Between East and West

Anne Applebaum is an expert in social, economic and political transitions. More specifically she has dedicated her life's work to researching commenting on communism.

In 1991 Anne Applebaum made a journey from the Baltic to the Black Sea, across Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine just as the soviet union was about to collapse. She chronicles her journey and experiences in her first book, Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe. What she found was a region of changing and shifting national identities. She focuses on the "borderlands" of Europe, regions where cultures overlap, where individuals have mixed identities. Applebaum writes about what is means to live on such a border and the negative implications that it has caused the people of these regions throughout history.

Starting to write about Anne Applebaum (draft)

It was the winter of 1924, Lenin had just died leaving Russia’s communist future submerged in uncertainty. Russia was now a country with many promises but no leader to carry them out, no leader to answer its questions. Shortly after his death, Nadezhda Krupskaia the widow of Lenin, was quoted for saying: 

“We are building socialism … and as long as we are building socialism but have not yet built it, we will also have homeless children.”

Russia’s communist era can be remembered for its empty promises and excuses for the reality for the terrible state of the country. The same, deteriorated, description of the state of the Soviet Union was one that could have been written at any time in the 1920s, 1930s, or 1940s.

Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist who has devoted her life’s work to researching and writing extensively on communism. She is also the current Director of Political Studies at the Legatum Institute in London. The Legatum Institute is an independent public policy organization. They conduct research, produce publications, and programs to support self-sustaining societies around the world. In this organization Applebaum has focused on projects related to political and economic transitions, such as Russia’s transition from communism. She lived in Russia for several years in the 1990s conducting research on the state of the country and the living conditions of its citizens. In 1995 she wrote a book titled Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe. This book was about her journey through the Soviet Union just as it was about to break apart. She is able to provide a first-hand account of her experience in Russia as well as second-hand accounts from the Russians themselves. More recently she has written about the lasting effects Communisms has left on the people of Russia. Applebaum published another book in 2003 about the victims and development of the soviet concentration camps. She is a well-rounded public intellectual who is currently using her knowledge and personal experience and applying them to more recent events, such as the current political conflicts in Libya.

People in their natural state

Location: Observing in the library

Person #1: Conservative sweater, blue jeans, cowboy boots, eyebrows scrunched, posture straight, determined look, occasionally glancing sideways. Bright pink fingernails furiously tapping away on a keyboard. She stopped for a couple of seconds glancing at the library entrance, as if searching for more inspiration. Possibly having found what she was looking for she continued her work.

Person #2: Rushing towards Starbucks, only to be intercepted by someone else. he shifted his weight from one sneaker to the other waiting for his turn. By looking at his impatience at having to stand in line one would have thought he knew what he was going to order. He finally reached the front of the line but did not order immediately. He glanced at the assortment of muffins, and cookies for a couple of seconds, debating his choices, finally deciding on the triple chocolate chip.

Person #3: She was sitting on a sofa, her feet propped up for comfort, her eyes occasionally closing for too long. She had a computer on her lap but did not attempt any writing or browsing. I started getting tired myself so I decided to look away.

Person #4: He was sitting in a corner by himself engrossed in a giant, intimidating book. He was going from page to page in stride. A group of noisy student walked by him but nothing could deter him. He scribbled something on a piece of paper, adjusted his Yankees baseball cap and continued on as if he was the only person in the library.

Person #5: Two girls were sitting at the same table wearing identical sports apparel. They were most likely members of the same sports team. They were sitting next to each other with their computers open occasionally glancing at each others screen. One of them pointed at her screen and laughed, the other one quickly did the same. They looked like twins, dressed the same, and acting the same.   

Mind Reading

Mind reading may become a reality in the near future. US scientists have recently reported that they have found a way to decipher brain signals and interpret what they mean. More specifically what they are trying to do is interpret electrical signals. When a person hears a word or phrase they tend to imagine the same word or phrase in their brain. This occurs in the temporal lobe of the brain that is responsible for auditory perception. The signal that is detected corresponds to what is being imagined. We have often thought of mind reading as a super power that only belonged in the movies but, as can be seen not everything may be fiction after all.   

