Posted on 11/15/2017 10:25:45 AM PST by SeekAndFind
A recent poll found that fifty percent of millennials say they would rather live in a communist or socialist country than in a capitalist democracy. These numbers can’t be laughed off -- they should frighten you. Maybe they don’t know what communism means.
I do. I lived in Communist Poland.
Perhaps those fifty percent of millennials were not properly taught about communism in school. That’s too bad, and dangerous. So here are some examples for those misguided millennials to ponder, all of which I experienced in communist Poland.
Unreliable electricity
Do you millennials enjoy having electricity on demand to charge your devices? Then you would hate Action “O.” Action “O” stood for “Oszczednosc,” which translates to “Savings.” Poland’s communist government would notoriously turn off electricity to various areas of the city to “save” energy.
They had an interesting system which they described as “customer oriented”: they would turn the electricity off for one minute and turn it back on for five minutes as a warning that a shutoff was coming. You had exactly five minutes to find your matches and candles, because after that electricity would shut off for several hours.
If that wasn’t bad enough, we suffered under a shortage of matches.
Fake equality
The most demoralizing part of the communist system was that “all were considered equal.” This was a big lie.
It didn’t matter if you worked hard -- your pay was equal to the guy who barely showed up for work, or came to work drunk. The only way to advance was to join the political elite: the Communist party.
Imagine a system where the key to success wasn’t hard work or merit, but conniving and politics. If you sold your soul to the devil, you were rewarded.
My father worked at a water company in one of the major cities in Silesia Region. He was approached several times by the “party” PZPR with an offer of a promotion to a director’s position. But there was one small requirement.
He would need to first denounce his religion.
Yes, they asked him to become an atheist devoted solely to the communist ideology if he wanted to get a raise or promotion. Neither him nor our family would be able to attend mass or practice our religion in any manner.
Imagine a system where job success comes not from your productivity or character, but from the degree to which you adhere to party orthodoxy.
My dad is a religious and honorable man. He declined the offer and therefore never got promoted, and our lives never got better -- and I am so proud of him for his strong beliefs and integrity.
But the idea of “equality” under communism was a lie.
Needing “connections” to buy simple goods
Imagine a life where you couldn’t buy anything without first getting the approval of the political elite.
Those who joined the party had many, many privileges that an average person never had. To the most reliable zealots, the communist party distributed special “talony” stamps to purchase cars. If you didn’t have the stamps, you could wait years “in line” before becoming “eligible” for a car.
The party members even had special stores to purchase food -- and this higher quality food was often imported from the West. Instead of a Costco card, you needed a communist party card to shop there.
Needing “connections” to find a place to live
Connections were needed when applying for housing. For example, my family eventually received permission from the government to move to a larger three-room apartment. Yet the four of us had lived in a tiny two-room apartment because we didn’t have the party’s approval to find a bigger one for seven years.
How many millennials would accept needing to seek the approval of a political party or government before they could move anywhere?
Decades-long waits for apartments
If millennials want to live under communism, they need to accept being stuck living with their parents. Rentals are simply not available.
When I turned eighteen, I went to the government-run housing association with a full down payment deposit for a new apartment. The association explained the process: they would take my deposit now and add my name to the list. Once an apartment became available they would let me know, but until then I had to live with my parents. I asked: “How long will this take?” The answer: between 10 to 15 years!
This was the last straw. I took back my money and decided I would leave Poland in search of freedom from communist or socialist ideology.
Rationing
Millennials are used to buying whatever they want. That doesn’t happen in communism. All the goods that make up daily life were rationed, if they could be had at all. Everything was rationed: sugar, soap, flour, detergent, beer, butter, and most of all, meat. You couldn’t buy the basics without the talony stamps.
We were limited to only 100 grams of chocolate per month! The average American trick or treat bag has about eight years of the communist’s chocolate allowance.
Empty grocery stores, corruption, and black markets
Communist rationing created a culture of black markets and a nation comfortable with lawbreaking. This fostered countrywide corruption. There was a famous saying about purchasing food “spod lady,” meaning “from under the counter.” Most of the time, grocery stores were completely empty. But if you paid extra, you could probably get something that the lady from behind the counter “stashed” away and sold for a profit.
