Like Stalin or like Kim 2
Continuing from here.

Russian autos and electronics under Stalin, and even more under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, explicitly imitated American styling. Studebaker trucks and Packard cars lived and developed in Russia long after they had died in America. Transistor radios with American-style innards developed in Russia EVEN THOUGH America had idiotically handed its industry to Japan at the START.

We normally think of this as theft, but in fact it was imitation of a style that was seen as superior to Russian styles. Russian engineers were capable of designing stuff any way they wanted. They could have imitated more "friendly" Czech styles, but they didn't.

Stop and think. In Stalin's centrally planned system, style was controlled along with everything else. This means Soviet leaders were comfortable with imitations of the "adversary". This means a REAL DEBATE was occurring. We can be sure that some ideologues strenuously objected to the "adversary" style, but they didn't win. Someone in those councils understood that success depended on having the most attractive or salable style, and American was seen as most salable.

Now the Switchover.

Consider a designer in modern Soviet US/UK/EU. Let's say I'm designing furniture or web pages or magazine covers, and I think "adversary" Arab or Russian styles are attractive and salable. Let's say I design things with a flavor or motif along these lines or these. Or maybe I want to design a page with a big X-shaped pattern that has stars inside the bars of the X, and "Arabic writing" scattered attractively around the edges.

Would I be allowed to try it out? No need to put yourself within artillery range by thinking of the answer. We know.

= = = = =

A bit later: Oops, I forgot the most obvious and joyful example of the technical Switchover. Because America no longer builds anything but genocide, NASA has been using recycled Russian rocket engines, which are sort of ugly and clumsy but FUNCTIONAL. Now that our illegitimate hypersatanic monstrous "government" has imposed sanctions on Russia for daring to defend itself against our unprovoked aggression, NASA is trying to work around the recycled Russian engines. Result: total failure by SpaceX, then finally a purely Russian rocket, launched by Russia, manages to reach the space station.

Labels: switchover, Гром победы

  ¶ 6:53 AM