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August 16, 2005, 8:04 pm PDT
the book I'm reading
I've been reading Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's "The First Circle", about the conditions of the USSR under Stalin's rule. Communism is, of course, supossed to be about the people, but it was really a culture of fear in which you couldn't say anything wrong about policies, unless you wanted to be branded as an enemy of state. I find these conditions just so depressing. You could be arrested under the POSSIBILITY that you were an enemy of the people, a SUSPICION you were a terrorist among them; not presented any evidence, not presented with formal charges, and YET HELD IN PRISON FOR YEARS, indefinitely, WITHOUT A DATE OF TRIAL EVER BEING SET, AND FORMAL CHARGES NEVER MADE, OR EVIDENCE EVER BEING BROUGHT FORWARD FOR INQUIRY. I mean, what kind of dictatorship is that? A culture of fear and suspicion of outsiders, people who are different in any way. Indoctrination and PROPAGANA to fear the outside and to attack and hate it, subdue them somehow, conquering the lands that can be taken and FORCING ON THEM OUR WAY OF GOVERNING because it is the best way. Using the extensive and rapidly-growing prison population, THEIR PRISONS AND THEIR SYSTEMS BECOME A VITAL PART OF THE ECONOMY, as do incursions into other countries, to bring THEIR WAY OF GOVERNING in. Zeks (prisoners) perform tasks at the sharashkas (special non-camp prisons) no one else would do for low wages. Watching the peasant or proletariate class STARVE -get poorer and poorer- while massive government funds were tunneled into ROOTING OUT THE SPIES, THE ENEMY, and trying to maintain homeland security by ROOTING OUT THE EVIL-DOER. A terrified public held in the grip of a man taking more and more power through his support from the military, and SUPPORTING THE MILITARY he gains even more power. Both leader and army grow in power and wealth, not noticing the poor at home. The Soviet Union is defined in it's existence as stopping TERRORISM by foreign nations against it, and TERRORISM FROM WITHIN, where our too-weak commrades have given in, the allies that have betrayed us and who must be punished. To build their EMPIRE they muct go out and conquer nations, to free them from their misguided path and bring them to COMMUNISM, which after decimating the entire population should come as a relief. But those who RESIST this takeover, who FIGHT against it, are obviously TERRORISTS and ENEMIES OF THE STATE, so they must be taken into custody and left there for years with no recourse to legal council, hearings on bail, or even formal charges. They could hold you in prison indefinitely without proof - but only rumor, conjecture, possibility - that you might even have been involved. G-d, the situation is so tragic, I mean Stalin, as a DICTATOR, even makes sure that people think the right thing and fall in line, innocent people, because in this game if you're not with us you're against us. It just makes me so glad that I don't live under that kind of dictatorship, where they could SEARCH YOUR HOME at will if they suspect you of anything, and have INFORMATION about you all on file you didn't even know existed, they could TAP your phone whenever they wanted, and all to secure HOMELAND SAFETY. I'm just so grateful I'm Canadian and never had to face such a thing. Everyone should read this book: it sheds a lot of light on things and was definitely an eye-opener for me. Though, as I must say, depressing.
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