Topic: East Germany

The discussion compares the control tactics used by the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and the United States to engineer citizen obedience. Etienne de la Boetie Squared identifies rituals like the "Trooping of the Guard" and ostentatious royal wardrobes as tools for creating fealty. He argues that despite different ideologies, these regimes utilize a nearly identical playbook for domesticating their populations.

During the Cold War, East Germany's Narva factory produced lightbulbs designed to last 2,500 hours because the communist bloc faced resource scarcities that discouraged waste. When these long-lasting bulbs were presented at international fairs, Western manufacturers rejected them, claiming they would destroy jobs. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the factory closed as its durable products were incompatible with the globalized market's focus on high turnover.