The contradictions of communism

Mishwoo left the most insightful and accurate quotation (his own) entitled 'The Contradictions of Communism' on my wall today. I would like to share it with you this Sunday morning:

"The Contradictions of Communism:

Although work is inefficient, things work well
Although things work well, shops are empty
Although shops are empty, one has everything one needs at home
...Although one has everything one needs, one's still unsatisfied
Although one is unsatisfied, one still applauds"

A student from Constanta I taught on Friday told me that when she was ten years old she and her mother heard about a delivery of oranges in town. Well, oranges were gold dust, unobtainable stars that came around maybe once a year if one was very lucky. Off they went and queued for hours with mouths watering and the bitter taste already fizzing on their tongues but just before their turn came, the man declared that there were no more left. My student looked up at her mother, whispered 'we'll have to wait til next year now, Mama' and burst into tears. That was twenty years ago. As M told her story, her eyes filled with tears once again and her face came over red and blotchy. Tough, moving, humiliating memories that still make one cry decades later, memories that have left inexplicable scars that will never fade... that is the heritage of communism on the human psyche. Along with a difficulty to question, an impossibility for curiousity, an inability to think for one's self and an incapacity to fight for one's rights. Communism created longterm victims who no longer know how to stand on their own two feet. They were neither encouraged nor educated to do so, for that would have been dangerous. George Friedman was absolutely right in his summing up of today's Roumanian society. There is nothing left to add.

And people miss communism....

A true contradiction in terms.

Mass amnaesia.

Thank you, Mishwoo, for such a very succinct adage. I shall put it wherever I can. Perhaps it will encourage a little thought.

Comments

[Peter Fay]

Sarah in Romania:

I love your description "Mass Amnesia".

I am Englez, but my Romanian friends are just old enough to remember the difficult times during the Ceaucescu Communist period.

But some of them STILL seem to forget what it was like to go without food.

I also keep in touch with them by the Internet... which would have been missing under communism.

Multumesc!

[Nicole]

People miss communism? Mostly senior citizens, I suppose. people who either were part of the system or, were so used the the daily miseries, they missed them today. People then had job security, a monthly salary and the daily lines,challenges and aggravations were a way of life, they didn't know any better and knew that complaining was detrimental to their wellbeing. Everything had its place, everything was regimented; there was a certain order that kept one busy from dusk till dawn. At the end of the day one was so exhausted, there was hardly time to have an opinion that nobody asked for anyway.
I remember that we had money but there was little to buy and therefore we did well; today, there is an abundance of goods but little money to buy. The conclusion: it was better in communism, even if there was no freedom. Sad, but maybe someone reading this will express a different opinion