Osip Mandelstam Quotes
Poetry is respected only in this country [Russia.] There is no place where more people are killed for it.
Ironically Mandelstam was later sent to a Soviet gulag for writing a poem denouncing Stalin. He died there.
Osip Mandelstam, *, Russian Poet, Statement to friends in the 1930s
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The Red Scare had affected much of the country. Congressman Thomas was the Chair of The House Un-American Activities Committee which had frightened much of the country claiming that the Communists had infiltrated the government. But when facts and proof were demanded, they came up with some workers in the Hollywood film industry who had gone to communist meetings and some who had joined the party before the War when The Great Depression was still plaguing the country. The Hollywood and TV executives caved in to the political demagogues and fired and blacklisted not only the communists but those who refused to testify. The actors and musicians could not work for several years until the country came to its senses, but the screenwriters wrote under false names. At least one Academy award was won that way.
Islam had been the center of intellectual thought in the world, until the clerics had decided that innovation itself was a sin and one that called for the death penalty. Although most non-Muslim religions went through stages of death for religious dissent. However, the Koran deals with every part of society. There is no separation of church and state. All knowledge is in the Koran the fundamentalist believes and anyone who expresses a new idea is not only wrong and a heretic, but is dangerous and must be executed. It is therefore not very surprising that the Islamic contributions to science, medicine, and the arts has been so small. The Islamic fundamentalists are opposed by Muslim modernists who try to change the Islamic culture but they are on the minority. Most religions have gone through bad earlier periods where dissent was heresy and warranted death. Fundamentalist Islam is the only one which bans original thought of any kinds even it does not contradict established doctrine.
The actor refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations into alleged communist activity and was blacklisted by the move industry for over a decade. See {588677} and {588759}.
Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was the husband of Nadezhda Mandelstam and one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school of poets. He was arrested by Joseph Stalin's government during the repression of the 1930s and sent into internal exile with his wife.
