The Daily Signal - He Grew Up in Soviet Union, Now Teaches Young People Grim Truth About Socialism

Episode Date: August 5, 2021

Growing up in the now-defunct Soviet Union was not easy for Zilvinas Silenas or his family.  “Government basically brainwashes you from a very early age, and government thinks you are disposable,��� Silenas says of living under communism.  After leaving Russia and spending four years attending a “very left college” in America, Silenas says he became even more committed to the principles of economic freedom. Today, Silenas is the president of the Foundation for Economic Education, an organization that educates young people about economic freedom.  He joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss his experience growing up under communism and why he is so passionate about teaching the next generation the realities of socialism.  We also cover these stories:  The Biden administration works to find a way to extend the expired federal eviction ban.  Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, says he wishes he hadn’t signed a ban on mask mandates.  Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking a stand for Israel and against Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, August 5th. I'm Rachel Dald-Judis. And I'm Virginia Allen. What are the realities of living in a communist nation? Gilvanus Shalamas grew up in the Soviet Union and experienced the realities of communism on a daily basis. He joins the show to explain what life in the Soviet Union was really like and why he's so passionate about teaching young people the principles of economic freedom. Today, Shalemas runs the Foundation for Economic Education, an organization that teaches young people about the power of economic freedom. He explains how students can get involved and learn the truth about free markets.

And don't forget, if you enjoy this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or five-star right now on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. And now on to today's top news. The Biden administration is working to find a way to replace the expired federal. evictions ban. On Tuesday night, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention imposed a new moratorium that is intended to prevent evictions in counties with high rates of COVID-19 until October 3rd. But already, the legality of the moratorium is being questioned. One day before the CDC announced the new moratorium, Gene Sperling, one of President Biden's economic recovery advisors, said to date, the CDC director and her team have been unable to find legal authority even for a more targeted

eviction moratorium that would focus just on counties with higher rates of COVID spread. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that extending the CDC's previous moratorium past the July 31st deadline would exceed its authority unless Congress passed legislation to allow it, which it has not done. Biden said he was also unsure of the legal. of the move, saying Tuesday, whether that option will pass constitutional measures with this administration, I can't tell you. I don't know. There are a few scholars who say it will, but others say it's not likely to. But at a minimum, by the time it gets litigated, it will probably give some additional time while we're getting that $45 billion out to people who are in fact behind in the rent and don't have

the money. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, says he wishes he didn't sign a ban on mask mandates. Here's what he had to say in a press conference on Wednesday via the recount. I signed it for those reasons that our cases were at a low point. Everything has changed now. And yes, in hindsight, I wish that had not become law. But it is the law. And the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the courts to say that it has an unconstitutional foundation. Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is taking a stand for Israel and against Ben and Jerry's in the Sunshine State. In the wake of Ben and Jerry's declaring a boycott on Israel, DeSantis told Ben and Jerry's parent company, Unilever, that they have 90 days to reverse the boycott against Israel.

If the company does not reverse the boycott, DeSantis says they will face harsh consequences, including barring Florida pension funds that hold investments. in Unilever. DeSantis said, by placing Ben and Jerry's Fortune 500 parent company Unilever on our list of scrutinized companies that boycott Israel, Florida is sending a message to corporate America that we will defend our strong relationship with the Jewish state. Former President Barack Obama is scaling down his 60th birthday party due to concerns about COVID-19. The party scheduled for Saturday originally had a guest list of 475 of Obama's friends, but has been significantly pared down, according to Hannah Hankins, a spokeswoman for Obama, per Fox News.

Hankins said, the outdraw event was planned months ago in accordance with all public health guidelines and with COVID safeguards in place. She added, due to the new spread of the Delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends. President Obama is appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Gilvanus Shalamas as we discuss his passion for economic freedom after growing up in the Soviet Union. Conservative women. Conservative feminists. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories in interviews that are particular interest to conservative leaning or problematic women.