Lines, lines everywhere
Communism means waiting in line.
We would wait for hours, and sometimes days, for the simplest things: food, detergent, toilet paper, matches, stockings or socks. Meat was always in great shortage, and the lines the longest. Since both of my parents worked, my grandmother would get in line at 3:00 a.m. to buy a single pound of meat for the family. I remember waiting hours to buy toilet paper or matches.
Violence -- and murder -- for expressing different ideas
Millennials need to understand that communism is a culture of repression and violence. All around us was oppression, even in the education system. Brilliant teachers or priests who didn’t conform to communist ideology or spoke against it were imprisoned, tortured, or killed. Our history books were rewritten, and we were taught lies about our own history.
I recall my 8th grade friend being severely punished because in his essay he disclosed that there was a pact between Hitler and Stalin against Poland before World War II began. Of course, this was the truth -- but in communism truth doesn’t matter. Only the revolutionary party dogma matters. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was never to be mentioned.
Musical and cultural totalitarianism
Think millennials want government officials controlling the music they listen to or the programs they watch?
Under communism, there was absolutely NO freedom of speech. The authorities made it easy to brainwash the public. Drinking was heavily promoted and there was no access to the external world. No direct news from the West was allowed. We only had access to two TV channels (TVP1, TVP2), and one was solely devoted to communist propaganda news.
When Elton John’s song Nikita came out, it was blacklisted by the authorities. You could be imprisoned for simply listening to the song or having a bootlegged record. Yet we still did. I remember going to my friend’s apartment who had an illegal copy of Nikita and clinging to every word of freedom portrayed in the song:
And if there comes a time
Guns and gates no longer hold you in
And if you're free to make a choice
Just look towards the West and find a friend
-------------------
You, the free West, gave us a glimpse of hope. I believed that things could get better.
I pray that the millennial generation doesn’t blow it, and enable a return to the mad, dehumanizing world that I lived in under communism.
Communes sound romantic...for a while.
Such was not always true in America.
The following is an excerpt from the "Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon" (1886) (celebrating America's 100th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence) by a Black Ohio Legislator and A.M.E. Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett on "The Greatness of America" - Note that this Sermon is delivered only a few years after the end of the Civil War by this outstanding scholar/legislator/Bishop.
"Let us see what it is that makes us so great; wherein lies our strength. What has made us one of the greatest powers of the earth, politically and intellectually? Have we come to the conclusion that it is Righteousness that exalteth a nation? We have met to-day at the request of the President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, and also the Governor of our beloved State, Rutherford B. Hayes. For what? Why call us from our homes? Why come to the house of God? Why not go to the hall of mirth and to the places of amusement to-day? No that is not what they want us to do. We are commanded to go to our 'several places of worship, and there offer up thanks to Kind Providence which has brought our nation through the scenes of another year, and blessed the land with peace, plenty and prosperity.' Then as Americans we have reason to rejoice and congratulate ourselves on the greatness of our beloved country; at this the close of the first hundred years of experimental government of the people, by the people, and for the people. To be a citizen of this vast country is something, and to share in its privileges and duties is more than something." - Dr. Benjamin W. Arnett, 1876 "Centennial Thanksgiving Sermon" - Library of Congress - African-American SectionIf current generations of youth in America go to the LOC web site and read this lengthy Address by a remarkable Black scholar of history, Ohio State Legislator, and A.M.E. Bishop, who had lived through the years surrounding the Civil War, then their perspective might be enhanced, enlarged and encouraged by their pride in such an intellectual giant from America's history.
Most of the little brainwashed snots love totalitarianism, and they’d have no problem renouncing religion for “perks.”
Bkmrk.
I genuinely appreciate the author’s first-hand warning, but right now, it’s of little use. You see, all the cool kids are Bernie Bros, and equate Communism, and it’ little brother, Socialism, as being all about compassion, equality, and free stuff.
Recently I was at someone’s house and a some WalMart like sitcom was on and one of the characters was espousing the grand virtues of socialism. I was stunned.
