Yevgeny Prigozhin rebelled against Putin in June this
year and he died in a plane crash in August. Under normal circumstances, his
death wouldn’t have taken two months after his rebellion. Putin’s Russia is not
going through normal circumstances, you know.
Putin is a Communist. But his hero is
Peter the Great, Russia’s first Emperor. Peter’s statuette adorns Putin’s
private spaces. What Peter did to his own son is quite like what Putin did to his
closest friend Prigozhin. Peter’s son rebelled against him and then defected
and escaped to Vienna. That was in 1716, just to remind you. Peter lured him
back to Russia promising security. When the young man reached the ‘security’
promised by his father, he was tortured to death.
Putin had given all assurance to Prigozhin
that his rebellion would be forgiven. Call it political strategy or diplomacy
or sheer trickery, whatever you like. Karma too, if you prefer.
Putin is the ultimate product of
Communism. Dictatorship is the natural outcome when too many people decide to
live together as a single community. Vasudaiva Kutumbakam is good in
scriptures. All men are equal only in certain philosophical ideologies. Put ten
people together as one single community and see what happens in a week’s time.
They will raise hell.
Communism is just another dreamy ideal. Like
Thomas More’s Utopia where there was no money because the citizens shared
everything from meals to whatever was produced. Jesus, who inspired More, was
probably the first Communist. He told his followers: “If you have two coats,
give one to him who has none. He who has food is to do likewise.” [Luke 3:11]
The early Christians did just that. Read
this passage from Acts 4. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one
claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything
they had…. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there
were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or
houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’
feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”
That is just what Communism is. A
society without class divisions or government. Yeah, no government either. A government
is needed only in a society that is not guided by the ideals that Communism upholds.
The basic principle of that Communism is: From each according to his
ability, to each according to his need.
You give your best to the society and
the society will give its best to you. Simple. Ideal. Paradisical.
It was tried in too many places from
the ancient Christian Rome to Putin’s Russia and Xi Jinping’s China. And it failed
everywhere. Including the Pope’s Rome.
The God That Failed is the title of a book
written by six eminent writers, including George Orwell and Stephen Spender,
all of whom were Communists once. These great thinkers all gave up Communism
eventually upon realising its impracticality.
Who likes to work like a donkey: from
each according to his ability? Whose needs are circumscribed by the society:
to each according to his need?
George Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal
Farm gives us the most vivid picture of what happens in a Communist
society. The sincere workers perish like cretins and the cunning creatures rule
like Putin. Or like Xi Jinping or Kerala’s Pinarayi. Greed, not need, is what
drives humans. Greed for power, for wealth, for delights.
The Communists in Orwell’s Animal
Farm end up as greedy, ruthless and selfish capitalists. The difference between
Peter the Great and Valdimir Putin is only in children’s textbooks. Adults know
how to behave more intelligently than Prigozhin. Communism is good in textbooks
only. In actual practice, there is little difference between the left and the
right. How different is India’s Right from Russia’s Left?
PS. I would never have written a post
like this had it not been for S who wanted me to write on Communism for reasons
known only to her. It is just a coincidence that my last
post too was in response to a similar request.
Thoughtful post as always. Communism is just a charade and while the capitalists aren't saints, i'll atleast respect that they're "honest" about their greed :D
ReplyDeleteYes, not only honest they boast about it and flaunt it in Forbes and such places.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteYup, the human critter, no matter how intelligent, is driven only by that programmed cell for 'survival' and no matter how we wrap it up and eulogise, society is still and ever will be survival of the fittest... YAM xx
... In spite of all that we can be if we choose!
DeleteNow for a note on Socialism please! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMarx didn't really differentiate between the two.
DeleteA perfect sandwitch made of Lava and smeared with cyclone,,👏👏👏
ReplyDeleteThis is beyond me 🙄
DeleteLast years made me despise everything that is remotely connected to communism. Be it here or outside. However I agree with you about Vaisudhaiva kudilbakam being not a possible scenario .
ReplyDeleteCommunism is also a kind of religion with its tall promises. That's why it becomes so despicable to thinking people.
Delete