| Child 44 - and my ramblings about the nature of mankind |
[Mar. 17th, 2008|06:05 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | musings | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pessimistic | ] |
I've opened this account for reading fanfiction, I'm sure that's a usual reason. Today I want to share my thoughts on the book mentioned above, though, completely different from my literature choices of the last three years. I used to read a lot of books, but not recently. This I bought on a whim.
The style is rather simple, at least in the german version I read. Maybe that's why it affects me so much. It's about a 'police officer' in the last year of Stalin's regency. I haven't finished it, but it describes a life so unlike my own, so unlike anything someone in the BRD (West-Germany) of these days experienced. You have to read it to understand. So far one message is clear:
YOU ARE NEVER SAFE.
I wonder reading it if Orwell's 1984 really described a future he feared or the Stalin era. There is only one sure way to survive - you have to detach yourself from any connections, be it friends, family or ideals. Maybe then you won't be denunciated. FEAR is suffusing everything. If you are suspicious, you are guilty. If you are guilty, you will be tortured. If you are tortured, you'll confess and blame other's who will be tortured.
In this era, writing smut would have killed you, by the way.
Really, if you are interested in my ramblings, read the book.
So, this era is gone, right? We have 'evolved', are wiser now?
Fact: The equivalent of gulags still exist in China, a nation on the rise, who may supersede the US as the main economical force in the next years. And as a german I know how much the ideology of a superpower shapes your own everyday life. Today, I heard in the news about the violent abatement of tibetian demonstrants by the chinese military forces. Between 16 and hundreds (!) were killed. There's child labor in China. There's no law security. If you are poor, you will have nigh to nil chances to assert your rights.
Fact: In modern russia, free press is still a fiction. I read yesterday that 60 % of the Russians wish the Stalin era back, though I don't know why. Probably because they survived and exchange of information is vastly limited. It is estimated that Stalin killed about 30 Million people in his reign (see Wikipedia).
Fact: Enron. How many people suffered from ruthless capitalistic people that found it funny how many people fell for their ploy? Okay, they were not tortured or murdered, they 'just' were left impoverished, without a job and without their savings.
Ruanda. Irak. Israel and Palestine. Turkey and the Kurds. The list could go on and on.
But where does this horror leave me?
Yeah, sure, Carpe Diem. I mean it's true, value what you have a little more and stop whining about the small injustices that you face everyday. That's one conclusion, it's a cliché, and it's easy to forget. Still, today I promised myself to do just that.
Here's my other conclusion, one that I have not thought about for a long time, and it brings no joy and doesn't make the world a better place, because I have no f...ing idea how I could do that!
It's this: In reality, life is hell. There is a meaning of life, reincarnation is reality, and our souls' mission is to overcome our base flaws of hate, greed, envy, laziness, pride and so on, and only if we manage this, we may have a shot to escape eternal return to the earth. Because I think mankind as a whole will never evolve. Only individuals may escape the endless cycle of rottenness that seems to be necessary to become powerful.
So. Defeat may be inevitable. Forget accumulating riches. Forget planning the revolution, never has one brought paradise, or better circumstances. Today I found a citation:
"Revolutionen sind Zeiten, in denen der Arme seiner Rechtschaffenheit, der Reiche seines Reichtums und der Unschuldige seines Lebens nicht sicher ist. Joubert" Roughly translated, "revolutions are times when the poor's integrity, the rich man's riches and the innocent's life aren't safe anymore."
And I really just wanted one out of three.
That's it. My first post. Ended out different than I expected.
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