That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and politics. Search for problematic women wherever you get your podcasts. Across America, we are continuing to see young people embrace the ideas of socialism. So with us today to talk about socialism versus economic freedom is the president of the foundation for economic. education, Jilvanus Shalemas, or Zee, as he likes to be called. Zee has also lived in the Soviet Union so he knows firsthand the realities of socialism. Zee, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you for having me, Virginia. So you once lived in the Soviet Union. How long did you live there? Well, I was born in 81 in Lithuania, which was then occupied by Soviet Union and was part of Soviet Union. I lived there most of my life. So I saw Soviet Union collapse.

I saw what came after Soviet Union. So I think I have a pretty good firsthand experience when it comes to how countries do under socialism and how countries do after socialism is kicked out. Yeah, so let's talk a little bit about that. What do you remember about life in the Soviet Union? Life wasn't good. I mean, obviously people may do. But if you ever wanted to see people disillusioned with socialism,

I would say go to Soviet Union. And those people who actually lived in Soviet Union, people who actually saw what socialism brings and what it doesn't bring, I guess are the fiercest opponents of socialism, because they don't buy all into this theoretical, we could be all living together happily nonsense. Because that's not what socialism is about. I wonder if these people today is young people,

the AOCs, the Bernie Sanders, if they were actually transported to Soviet Union, transported back in time to Soviet Union, they would find that actual socialism is very, very different from the fairy tale they keep on telling every day. Hmm. So what was the reality for you and your family? What are some of the things that you remember about day-to-day life and the challenges that you and your family faced? So, well, first of all, was shortage of living space. I mean, people, In U.S., they have it good, and they had it good. In my story, my family, I was brought up in a one-room apartment.

So that's not like a one-bedroom house. That's literally like a one-room apartment. I think if I translated that to square footage, that would be something like 300 square feet. Basically, it was one room and one kitchen. That was it. That was the entire apartment for a three-person family. And that was considered, actually, that was considered good. many people had it even worse.

Many people lived in what was essentially dorms. So imagine you, let's be a family of four, two parents, two kids. You live in basically one room apartment, which is just one single room, which is the same. It's your bedroom, it's your living room, it's your every room, and you have communal showers and a communal kitchen. Wow. And when you look back on your time there, on your childhood, are there any stories, that come to mind that you think capture pretty well the kind of day in and day out realities of living in a socialist nation? Well, that was this one time. So in Soviet Union, May Day parades, May the 1st, the International Workers Day, that was very popular. And I mean, it wasn't really

popular. People didn't want to go to, but government kind of ordered them to go. So I remember in May the first, 1986, My parents skipped the May Day parade because they were not communists. And we went sunbathing instead. So it was a nice sunny day. It would have been any normal day. But the thing is, five days before Chernobyl nuclear power plant had exploded. And the only reason we were sunbathing,

and the only reason people were in the streets, as opposed to hiding, is because no one told anyone. Basically, people did not find out about a nuclear disaster, until the radiation has reached Scandinavians, and they started raising alarm bells. So that could be one way of describing Soviet life. No one tells you anything. Government basically brainwashes you from a very early age,

and government thinks you are disposable. You're not worthy of knowing. If you knowing that Soviet Union just had an embarrassing and deadly disaster, that would somehow, you know, Minish communism. So that's why they didn't tell people. So I think that was a pretty bizarre, macabre, a very sad day, but I think that pretty much encapsulates what life in Soviet Union was like. And were people careful about what they said to each other, or did they feel pretty comfortable speaking freely and speaking their minds? Oh, absolutely not. No, no. So let's say in the

1950s and 60s, you could probably get shot for saying the wrong thing. Later on, maybe put it in a psychiatric hospital. You see, Soviets had this thing, that communism is the greatest thing ever. So if you don't believe in communism, you're either a foreign agent or mentally incapable. So if you're a foreign agent, well, that's you're getting shot. If you're mentally incapable, well, you're getting put in a psychiatric hospital and put under various drugs, which actually liquefy your brain. So that was life in the Soviet Union.

