{"id":3449,"date":"2009-01-28T14:37:46","date_gmt":"2009-01-28T14:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=3449"},"modified":"2009-01-28T14:37:46","modified_gmt":"2009-01-28T14:37:46","slug":"iron_curtain_me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3449","title":{"rendered":"Iron Curtain Memories: Budapest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13005172&amp;source=hptextfeature&amp;CFID=39501617&amp;CFTOKEN=27958692\">The Economist<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>But few of the former Soviet bloc countries had better jokes than the Hungarians. After all, several of their national characteristics\u2014quick intelligence, mordant wit and an eye for the main chance\u2014are summarised in the now legendary humorous definition of a Hungarian: \u201cSomeone who enters a revolving door behind you but comes out in front\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>My two favourites are set in the time immediately after the 1956 revolution:<\/p>\n<p>In the first, Comrade teacher announces the day\u2019s lesson in School Number One, Budapest: Marxist criticism and self-criticism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIstvan, please stand up and tell us what Marxist criticism and self-criticism means,\u201d she instructs.<\/p>\n<p>The little boy stands up. \u201cComrade teacher, Marxist criticism is how we must view my parents, who joined the reactionary counter-revolutionary forces who sought to destroy our heroic workers\u2019 and peasants\u2019 state, and then fled to the imperialist, capitalist west, to continue their intrigues against the Socialist regime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExcellent, Istvan. And what is your Marxist self-criticism?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t go with them.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13005172&amp;source=hptextfeature&amp;CFID=39501617&amp;CFTOKEN=27958692\">The Economist<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>But few of the former Soviet bloc countries had better jokes than the Hungarians. After all, several of their national characteristics\u2014quick intelligence, mordant wit and an eye for the main chance\u2014are summarised in the now legendary humorous definition of a Hungarian: \u201cSomeone who enters a revolving door behind you but comes out in front\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>My two favourites are set in the time immediately after the 1956 revolution:<\/p>\n<p>In the first, Comrade teacher announces the day\u2019s lesson in School Number One, Budapest: Marxist criticism and self-criticism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIstvan, please stand up and tell us what Marxist criticism and self-criticism means,\u201d she instructs.<\/p>\n<p>The little boy stands up. \u201cComrade teacher, Marxist criticism is how we must view my parents, who joined the reactionary counter-revolutionary forces who sought to destroy our heroic workers\u2019 and peasants\u2019 state, and then fled to the imperialist, capitalist west, to continue their intrigues against the Socialist regime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExcellent, Istvan. And what is your Marxist self-criticism?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t go with them.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,5,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}