Now Playing: that damned "Leyenda" from Albeniz
I had occasion this afternoon to spend some time with an Irishman from Limerick. We got to talking about our various travels and he mentioned that he had spent a year in Russia back around '93. We talked about the mobocracy that had taken over there with the usual small expressions of regret.
But then the Irishman made the remark ---with absolute innocence--- that "in theory, Communism is the perfect system, but not in practice." I laughed at the first part of his remark and basically recited the second right along with him.
I kid you not: I could not have been any older than 10 by the time I had disabsued myself of the idea that Communism would be a preferable system to ours. And I can't even say that I knew ---or know--- what ours is!
I mean, this was a business guy about my age. Where is he ideologically to think that Communism is the theoretical limit of human government?
It's a little-appreciated fact about 30-somethings ---and, I guess, it really is particular to Americans of that age--- but many of us were taught about Communism. Knowing about it was a part of our lives. We knew that there was something else out there that sought to control as many people as possible. People that were being made into something we were not.
That's a powerful thing to believe. And I also believe in the power of believing in things that are powerful to believe.