Exercises of Memory and Rationality

Those who thought that the trial of communism would not take place after all were wrong! Dead wrong! If the victims no longer had the strength to want this trial, or were fooled by the argument that such trial would cause strife among the nation, now the executioners want it! Then, as well as now, well fed and relieved of the burden of any trace of conscience, they have the stamina to "see it through.' They are no longer content with just the tools of power; they want a full-fledged coronation with all the due pomp.

The sneaky restoration has become insufficient, petty all of a sudden. The victims of past and present times must be tied to the chariot of victory and dragged around before the crowd paid to cheer. Death does not suffice anymore. Humiliation? Not a chance! This is not about change, but continuity. Or, if you prefer it, "continuity in change,' as it was not in vain that Marx learned a little something from good ol' Hegel, and from Marx - Lenin, and from Lenin - Stalin and from Stalin - they!

The offensive is exhaustive! The leading media (private and State-held alike) feature "the heralds of the new age,' the "oracles' that already tell the verdict: "Not guilty!" Films, documentaries, interviews, discussions... all very "scientific.' All this is "evidence' in a trial in which the testimonies of the "front line' victims are no longer necessary. Most of them have died anyway, and those who have not died yet can be ignored. A trial in which the "second line victims have been turned into "the audience' and brought to hear "the way things are going' and lose their appetite for changes for another half a century! A trial in which they, the elite and the main beneficiaries of the communist regime, are wearing the judges' robes and the lawyers' robes one over the other. In the defendant's chair, they put a dummy, a mannequin with a fresh hairdo, new makeup, new clothes and, all-in-all, a very invigorated look. That would be the "communism with a human face.' This is the dummy this trial has been staged for. More precisely, the dummy that is going to be acquitted in this make-believe trial.

But, in order for this spectacle to be a complete success, one little detail, one ingredient is missing: our complicity, of course! We're not going to be asked for much! Just a moment of forgetfulness, that's all! After all, who cares and who (still) remembers that relatives or family of theirs were snatched from their home at gunpoint in the middle of the night and were never heard from again until their name turned up on a detainee list, or straight on a death certificate? Details... What matter they in the grand scheme of things? A moment of forgetfulness, that's all! Is it so much to ask for? What's the big deal with forgetting about the people who saw their homes demolished about churches being demolished, about entire towns being demolished, about the elimination of The Royal Army who had fought communism, about the endless lines we used to stand in to buy our oil and sugar rations, about the two daily hours of marvelous television program that would start with, be about and end with the monumental deeds of Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu and Comrade Elena Ceausescu, about the cold insinuating into our bones inside the great apartments that the glorious socialists state had generously allowed us to own, about the darkness in our homes, streets, institutions caused by ever-recurring blackouts imposed on us for fear we might be using too much electricity, about the almightiness of those who would sometimes "give' us something and sometimes "ask' us for something at the grocery store, or the employment office, or the secret police, about the grandiose meetings and rallies where we would worship Him and Her; about the poems and never-ending books describing how sublimely perfect He and She were, about the abuses and crimes committed by His and Her spawn; about how The Party's permission would make the difference between a Trabant and nothing, between a Dacia and nothing, between an ARO and nothing, about the hours, days, weeks, months and years of "voluntary work,' about the enlightening process of "building the new man' to which our wonderful teaching staff were summoned to participate in (with their winter coats on because there was no wood or petrol to waste on school heating), about the pride of being an activist and a "good comrade' with access to the "special' food stores reserved for The Party, about the empty shelves in the food stores reserved for us; about so many other things that made up an era when they had not just a monopoly on political power, but also the right to decide who ate and who didn't, who was going to be born and who wasn't going to be born, who was going to be baptized and who was not, who was going to be buried and who was not!

If your memory of that era is still too fresh and you cannot "forget' convincingly enough, there is an alternative. Do a little "rationality' exercise. Think: "Whom am I going to be messing with?' Don't you understand who's in charge nowadays? Is it so hard for you to comprehend that, after they have made their fortune from politics, now it is time to make their politics from fortunes? Why should they ever leave power? What? You feel like losing your job, or being audited and audited again, or having a "private' discussion with the police, or being prosecuted? Do you really not need a little tax exemption? Would you really spit at a contract to supply some furniture or services or who-knows-what other things to the mighty bureaucratic machine of The State? Would it hurt you to make a few extra bucks? Or a few thousand? What? Do you want your children to starve?

Wake up people! You're not going to play dumb and lose money now, are you? Especially now! All that is asked of you is a little exercise of memory and rationality.