For reasons I cannot fathom, the Left always romanticizes Socialism despite 100% of historical examples showing otherwise. It is why people like Sean Penn was Hugo Chavez’s best buddy and biggest supporter, and yet now that Socialism has run its fully expected course in Venezuela, Sean Penn is no where to be found. And that is always how it is.
American Millenials have only know plenty and have suckled at the teat of the corrupt MSM all their lives. They now fully believe that if it weren’t for those Fascist Conservative barbarians they would all be able to live in a Socialist paradise with free tuition, free food, a guaranteed minimum salary, and all the pot they could smoke.
Things will not get better until they themselves experience the abject hardship Socialism always brings. It is what they want. It is what they demand. Until they get it they will clamor for it because Socialism and Communism is a lie from the pit of Hell — and they demand it!
Except for the party elites. Millenials (and all liberals) believe they will be in that group.
We’re actually pretty far along the “denounce your religion or you won’t get promoted” path.
I wish I could simply pound the ignorant in the millennial group in the head with this until it sinks in, because for those ignorant ones...that is the only way it will ever find its way in.
Bump - that’s good stuff.
Yeah, but they’re gonna get it right this time. Fidiots.
What I always hear from young people is “They didn’t do it the right way. With technology, we can do it the right way...”
What they don’t realize is that perfectly good software (their idealized communist/socialist implementation) running on fatally flawed hardware (Communism/Socialism) is only going to work as well as the hardware it runs on.
Meaning...not.
I think it’s ultimately the idealism and innocence(ignorance?) of youth that allows them to see communism or socialism on paper and think it’s wonderful. No knowledge of how it plays out in real life. A few bad players rise to the top, recruit more bad players, then Shazam! Slave to the machine.
I remember being shown an open air market in Western Siberia in the mid 1980s, as proof of economic freedom and choice.
There were rows of covered stalls, almost all of them empty and grubby. A few had the bins covered with dingy plastic sheet. Two of the stalls had products. In one, there were some wax paper wrapped blocks of what was supposed to be shortening. The blocks were translucent gray, with sooty streaks of some kind of contaminant in them. There were about three dozen of these blocks, with no interest being shown. The other stall had about two dozen flabby, abused heads of cabbage. A couple of babushkas were picking through them, with scant enthusiasm. That was it.
Bear in mind, our hosts were showing this site off with PRIDE!
They just imagine themselves as privileged members of the commissariat, rather than the reeducation camp fodder they would become in very short order. Except for welfare recipients, they would have the worst odds of surviving in such a system.
The author clearly doesn’t understand that today’s millenials are the smartest people on the planet. They can do it better. As long as they get to have their Smartphones, Mac’s, the latest Northface jacket for those cool morning walks to Starbucks and their craft beer, all is good. Because all of those things are handed out, to the masses in communist countries.
I know it's fashionable to consider Millenials a bunch of Obamabots. However, I don't think it's elderly National Review readers who are buying all of Milo's books.
This is based on a POLL..yea, the same social science that predicted Hillary being president. Indeed, Deplorable parents are undoubtedly advising Deplorable millenials to hang up when a telemarketer calls, or walk away from dopes with clipboards, thus causing an underweighting in polls.
Finally, remember that by most accounts, at the time of the Revolution, 20% were Loyalists, 33-45% were Patriots, and the rest were ballast. If you replace Loyalist with statist, and Patriots with Deplorables, we are right where we started.
I thnk we are seeing history repeat itself. The left/Loyalists are painting the Patriots/Deplorables as intransigent dolts who must be brought to their knees and Kiss the Ring, for their own good. In turn, the Patriots/Deplorables are not going quietly into the night, using new media to outsmart the Establishment and bring otherwise neutral parties to the side of truth and freedom.
In turn, the kids of Deplorables likely are as much "underground" as are their parents in polls, etc. Where they ARE visible is on memes and the like....have you ever seen how many pro-Trump meme pics there are vs anti-Trump? I doubt that's coming from a bunch of geezers.
Thus, I wouldn't so easily assume the millenials are all commies.
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