An Exercise In Imagination

Let’s imagine, the days are pre-’90s, 1969 or ’84 or ’88. The name of the country, in imagination, is USSR, popularly known as the Soviet Union, or GDR (DDR), popularly known as East Germany, or Bulgaria or Hungary or some other country with a post-revolutionary society.

Let’s imagine, the name of the ruler, termed dictator in mainstream parlance, is Brezhnev or Kosygin or Podgorny or Chernenko or an X, Y, Z considered as adherents of centralized planning and opposed to a world propagated free.

Let’s imagine, hundreds, thousands of citizens of that society have been pushed out of their homes and many of them are living in tents set up between railway tracks or living in subway stations or on pavements while thousands of homes silently stand vacant. Many of them are going hungry and they rely on breadlines to have their barest minimum human existence. Hundreds, thousands of children go hungry, they drop out of schools. Hundreds of schools are being closed down as revolutionary politicians are failing to arrange money for running the schools. The same reason pushes hundreds of teachers out of jobs. The post-revolutionary societies can’t arrange health care for hundreds of its citizens. The numbers may be more than hundreds or thousands. The numbers probably reach to millions. The centralized economy is throwing away, to mention in a sober way, thousands of its workers as it is failing to run its manufacturing units. But, the speculation market in this imagined society of dream is trading, actually gambling with, let’s name it, revolutionary bonds, worth of trillions of dollandro. The trillion dollandro transaction goes on only within a few days, not in a year. The centrally planned economies are of old age, keeping the count low, 200 years.

Let’s imagine, a number of towns, cities, municipalities in the post-revolutionary society has gone bankrupt or filed for bankruptcy due to bickering among the municipal revolutionary leadership or mismanagement or inefficiency or debt. In at least a municipality in the vast Soviet land citizens gathered and demanded pay cut of municipal leadership as it turned out that the revolutionaries were drawing salary of illogical and irrational size, too big. Individuals frustrated with the revolutionary tax officials have protested. At least one frustrated and desperate revolutionary guy tried to hit a tax office with a small plane. A number of schools in the Soviet land experienced incidents of shooting by students and number of students died. The type of the shooting is almost a regular event. And, the society regularly produces frustrated but trigger-happy shooters.

Let’s imagine, workers with revolutionary zeal have defied their Marxist trade union leadership and occupied at least a plant. And, in the land of revolutionary freedom at least a law can be found that stands on the way to organize unions and makes striking difficult, sometimes impossible.

The imagined land of revolutionary hope witnessed riots, sometimes by immigrants invited to run its factories, sometimes by youth and children. A number of those rioting young boys were in the age group of 11-14.

Institutions of higher learning in the imagined land are controlled by the state enterprises. There in the land, a lot of students are debt burdened. Sometimes, cases emerge that the debtor-student has completed her or his student life and has tuned old, but the debt is yet to be repaid as the former student failed to repay as the former student lacks capacity to repay.

Strange is the imagined revolutionary society! Sometimes, case emerges that this or that famous artist, film star or singer, turns drug addict, turns frustrated, commits suicide or dies in mysterious circumstance. The society produces such frustrated celebrities facing a hopeless horizon.

An amused environment, in truest sense, dominates the imagined land. Jovial persons are there in the society. They spend a lot, unimaginable amount of money, for drinks-dinning-dancing and all related activities while noteworthy number of children languish in den of misery.

Amazing vigor the society produces! One can always find some persons spewing hatred; sometimes against color, sometimes against religious belief.

Let’s forget these lower parts of these societies that propagate a nice world of revolutionary liberty and freedom.

Suddenly, it comes to light that an East German or a Hungarian revolutionary leader was provided with money by a despised dictator in Africa to smoothly conduct revolutionary election in the polit bureau or in the Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body. Suddenly, it comes to light that another revolutionary leader from another revolutionary land was provided with money by an old lady equipped with revolutionary ideology. Suddenly, it comes to light that a section of members of the Supreme Soviet were tricking with bills they submitted with the authority. Suddenly, it comes to light that number of scandals with Supreme Soviet members is not a few.

Wise is the Supreme Soviet Court, the imagined highest revolutionary legal office that delivers justice! The court finds: Collective farms or state-run super-industries are person; so these are entitled rights of persons. As these turn persons, these production or business bodies contribute money, huge in amount, to elections so that their candidate of choice gets elected so that they can repay by formulating laws favorable to the collectivehood or industryhood.

The year 1984 was near to nose of citizens. Pravda, Izvestia, the main section of the press in the Soviet land, Tass, the main news agency of the country, Radio Berlin or Budapest TV, the main broadcaster or telecaster of the land started discussing the touted Orwell-novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. They were also discussing Animal Farm. Their media-comrades in other lands joined them and an inter-continental orchestra, at least 12-month long, was organized. The purpose was to make the world alert of big brother in a tyrannized land, who was always keeping eyes on its subjects, controlling and manipulating brains of citizens. It was a noble mission to alert ordinary citizens about dictatorial rule. But suddenly it came out that the imagined land of freedom was having a bigger eye, stronger manipulation, and an all encompassing ideology – greed and accumulate.

Anyhow, the revolutionary leadership organized an international sport event. To ensure safety of the event, the revolutionary leadership decided to mobilize missiles, but not the ICBMs, on rooftops of civilian citizens in Moscow or Warsaw.

Anyway, the Soviet polit bureau failed to forget the Roman rulers’ tact: Invade a country or wage a war anywhere whenever there is possibility of a rebellion in home. They were faithful to the Roman ruling tact.

Whatsoever, the economy in the imagined Soviet land required the wars. Those were not only for distracting and demobilizing the citizens. Wars were like life lines to the revolutionary economy claiming to be the best.

Whatever goes in the economy, there was revolutionary politics, and the politics inspired the Soviet Blackmail & Hacking magazine editor to press the chief of the imagined state to hasten the decision to invade a country.

The economy, wisest and most efficient in the world, was successfully keeping in abeyance contradictions with the society. That was the revolutionary efficiency. And, it was happy with its efficiency of keeping contradictions unresolved. It was more than confident that contradictions within can be kept unresolved for indefinite period. It was a hope-infinite.

This story can move on and on as it was a story of a system destined to bring peace, prosperity and happiness to the world humanity, as it was a society Conceived in Liberty. It will be an affront to the society and its leadership to compose short stories on the system. It requires epics. It’s a justified expectation.

Should not humanity prefer this society? If the imaginary exercise nose dives and finds the ground reality? And, if the ground reality shows that the society is capitalist society hundreds of years old? Should humanity prefer it?