And no, no, people did not speak their mind. was a whole, almost an art of saying what you want to say, but in such a way that the censors couldn't catch it, or in such a way as you could sort of backtrack and say, well, that's not what I meant. So a lot of double speak or triple speak, it's an entire, probably entire art form of basically not speaking your mind or not getting in trouble for speaking your mind or hiding what you truly meant. And did you or your family know anyone who got in trouble for their political views? Well, we lived in the,

my parents were not involved in anything, so nothing like that. But we knew a lot of people who tried to make the living on our side hustle, so small sort of history note. So entrepreneurship, private enterprise, was banned in Soviet Union.

So if you wanted to do something, you couldn't, because everything was done by the state. So I remember my parents helping neighbors to hide a gene that they made themselves in our apartment. Because then the police rates came in, they were targeted people who knew were entrepreneurial.

So yes, my parents, I remember one night by basically hiding sacks of jeans in our apartment to help out our neighbors. So being an entrepreneur was a crime, essentially. Yeah, I think punishable up to seven years of prison or hard labor. How did your time in the Soviet Union impact your views of economics and limited government?

Well, like I said, people who've seen socialism are not fans of it. So I was always, so I think I came out of that already pro-free market. And my life and experience after Soviet Union made me even more pro-free market. I think one of the best real-life examples you can see is what happened to the entire region after Soviet Union collapsed. So let's see, my country of Lithuania, it went, it created in the past 30 years after the collapse of socialism. Once socialism was removed, I think we had an economic miracle in a sense of how people's standards of living have increased. In fact, people in the same generation who still lived in Soviet Union and who are still alive now, some of them, if they honestly looked at the past, they would not really believe how much the standard of living has improved.

And that was, once again, Lithuania did not change, people did not change. It's just socialism as this poisonous, disastrous, ruinous ideology was removed. People's minds were freed. People could be entrepreneurs. People could make things. And that just basically led to economic miracle. And how did you ultimately end up coming to America? Well, I studied in U.S. from 2001 to 2005.

I was in Wesleyan, Connecticut, which is the United States. the lefty of the left schools. So, in fact, I probably became even more hardcore free market here after spending some time, after spending four years in essentially a very left college. But after that, I went back to Lithuania and worked for Liberty since 2006. So I'm in the Liberty Movement since 2006.

I worked for Lithuanian Free Market Institute, and I became a president of Lithuanian Free Market Institute in 2012. So we were, and that organization is still very successful in policy and education. So after leading it for seven years, I joined FEE in 2019 and became its president and came over to Atlanta, Georgia. Wonderful. In just a moment, we do want to talk about the work of the Foundation for Economic Freedom. You all are doing such good work. But, you know, in that transition, when you came to the United States,

States and sort of began to study and became accustomed to America. What were some of the things maybe that surprised you or stuck out to you when your childhood had been in the Soviet Union? I think the one thing that Americans have really got it right, it's the concept of inalienable right. I think it's not just something on paper. I truly think that's something that most Americans believe. Now, the similar concept, are constitutions of many countries, but I think in many countries are just something on paper,

as opposed to here, it's actually something that people believe in and something they're willing to fight for. So I think that's the very heartwarming, fascinating thing that I observed. And once again, growing up in the Soviet Union or the Empire of Lies, the fact that people actually believe

in what's written in the Constitution, that's very impressive. Yeah. Well, today, you know, in America, we are seeing that there's this increase, specifically with young people, there's an increased interest or fascination with socialism. Does this concern you? Yes. That's what I'm understatement of a century. Of course it's, of course it concerns me. Why do you think that young people are fascinated by socialism? Well, first of all, I don't think it's, it's, it's, it's. They are confused, I think, is the problem, is that would be a proper term. I think if we sat down a bunch of 15-year-olds and explained to them what socialism really is, and we asked them, well, are those the things that you guys want to fight for?

Is this your ideal society? I'm sure they would say no. But what I think is happening with young people, and there are many sort of opinion, service and studies to base what I'm saying, is that they're confused. So, for instance, if you talk to 14-year-olds, if you talk to 16, 18-year-olds, they actually, they do believe in American dream. If you ask them, do you still think that hard work is a road to success? They all believe in that, something like 80% of them believe in that. If you ask them, do you think that you have it better than your parents?

