Shifting Beliefs
A revolution is happening within my soul. This revolution is akin to that I experienced in my last years of adolescence, watching Catholic and Protestant leaders commit all kinds of sins they vehemently denounced in the believers of their faiths. That revolution led me to deny all religions and declare myself a non-believer. This revolution is political and it's taking me from center-left to almost Communism.
That said, I will never become a Communist. The largest experiment with Communism of the twentieth century ended with the Soviet Union impoverished and ripe for another autocrat who chooses to emulate the old czars. But I believe that a state where basic services are provided by public money is possible. I believe that it is also possible to guarantee the basic rights of healthcare and education to every citizen regardless of income. And that those who have fallen through the cracks in the system can be pulled back up. That would involve not the loss of privileges, but the increase of responsibility for those who enjoy them.
Communism simply shifted privileges from one group to another. The great masses of people who never had any simply changed feudal lords. Having privileges, however, means a greater responsibility toward the society which allowed you to have them. If a person is lucky enough to have had ancestors who created a family fortune, or have the brains and the willingness to work hard enough to create a company that gives them a level of life where they don't have to worry about paying their debts, that person should give back to society. That is not Communism and it is not raging capitalism, either. It's the common sense that creates an egalitarian society.
Spain is headed for another general election. The results were so divided in the elections back in December, that no agreement on a new government could be reached. So, on 26 June, we have to vote again. What is causing the revolution within me is the blatant assumption that despite the corruption, the thievery, the cutbacks that are destroying basic rights everyone should be guaranteed, the ruling conservative Partido Popular will still garner the most votes among the electorate. So many corruption cases, so many hands caught in the till, and there's no "mea culpa," just blame the other's shadow. Even the supposedly worker's party, the Partido Socialista del Obrero Español, has its own share of rancid characters and associated corruption. And they would hand the government to the entrenched PP and its coat-tail followers, Ciudadanos, just to avoid the combination of Podemos and Izquierda Unida from trying to make a change. Even the European Union, poised to give Spain a multi-billion euro fine for burrowing further into debt, is waiting till after the elections to see what it will do. The implication is that if the conservatives win, the fine will be much lower or pardoned; but if the resulting government leans to the left, the fine will be imposed in all its glory, punishing Spain by treating it like it has treated Greece.
Listening to the white-washed sepulchers fills me with rage and I envy the French workers who are striking and protesting the austerity measures their government is trying to impose. Instead of emulating them, though, the Spanish eagerly await the upcoming soccer games this summer, patriotically waving the flag, humming the national anthem. We prefer to look at our navels and scratch them rather than fight against the status quo of corruption and entrenched politics. So, I will vote for change this month. Whether it will actually come, or if I will like it, is something else. But, short of beginning a riot, it's all I can do.
That said, I will never become a Communist. The largest experiment with Communism of the twentieth century ended with the Soviet Union impoverished and ripe for another autocrat who chooses to emulate the old czars. But I believe that a state where basic services are provided by public money is possible. I believe that it is also possible to guarantee the basic rights of healthcare and education to every citizen regardless of income. And that those who have fallen through the cracks in the system can be pulled back up. That would involve not the loss of privileges, but the increase of responsibility for those who enjoy them.
Communism simply shifted privileges from one group to another. The great masses of people who never had any simply changed feudal lords. Having privileges, however, means a greater responsibility toward the society which allowed you to have them. If a person is lucky enough to have had ancestors who created a family fortune, or have the brains and the willingness to work hard enough to create a company that gives them a level of life where they don't have to worry about paying their debts, that person should give back to society. That is not Communism and it is not raging capitalism, either. It's the common sense that creates an egalitarian society.
Spain is headed for another general election. The results were so divided in the elections back in December, that no agreement on a new government could be reached. So, on 26 June, we have to vote again. What is causing the revolution within me is the blatant assumption that despite the corruption, the thievery, the cutbacks that are destroying basic rights everyone should be guaranteed, the ruling conservative Partido Popular will still garner the most votes among the electorate. So many corruption cases, so many hands caught in the till, and there's no "mea culpa," just blame the other's shadow. Even the supposedly worker's party, the Partido Socialista del Obrero Español, has its own share of rancid characters and associated corruption. And they would hand the government to the entrenched PP and its coat-tail followers, Ciudadanos, just to avoid the combination of Podemos and Izquierda Unida from trying to make a change. Even the European Union, poised to give Spain a multi-billion euro fine for burrowing further into debt, is waiting till after the elections to see what it will do. The implication is that if the conservatives win, the fine will be much lower or pardoned; but if the resulting government leans to the left, the fine will be imposed in all its glory, punishing Spain by treating it like it has treated Greece.
Listening to the white-washed sepulchers fills me with rage and I envy the French workers who are striking and protesting the austerity measures their government is trying to impose. Instead of emulating them, though, the Spanish eagerly await the upcoming soccer games this summer, patriotically waving the flag, humming the national anthem. We prefer to look at our navels and scratch them rather than fight against the status quo of corruption and entrenched politics. So, I will vote for change this month. Whether it will actually come, or if I will like it, is something else. But, short of beginning a riot, it's all I can do.
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