October 15, 2011

I Don't Want to Save the World!

By Luba Sindler
I grew up in a country whose whole reason for existence was saving the world.  We all had to sacrifice our time, our already meager resources, and our ability to buy a pair of shoes or some toilet paper (forget our freedom!) for the benefit of the working classes being oppressed en masse around the globe.  There was always something to justify our misery today for the objective of the shining tomorrow: helping communist movements to overturn capitalism, giving military aid to friendly countries,  keeping so-called allies in check, installing a new dictator somewhere, and on and on. No ordinary citizen in his right mind believed a word of it; real life was about making ends meet, and that was no easy undertaking in the best of times.  So this constant reminder from above of our obligations to the rest of the planet was safely ignored by everybody as just another nuisance coming with the misfortune of being born in a communist society. When I finally made it to...(Read Full Article)