Communism placed the State above the individual, and regarded any expression of ethnic, rather than national, identity as anti-social.
A consequence of this was that demonstrations of ethnic and racial resentment were suppressed.
This did not mean that they didn't exist—merely that they were more or less contained.
With collapse of Communism, ethnic tensions and hatreds have been able to surface, with the disastrous consequences we are witnessing in parts of Europe today.
Since 1989, the human rights record in parts of eastern Europe has been abysmal.
Eastern European nations cannot simply pick and choose, selecting those aspects of democracy which appeal to them and ignoring those which don't; if the post-communist nations are to embrace democracy fully and successfully, the recognition of the equal worth of all human beings must become fundamental.
The alternative can only be disaster.
_________________________________________
Communism placed the State above the individual, and regarded any expression of ethnic, rather than national, identity as anti-social.
A consequence of this was that demonstrations of ethnic and racial resentment were suppressed.
This did not mean that they didn't exist—merely that they were more or less contained.
With collapse of Communism, ethnic tensions and hatreds have been able to surface, with the disastrous consequences we are witnessing in parts of Europe today.
Since 1989, the human rights record in parts of eastern Europe has been abysmal.
Eastern European nations cannot simply pick and choose, selecting those aspects of democracy which appeal to them and ignoring those which don't; if the post-communist nations are to embrace democracy fully and successfully, the recognition of the equal worth of all human beings must become fundamental.
The alternative can only be disaster.
_________________________________________