Musings on article about Israeli artist Alex Levin
Growing up in socialist country was complicated – on one hand the only religion allowed was worshipping the government and on the other hand we all had our nationality (more accurate is division on Jews and the rest of people based on the place of birth) written in our identification documents. Identification documents were a part of life and I remember getting to the age, when it was compulsory to get a passport. It was a proud moment, because it signaled my growing up and becoming a productive member of the society. Somehow the idea of presenting passport on demand was widely accepted and often unnoticed as a part of the routine. Majority of people were hungry and poor, while reading books and dreaming of freedom.
Freedom was a hard concept, yet it was that wonderful idea of expressing our beliefs. We lived in the place where people were arrested for reading not approved newspapers, saying things that didn’t fully reflect socialist values or just because. Times were scary, yet we dreamed. Mostly associated with American ideas of freedoms, we dreamed of the changes. So many things happen, yet not much changed. Socialism can’t survive – it’s oppressive and unsustainable. The corrupt unelected bunch of people controlled the information. Constantly divided on us and them, morally bankrupt system couldn’t coexist with basic principles of The 10 Commandments. Value of life was measured by the productivity and productivity was based on fraudulent statistics. That saw many people accepting abortions and lack of care for older people who are near retirement or retired (understand that older are not an equivalent of elderly). We needed to change things, we needed to escape. Our wave of immigration driven by dreams of individual rights and freedoms with equally important individual responsibilities. One of the lucky ones to escape horrors of my younger years, I became a citizen of the country where values were based on individual freedoms.
It was a proud moment of my life, when I became a citizen of a free country. Now I could vote. It’s exciting, isn’t it? All it requires is to read their beautiful marketing materials, understand the policies and choose… wait what? socialists? here? why? Surely free people would value their freedoms, wouldn’t they? They wouldn’t vote socialists or anyone with catch phrase like “universal healthcare” or “dignity of life” or “sustainable population growth” or “wealth redistribution,” would they? Yet poor education in local schools and universities saw my nightmares creeping back into my life. So over few last decades, I witnessed attempts to rewrite the history, devaluation of human lives and individual freedoms, erosion of education system and very confronting bias of main stream media. Surely something needed to change.
We are free people and we know the truth. We have to be able to express it. If MSM failed to provide us with professional journalism, let’s find another way of communication. Look at the wonderful ideas of internet and social media. People can freely exchange ideas… up to the point of censorship. so another unelected bunch of socialists are trying to control the information with typical attempt to reshape our language. I don’t know Alex (by the sound of it, wouldn’t be able to afford his art). Yet the story is very telling – unelected bunch of people in google decided to ban his work based on “reasons” provided. Just read the article and tell me one thing – are these reasons or insults? My deplorable privileged mind sees it as insult, but what about you? Any surprises that it’s happening now, when socialism is rearing it’s ugly head with the “squad” getting to power? Adding adjectives doesn’t change socialism – same tactics, same goals, same assault, same reshaping of language and the same war on The 10 Commandments. It’s an easy choice for me. What about you? So much happened, yet not much changed.
Different century, different country, different language, different technologies and same struggle for freedom.
Moments of Clarity 