July 25, 2008
Story 1: I met the enthusiast Australians socialists (not socialistas :p). They’re so motivated to explain about Marx’s aim: revolution, to revolutionazed a country. They conducted discussion group about Marxism. They believe that revolution is a must to change a country.
Story 2: Minutes after that, I met a friend from a communist country (the one that actually practising Marxism). She told me how fed up she is with Marxism. The reason is because during her undergrad, everything, every topics, must be linked with Marxism, so Marxism in psychology, Marxism in science etc. etc.. She was told harshly not to quote from Western theorists’ work because..they’re not matched with Marxism, the value of her country (to this extent, I remember about all the Pancasila thing we were taught in the New Order regime..so resembled).
I can see the similarity: most of the ideologies, including religion, are good, at least they were created, set up, first because the founder challenged something not right in their time. But when someone forced it to another person, and when they have too much power, it becomes bad. Christianity is about love, -but not during the Crusades. Islam is about peace, but not during the massacre of Armenians. Marxism is about justice and equality, but not when you looked at the life of the communist party elites, and about the totalitarianism they practised. Pancasila is about justice, nationalism, humanism, democracy, but not when you look at the elites’ wealth, when they sold the land and water to foreign investors, and when the slaughter of million innocents after the dark September 30, 1965.
The key is in the human hands. Will they practice what they preach? Or it is just another way to challenge the current power, and when they have power, they turn exactly into what they challenged initially? Lord Acton famous phrase: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men", is ancient, yet still relevant today.
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