Politics And Philately

Does international politics or policy play a role in your decision to collect or not collect a certain country or region?

For example - when I first started collecting German material I wouldn't collect DDR because they were a communist nation. I still don't, but now it's more an issue of their overproduction and blacklisted items than politics.

More recently, President Alvaro Colom Caballeros of Guatemala has been haranguing the U.S. for our Latin American policies. Several of us collect Guatemala. Should we stop?

Hi Greg....

In my opinion......

I make my choices based on the material I like or don't like, not on whether or not I agree with the politics of world leaders.

Did anyone stop collecting US material because they disagreed with Nixon or Bush ?

People disagreed with Bush and Nixon. Noooo....!

If politics dictated my collecting I would have a hard time explaining all of my Hitler era Germany and the few Confederate States stamps that I have.

Richard

That's very true, I have Kaiserreich stamps too, some from old German colonies, and Third Reich ones - which actually aren't that easy to handle here, as it basically is forbidden to own anything that has a Swastika on it, as long as you aren't some kind of museum and collect for educational reasons.
We aren't allowed to show swastikas if we want to post pictures of these stamps, or sell them on ebay, we have to cover these.
Concerning stamps and coins it is pretty much tolerated, but militaria collectors can easiely get in trouble.

Still, if you want to document the history of a country, you can't just leave out the "uncomfortable" parts. That's why I collect these as well, collecting and documenting doesn't meen agreeing.
So yes, I pay attention, but it doesn't prevent me from collecting such stamps as well.

Our biases and prejudices can be quite irrational. I refuse to wear clothing or use other products made in Viet-nam but I will collect their stamps.

That's a relief !
If you refused to wear clothing or buy products made in China you'd be walking around naked in your empty house !!

Londonbus1.....even the Israel Flags are made there !!

When I was a kid I was interested in the forbidden stamps of Communist China and Cuba. CTOs from Eastern European countries were aggressively pushed on kids in Boy's Life magazine, but owning Chinese and Cuban stamps was verboten.

Long ago I collected Germany "between the wars" which of necessity included Third Reich. Many of the most interesting stamps were the semi-postals. I did not consider the politics (if that is the correct term) of the collection. I have stopped and tried to relate the dates of issue to what was going on, but if you go down that road too far, you will soon get into a "state".

Let's not forget that stamp collecting is a hobby to be enjoyed.

I go to my stamps and postal history to get the heck away from blasted politics! I find that my collection can calm me down after a distressing day of political news.

My opinion anyway

Happy collecting

Bujutsu

Swabbie, One monkey does not stop the show ! The current guy in Guatemala has no effect on my 1902 Waterlow and Quetzal stamps !!

I want to support my country. If buying stamps produced by an enemy of the state goes against an economic policy then I will support our country, otherwise I find that political stamps can be an interesting reflection of the country and the times especially when they are made for internal purposes. I'm less in interested in stamps produced almost exclusively for foreign collectors (i.e. my avatar). For that reason many of the post Castro Cuban and Easter European countries and North Korea aren't of much interest. With the unification of Germany the DDR stamps are now a desired part of my German collection. I also find some of the early North Viet Nam issues interesting.

In the past post Castro stamps seemed to be taboo, but now they are in Scott along with North Korea, etc. so I assume the government doens't feel we should institute a stamp collecting embargo.

I didn't disagree with President Bush.

Why, I even started collecting USA Flag stamps because of him !



Londonbush1....My Vexillology buddy

Londonbus1, You're not that young! You had to be collect flag stamps earlier & that would have included the USA flag.

By the way Bush was not making the calls, Cheney was!

Cheney wasn't making the calls, either. He was just another puppet of the Bilderbergs, globalists, and banksters. Obama has surrounded himself with Marxists, banksters, and 'czars' to bypass legislation. He has reneged on all his campaign promises (that's right American suckers) and is out-Busing Bush by continuing and expanding wars (to Pakistan, Yemen, and soon, probably Iran) and had spent more money in his first eight months than all his predecessors going back to George Washington. Under him, the auto industry is history (if you were a Democrat you got to keep your dealership, if you were a Republican you did not!) and WE paid to send GM's manufacturing plants overseas. He didn't abolish the Patriot Act or close Gitmo, he is going to have the EPA bypass Congress with carbon taxes, even though global warming has been proven to be a fraud and the so-called scientists investigating it were dishonest miscreants who do not deserve to be called scientists, he is pushing to shut don the web and license its use (he doesn't like the Constitution, the first Amendment, nor America, and wants to thereby end free speech and a whole lot more). He is a big-time loser and we really are witnessing the fall of the Republic.

While I would side with Quanah in not wanting to support an enemy, I do my best to keep my politics separate from my hobbies. While I didn't want to engage in any support of Communist China or the Soviet Union as entities, I maintained trading partners in both countries. And politics was never brought up unless somewhat tangentially. I even found myself not asking certain questions because an honest answer may have placed my 'friends' in a difficult position and less then ah honest answer would have been valueless.