Capitalism, Communism, Consumerism

 

 

 My life Experience with the 3Cs

This is a hodgepodge of my experiences with the 3Cs during my life.

I'm huddled under my fourth grade school desk waiting for the all clear siren. I wonder if a little girl my age is worried about a nuclear bomb coming from my country? I don't want to bomb her, why would she want to bomb me. I go to bed at night wondering if a nuclear bomb will kill me before morning. 

McCarthy is allegedly "saving" the country from Communism. He also preempts my kids TV shows.

I'm living in Stuttgart with my husband. He's doing required Army service. Some rubble from WWII remain. Many years later when I visit, they are rebuilt. 

Most people in our German apartment building are hostile to Americans. They knock on my door to tell me how sorry they are about Kennedy's assassination. There is a candle light vigil down the mountain into the city. There is less hostility.

I watch the Berlin Wall fall while living in Boston. I feel hope for a better world order.  

While living in Geneva Switzerland, Arabs, mostly women I see regularly in hijabs, express their horror to me about 9/11. Before they didn't speak to me. We will communicate warmly from then on. The change in attitude is a flashback to the change in Germany after Kennedy's death.

I become friends with Czech neighbors who work at their Geneva consulate. I regularly find half a Czech bread loaf hanging in a bag on my door many lunchtimes, flown in on the diplomatic pouch that morning.

The Czech couple invite me to Prague. They talk about life before and after the break up of the Soviet Union. They suffered politically when their daughter defected to Germany. In a restaurant a waiter admits he speaks fluent Russian, but minutes before he had "not understood" his Russian diners while being overly polite. My hosts says that is normal.

I'm a bad consumer in a society choked with things. I don't want the latest whatever. I consider having a car an annoyance, but I needed one for my reverse commute, Boston to suburbs for work.

I loved my two-bedroom Boston condo. I like living in an attractive place where I can enjoy the dusty rose of my bedroom, the cheery yellow of my office annex, my red and white kitchen. I like pretty clothes but do not want my closet crammed. I have one brown Scottish plaid wool skirt since seventh grade that only wore out in my mid-forties. I want just enough not too much.

I don't understand the need to replace, replace, replace with the newest anything when the old works. The waffle iron my grandmother bought before WWII and gave to me made great waffles. I only got rid of it when I moved to Europe in 1988. 

I met a Russian woman when I walk by the Geneva UN building. We talk. We bond. She invited me to her St. Petersburg, home and arranged for an in-depth historic-cultural tour including subways, theater, ballet, churches. She made a great cucumber salad. We talk books, history, family and pets, her cats, my dogs.

I stood in the room where Rasputin was attacked, felt the door he ran through before throwing himself in the River. I touched the history I've read about.

I walked through Fydor Dostoevsky's home. I imagined him sitting at his desk writing. He had been exiled to Siberia earlier. I had read enough Russian history and literature to understand the need for change for the majority of the people.

Like most people, I'd loved Dr. Zhivago and named my daughter Lara, only added an L. 

I often pass the house where Lenin lived in Geneva. The first meeting of The International was held in Geneva in 1866.

I question a society where everything goes to the top. I do not think an oligarch needs 25 bathrooms while his workers are on food stamps. I feel a manufacturer should built safety into its products. I've read where coal mines with unions have less accidents than those without. The planet's resources are being destroyed in the name of profit. On and on and on.

The theory behind Capitalism and Communism are excellent The problem is the men who are at the top pull the strings of those below to maintain their power. They lie, cheat and destroy the lives of those who are not at the top. 

At the moment the U.S. is in danger of imploding giving way to the billionaire class. Its president is demented and immoral. Russia is under the denomination of a man who doesn't care who he kills or what he destroys. He is influencing U.S. policy.

An ideal society is where there is an equal playing field. Never will things be totally equal. A person who is tone deaf will never be an opera singer any more than a person horrible at math will be an engineer. But there should be ways for people to live a dignified life. 

There will always people who want to accomplish more than just eating and having a roof over their heads.  

Too many people hate people who are different from them. They think if they suppress them they will be better off. They often use religion to justify their cruelties. It takes more energy to hate.

The powerful, be they Communist or Capitalist, manipulate those below. 

A society that gives people chances and helps those that can't help themselves, is overall a better place for all. 

I'm not a Communist, although the principles could be good if they had not been corrupted.

I'm not a Capitalist, although the principles could be good if they had not been corrupted.

I'm not a Consumer that would gladden the heart of many a business. I'm a selective user of what exists. 

Will the world ever be better? I'm not sure there are enough good humans, kind humans, to keep the bad humans under control but we can try.