Most of them still believe that. But I think what actually is happening is that they are also living in this sort of informational field or informational society, which, every day hammers the point that capitalism is bad. Or that somehow, or people use Denmark or Sweden as example of socialism, which of course is a complete nonsense, complete lie. You have the Danish prime minister actually telling guys, we're not socialist. Just get it right. We're at a free market economy. But, you know, American left still kind of keeps on having home the point

that it's Denmark and Norway and Sweden. These are socialist countries that we should be like. And of course, if you're young and you're 14, you don't really have much exposure to what Denmark and Norway really are, nor have you spent really time distinguishing between what really socialism is and isn't. So I think that the silver lining, the optimism, the reason why I'm optimistic, I think, if you sit down a group of 16-year-olds and explain to them what socialism is, most of them would actually would not like it. So in your role as president for the Foundation for Economic Education, if you were to have a conversation with a high school student or a college student and explain to them what those key differences are between socialism and a democracy or capitalistic society, what would be those key points that you would hit on to really articulate to them? No, these are two very different things.

Well, the good thing is that we actually do that, so it's not just a theoretical exercise. We do go to schools. We do talk to young people. We do talk to them in the classrooms. We do talk to them online, and we explain them what the difference is. And the main difference is who makes the decisions?

Who makes the decisions in life? Is it you or is it the government? And at this point, it's not really that. Yeah. So the main difference is basically, in capitalist society, as imperfect as it is, it's the people, or in fact it's the individual that makes a decision that govern his life.

In socialism, it's the government. And that I think is one key difference. Of course, later we can go into, you know, who owns the means of production and all that. But I think, once again, young people, as they should, they want to think for themselves, they want to make their own decisions, and the fact that, once again, in capitalism,

as imperfect as it isn't, everything in the world isn't perfect. But they have a choice to think, they have a choice to do. They have no choice in Soviet Union or in socialism. So like you say, you work with young people, you talk with high school students, with college students. The foundation for economic education, you have a mission to inspire, educate, and connect, really young people with the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society. but you all do this in a very creative way. You use so many different creative tools

to really communicate these messages to young people. Tell me a little bit about the kind of work that you all do at the Foundation for Economic Education. Well, so some, you know, Foundation Economic Education founded in 1946, we did many things throughout our life, but I think about 10 years ago, we said, well, what's the best value that we can serve the movement? And I think the right choice,

was made back then that, you know, our movement, we're great at writing white papers. We are absolutely awful at talking to young people. So how about if he becomes the expert in talking to young people? So the point is, how do we talk to young people? So we did a lot of research, and I think we understand our audience pretty well. And there are two main ways how we communicate to young people. One is online, and the second one is in the classroom. And the reason why we chose these two methods or these two modes is because this is where young people spend most of the time in that classroom or online.

So for the classroom programs, that's relatively simple but very effective. We're kind of like the Uber of education. What we do is we find schools which want our programs and we send a professor who goes to a public high school and spends about four hours explaining to them why freedom is. is better than socialism or what are the limits of a government? And what is free society based on? So once again, so let's say last year, I think we visited 200 classrooms like that and had about 20,000 students listen to this. And once again, this is powerful.

This is in a public school. This is coming up from a professor for four hours. Definitely some people, young people, learned something. And what we poll them afterwards, you know, how did you like it? where these things new. And to our surprise and actual horror, something like 80% of young people say, well, I've never had liberty explained to me like this before,

which probably is nothing new, but that point is liberty, right to decide for yourself, freedom. Many people spend their careers smearing them. And young people have never heard these things explained to them like that. So that's where we come in. So that's our classroom thing. So are those classrooms all over the country? Yes, yes, we are basically, and we are, of course, a national-based organization.

So it's everywhere from East Coast to West Coast to Mountain States to Mid-America. We are increasing our operations pretty fast in that area. And the good thing, the encouraging thing. So once again, last year we had about, I think, 200, 250 programs, and we had zero rejections. In fact, what we had is people saying, well, that's great. Can you come back? Wow, that's excellent. That's encouraging.

