Paul Coates, Nov. 21, 1960

Nov. 21, 1960: Paul Coates writes about the “strange passivity” in the Soviet citizen. He quotes another reporter: "There's no city in the world where I'd feel safer for my wife and kids than Moscow. They can walk anywhere, at any hour, and I know they'll be all right. "These Russians are probably the kindest, warmest people you'll meet anywhere. Yet I know that within a half-hour their collective attitude could change violently if a voice on those loudspeakers ordered them to change." On the jump, Howard Hughes takes an interest in Norma Jean Baker’s career in the latest chapter of Maurice Zolotow’s biography, “The Real Marilyn Monroe.”

Comments

[Native Angeleno]

Soviet citizens seemed oblivious to their lack of human rights, meekly accepting being treated like a single giant underclass, out of fear of authority.

Very different from that which Americans are forced to undergo at airports here and now. We meekly expose ourselves to authority on command, as if Nazi SS told us to disrobe for our showers, and we accept it, for the sake of the subjective and very debatable security to live in Freedom. Tho among the majority of sheep there is no debate.

And only the Russian people were shockingly subservient? What would Paul Coates say now? Would he notice the incongruity? Or would he, like them, support domestic authority, as his jingoism seems to suggest.