In the infinite expanse of our cosmos littered with 100 billion-odd galaxies, each consisting of roughly 100 billion stars and interstellar matter, is a speck called Milky Way, our galaxy, where our planet does not even qualify to be called a dot. There is a small province called Kerala in the land mass of the Earth and in this province people still discuss the relevance of Marxism which has been thrown to the dustbin of history (forgive the cliche) in other much bigger areas in other parts of the land mass. Some people say that this place called Kerala, which is in a country called India (there are several countries on the surface of our planet differentiated by, among other things, the colour and design of their respective flags), will be the place where Marxism will be preserved as a museum piece for people from other parts of the world to see it before it is extinct even in this petite region which is also known as `god's own country', much to the chagrin of atheists.
The party that still claims to preserve the Marxist ideology is the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a national party though its presence is largely confined to Kerala and West Bengal. Recently there was a storm in the tea cup when a veteran leader of that party said something in defence of capitalism (or so it appeared to the mainstream media that are in grand alliance with pro-U.S. imperialist forces to wipe out this party that was leading resistance against the said imperialist monster).
Recently, a prominent leader of the party, explained at a public meeting that Marxism was still relevant because it espoused scientific socialism. His argument is as follows: nature works as per laws of nature and human societies function as per laws of social changes. He has used the metaphor of a flower plant to hammer the audience into believing what he says. You cannot plant the sapling with its roots up because that is against the laws of nature, he tells re-iterating that social changes are governed by laws of social changes. In the Marxian scheme of things, society evolves from one phase of change into another, that is, from feudalism to capitalism to socialism to the final phase called communism when the state will wither away and people will live a jolly life.
But he is apparently too clever by half and his metaphor collapses when he says that the aim of his party is to establish socialism. If a society evolves as per the laws of social changes, why should there be a party to establish socialism? Then he goes on saying that Marxism is a social science that continuously reforms itself and argues that this scientific socialism failed in erstwhile Soviet Union and other eastern European countries because of mistakes in their application of Marxism and lack of steps to correct them. Again his argument fails: why should there be conscious efforts to correct the mistakes when the party (that is Marxism) is always on auto-correct mode? What the poor chap was trying to do was to sweeten what cannot be sweetened. Communism in its essence is totalitarianism which will by no means allow the laws of social changes to say goodbye to the state and declare that the state has withered away. That has not happened in the Soviet Union, nor is it happening in North Korea, Cuba and China.
Dear Reader, if you feel exhausted reading this, just look at the sky and try to imagine the infinite expanse of the cosmos and try to locate where our tiny planet is and then make an attempt to figure out the funny side of people who still live in their own fantasy worlds full of fantasy ideologies and arguments.
The party that still claims to preserve the Marxist ideology is the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a national party though its presence is largely confined to Kerala and West Bengal. Recently there was a storm in the tea cup when a veteran leader of that party said something in defence of capitalism (or so it appeared to the mainstream media that are in grand alliance with pro-U.S. imperialist forces to wipe out this party that was leading resistance against the said imperialist monster).
Recently, a prominent leader of the party, explained at a public meeting that Marxism was still relevant because it espoused scientific socialism. His argument is as follows: nature works as per laws of nature and human societies function as per laws of social changes. He has used the metaphor of a flower plant to hammer the audience into believing what he says. You cannot plant the sapling with its roots up because that is against the laws of nature, he tells re-iterating that social changes are governed by laws of social changes. In the Marxian scheme of things, society evolves from one phase of change into another, that is, from feudalism to capitalism to socialism to the final phase called communism when the state will wither away and people will live a jolly life.
But he is apparently too clever by half and his metaphor collapses when he says that the aim of his party is to establish socialism. If a society evolves as per the laws of social changes, why should there be a party to establish socialism? Then he goes on saying that Marxism is a social science that continuously reforms itself and argues that this scientific socialism failed in erstwhile Soviet Union and other eastern European countries because of mistakes in their application of Marxism and lack of steps to correct them. Again his argument fails: why should there be conscious efforts to correct the mistakes when the party (that is Marxism) is always on auto-correct mode? What the poor chap was trying to do was to sweeten what cannot be sweetened. Communism in its essence is totalitarianism which will by no means allow the laws of social changes to say goodbye to the state and declare that the state has withered away. That has not happened in the Soviet Union, nor is it happening in North Korea, Cuba and China.
Dear Reader, if you feel exhausted reading this, just look at the sky and try to imagine the infinite expanse of the cosmos and try to locate where our tiny planet is and then make an attempt to figure out the funny side of people who still live in their own fantasy worlds full of fantasy ideologies and arguments.
1 comment:
Twenty nine years back, when my husband landed on what was then referred to as THE MOSCOW, the landscape was dptted with red flags and the small townsquare, littered with Chhota Mota Communists. They sprouted difficult sounding words like Bourgeosie ( which even now I cannot seem to spell correctly ) and Class struggle and so on. In this part of Malabar, class struggle obviously referred to The Beedi workers and "rich' people like doctors who should be reigned in come what may. One Commie even had the gall to say that a doctor should not earn more than the Beedi worker, inspite of the fact that Beedi workers had their owh Dispensary where they could get their medicines free of cost and the doctors were avalable 24 hours of the day.
My husband arrived and changed the whole scenario, but not before paying obeisance to the Chhotas - he had to actually visit the beedi units and with floded hands tell them in hesitant Malayalam that he would be starting his medical practise at the humble place that was his home then. He remembers - His was the only private vehicle on the roads, He was the only person who wore shoes and socks and he owned a fridge, he had a cook, driver, componder and a Man friday to boot. He spent his first night in Marxist country - sleeplessly twisting and turning, probably thinking of the mountainous blunder he had comitted in coming to this god forsaken place crawling with Marxists.
Tailpiece - Within a matter of days, the Central dispensary was cleanned dry of its long queue of patients - all of them turned to the new doctor who was unusually shy and extremely kind and cured them of their illnesses with the minimum fuss and money. They paid him two rupees as Consultation fees and some grudgingly gave a fiver. The biggest fun came in the form of the Chhotas - all of them were in his pocket within a span of a month. Till date, he does not accept fee from them.
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