Yes. So that's our classroom outreach. And then the second large part of our outreach is what we call online. So we have Facebook operations. We have a few dot org as a website. And we have YouTube videos in which, once again, we take things that young people care about and we mix freedom and liberty into them. So let me give an example.

So young people care about movies and they watch Avengers and all these things. And I watch Avengers as well. I still consider myself young. The point is more young people care about Avengers than they care about philosophy of capitalism, a philosophy of freedom. So what we do, we take what they like, something like Avengers, and we explain the concepts of free market, capitalism, individuality, and all that, through the lens of the Avengers.

I love that. No, just last night I was on your YouTube channel. These videos that you're talking about are called Out of Frame, And they're so creative and so well done. And I just thought, wow, what a creative idea and a creative way to really explain these big picture philosophical concepts to young people, really to anyone, in a way that is relatable and also really entertaining. Right, right. Yeah. And we have a different channel as well.

It's called Common Sense Sobox. And those are snappier, faster animated series. And in which, in those ones, we basically, we pull no punches. So the episode I really like is the one where we explained the concept that, remember a couple of years, last year, there was this nonsense that, you know, if you burn down the building, it's fine because insurance is going to pay for it. That was during the riots. So we went all in and explained why this is nonsense.

Why it doesn't work like that? Yeah. And then you all have a podcast. in a news outlet as well, correct? So I'd say, so news outlet, that's fee.org. So if you like to read about news, if you like to read sort of our articles about the current happenings,

that's at feed.fee.org. Podcast, that's words and numbers. That's two of our professors, once again, giving their insights. But I would like to highlight two other programs that we do, if you don't mind. So one of them is a revolution of one, and that's specifically aimed

at young African-Americans. And I would say that's a wonderful program. Our spokesperson T.K. Coleman, he really cares about this community. He really cares about young African-Americans advancing. And I think the message that he articulates really well is that capitalism is for everyone. Or free markets are for everyone. It's only in the capitalist system is that anyone can achieve anything. I think that's a very empowering message.

Yeah, yes, it is. And we also target Spanish-speaking populations in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. You all are busy. A lot going on. Well, just last May, we broke a world record for the largest economics lesson in the world. We had nearly 10,000 students attend for our economics event. Wow. And that was just open to everyone online, anyone who wanted to join?

Right, right. We did a huge promotion. It was in Spanish, so we targeted the Spanish-speaking population. Some of them were from U.S., others from Latin America. But basically, yeah, that was, I think, like 9,573 students spent at least an hour or so listening to elect to these people explaining what economics is, how free markets work, why liberty is important, and obviously why socialism is not the answer. We are now in the process of certifying that with a Guinness Book World of Records. Wow, I love that. So do you have plans to do another one of those kinds of events? And I would love to join if there's another one lined up. Absolutely, absolutely. Right now, we are going through what we call the Entrepreneur Week. And that's going to be happening in next week or so. And those are, once again, entrepreneurship, empowerment, individualism for young people. That's excellent. So if anyone is listening and thinking, okay, I want to get them to come speak at my school or at my child's school or at the school I teach at, how could they go about reaching out to the foundation for economic education to have one of your professors come and give one of those four-hour lectures?

Well, just go to fee.org and it's pretty much all in there. There's a form that you just basically ask us. That's the simplest way, I guess, to answer your question. We just go to fee.org, go to programs, and just look around our website, and that you can definitely request a professor to come to your school, to your community, and explain it. Great, great. And for those who are eager to check out your YouTube videos, to read your articles, all of that is also on your website, correct, at fee.org? Everything is there. It's a nice website that basically pretty much encompasses everything with you. You can find videos there. You can find articles there.

You can hide, you can find teaching materials in there. So all the plethora of what we do is in there. Feedfee e.org. Great. Excellent. And we'll also leave that link in the show notes. But Z, we really appreciate the work that you're doing. And thank you so much for your time and joining us today. Thank you.

And I want to use this opportunity to thank what Heritage does. I think you guys do an amazing job too. Oh, thank you so much. We really appreciate that. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. You can find The Daily Signal Podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe.

Thanks again for listening and we'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visit DailySignal.com. Thank you.