economic hitmen in The West(TM) who wanted to Shock Therapy Poland into a Modern Western Market Democracy(TM).

Also, the Soviets and their clients were clumsy. They suppressed civil society outright - which acknowledges implicitly that such civil society exists and is a force to be reckoned with. The Americans are smarter: They corral civil society into "free speech zones" and generally pretend that it doesn't exist. And after a while of pretending that civil society doesn't exist, it ceases to exist. At least as long as the bread and circuses keep working...

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Sep 9th, 2008 at 05:11:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I think Soros's realisation has a longer history than his involvement in the US. After 1989, his Central and Eastern European foundations got their share of attacks from local nationalists, including legal ones, from Croatia to Moscow.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Wed Sep 10th, 2008 at 06:51:40 AM EST
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