American Patriotism

Anne Applebaum recently posted an article on the surge of American patriotism after the capturing of Osama bin Laden. She titles this post Bin Laden killed: For a day or two, we’ll feel like the United States of America. She compares this surge of patriotism with other events that occurred such as Britain's royal wedding and for Poland, the beautification of a pope. She purposely compares the death of bin Laden to theses events to make a strong point on America's waining patriotism. In her opinion the war, the financial crisis and the recession "chipped away" our post-September 11 patriotism and since then we have dedicated ourselves to fight amongst each other. We have even gotten to the point of questioning the citizenship of our own president. She writes in this piece:

In the wake of this operation, they’ll have to think twice. After all, George W Bush – a cowboy-boot wearing, slang-talking, wood-chopping American – called for the US to haul in bin Laden, “dead or alive”. But Barack Obama – whose middle name is “Hussein”, whose surname rhymes with “Osama”, and who definitely does not come from Texas – is the one who actually did it. 

One of the things I like about Anne Applebaum is the style of her writing. For example, in this post she uses humor to lighten the tone of the piece. Her post is somewhat long but she keeps the reader interested by inserting comments such as the example showcased above.

The Floating University

 The Floating University is a recently launched for-profit project that promises "An entire undergraduate education on one foot" . It's important to note that it's not a diploma granting program.The main idea is to bring together some of the best professors and thinkers in their fields with students and individual learners from all over the country.  Some of the professors currently being showcased belong to Harvard, Yale, and Bard among other institutions. Some critics are skeptical about the amount of content that these "survey" courses will contain. The idea of a The Floating University intrigued me because it promises high quality education to anyone that is interested.   

Anne Applebaum

 Prior to this assignment I did not know who or what was a Public Intellectual (PI). After researching "What is a Public Intellectual?" on various sites I reached one conclusion, PIs should bridge a gap between the elite academic/intellectual class and the normal educated population. When we attend college we usually choose one concentration to focus on, we simply cannot be experts in every field. What is significant about PIs is that they are able to explain and transmit complex topics using language that is accessible to the average person.

Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer prize-winning author, Director of Political Studies at the Legatum Institute in London, as well as runs projects on political and economic transition. But, none of these descriptions were the main reason why I chose Anne Applebaum as my Public Intellectual. In addition to being all the descriptions mentioned above Anne Applebaum is a journalist for the Washington Post. She also has her own website where she discusses topics ranging from foreign policy to domestic issues that are affecting Americans now. From the long lists of PIs I researched she appeared to be one of the most accessible to the public.

In one of her more recent publications in The Washington Post, "What Libya has inherited from Moammar Gadaffi", she discusses the lasting effects of Gadaffi's regime in Lybia. Although she is writing non-fiction she is able to pull the reader in with metaphors, with her use of rhetoric:

"Young men in fatigues hang around outside the offices of the Transitional National Council, carrying rifles and flashing V (for victory) signs at visitors. Inside, older men in leather jackets sit on sofas drinking tea, while temporary officials cope with clashing appointments and race up and down the hallways. It’s just how one imagines the Smolny Institute, Lenin’s St. Petersburg headquarters, in 1917: amateur, enthusiastic, disorganized, rumor-filled and slightly paranoid, all at once."

The reader, in this case myself, feels the need to read on as if it were a novel, wanting to now what happens next.

In her website she discusses other topics that often have nothing to do with foreign policy, rather topics such as the social location, the reality that many Americans are living today. In one of her posts she questions, Can America Survive Without Its Backbone?. In this writing she begins with a personal story/experience belonging to one of her close friends. She focuses on the struggles of the middle class to remain "middle class". Applebaum hones in on the disparities that exist from one city to the next in our own country. She makes the point that in the US the city you are born in, the city you grow up in will definitely serve as an obstacle or an advantage when it becomes time to plan your future.

I look forward to reading more of Anne Applebaum's work. So far I have the impression that she is a well-rounded writer that is able to reach her audience very effectively.