thesocialistgadfly

       Dear, my fellow human being,    

There are times that I want to cry for humanity, for in humanity alone am convinced that hell, literally exists.

            War and peace; choose your own destruction, for fate doesn’t smile on one thing or another. This suffering that no one wants, is the same suffering that one makes for another. The question ‘Why can’t we be along?’ is the question that will always be remained unanswered, oh wait, it can be answered, but no answer would ever be right to prevent even one suffering. Justice and injustice, nothing is different but the spelling, translation, pronunciation, and use of these words, for justice for one is the injustice for another, and vice versa. Oh, another tear has fallen, and it is not yours, but the Earth’s. If I could name the one who suffered and had trauma the most, it would be the Earth. One son destroys another daughter. Another has fallen, and it is not yours, but mine. It depresses me how happiness blinds one’s eyes and illuminates the other; it is rather deceiving. One’s pain opens one’s eyes, but darkens the other; it is rather deceiving.

            I am not perfect, I am not happy, and I am not good, but I am in pursuit of it. More letters like this will come in this blog, and more tears will be likened to wet them.

Loving you,

TheSocialistGadfly

[24 October 2011]

Every generation has something to offer, since the evolution of mankind isn’t only limited with our physical characteristics, but rather, nowadays, it is our characteristics that are limited by our generation’s age.

As a matter of fact, I am considering whether I’m still going to write about this for the reason that you might have already observed this, adding that the statement is already self-explanatory, but then, I have already fallen in the temptation to write and share my observation, this time, in my own lenses.

I find it very tempting to give you my own views in this topic, not only by stating observed facts, trends, my personal opinion, but rather, break down the given statement first, critique each and every pieces of it, then afterwards, inserting important information that is needed, thus giving a livelier flow to this discussion of ours; you are not reading this, rather, we are discussing this.

“Every generation has something to offer, since the evolution of mankind isn’t only limited with our physical characteristics.”

All hitherto history can be subdivided into era’s, or generations, well, basing on what man’s meaning and label to it. There’s pre-Socratic era in Philosophy, there’s feudalism in socio-politics, Renaissance in art, crafts, and music, and there’s the ages, maybe this is in term of trends, such as the dark ages, golden age, and the so-called ‘computer age’, in which I believe is the age which our generation is currently witnessing. These seemingly, or might be certainly, ‘sub-divisions’ of hitherto history hasn’t been divided randomly for just by looking at their labels, or names, we can already process images and knowledge regarding their nature, thus proving that all of these have something unique in them, thus, enabling us to name them as such. This uniqueness, which is subjective to us, but sometimes also objective in itself, given with the facts that are written down in history, have something to do with the lives of the people who lived in these certain ages, or eras.

We can simply say that the people who lived in the pre-Socratic era are questioning the image of the earth and the universe, giving and stating their own understanding of what really is the universe, thus explaining the early, if not the first, trend of theories that are concerning the properties of the earth, and some of the times, rationalizing the universe itself. Then, we can conclude that these people are curious, thus explaining the abundance of philosophers, scientists, poets, and such, who then, are living lives of enquiry, curiosity, and philosophy.

Then, yes, I’m going to skip so many stones, the Renaissance period has been known as such, for it served as the rebirth of things in general. The artists gave birth to revolutionary art, same thing with what the poets, and scholars, philosophers, mathematicians, political thinkers, and so on, and so forth.  This era paved and opened a new path, for revolutionary, but rational, ideas and concepts, on which we it is seemingly the age of the great re-thinkers, as I coin it, both revolutionary and reasonable in nature.

There are more and more ages and eras, including those that I have not mentioned, on which I can explain more, and thoroughly, but then I would like to get to my point by explaining the second part of my previous statement.

“It is our characteristics that are limited by our generation’s age.”

“The Computer Age” sounds so inviting, charming, and wonderful isn’t it? Wouldn’t you agree, given that you are reading this writing of mine using your beloved computer technology? I know, whether we admit it or not, that we are all grateful to the technological advancements of our age, given that they didn’t only made our lives easier, but also allowing us to expand our understanding on things in general. Who can see how cells function without the microscope? I also guess that we wouldn’t have a clear, and definite picture of the planets without the telescopes to see them, and cameras to take a picture of them? These given technologies, that are invented, and used in previous years, or ages, are all in debt with the advancement of mankind, which our current age is named after, and is proud of; the computer technology. Life has been made easier. This given line seems to be the motto of our age today, but my questioning is, did it really made life easier? Scientists and technology savvy people would be quick in their answer of yes, that it did made life easier for us. Yes, technically, but I would say that every advancement has sacrifices. Meaning, every age that succeeds another is revolutionary and evolutionary in its nature, but in this reality also lies my theory that nothing is really figuratively evolutionary, for being revolutionary, literally speaking, is having change, which is true, thus proving further the existence not only of positive changes, but changes that are damaging. This positive change, that computer has brought us, can be summarized as the motto mentioned above; it makes life for us easier. But then, I can summarize the negative effects into a motto as well; life is made complicated and harder. Yes, I know that this motto seems to be self-explanatory but please, avoid misunderstanding this quote by simplifying it, for in my opinion, there’s more meaning beneath this simplification, which we will be discussing in the continuation of this discussion.

Marx and Engels were far from regarding social revolution as possible everywhere or at any time, but only under certain conditions:

1) Capitalism must have reached a high economic level and that the material conditions must exist for its replacement by socialism.

2) The contradictions between the economic and the productive forces, on the other hand, and the production relations, on the other, must have become aggravated or worsen to such a degree that a radical transformation of the economical, social, and political system has become indispensable. 

3)The industrial workers must account for the majority of the population, or at least occupy an important position.

A social revolution, therefore, cannot be propagated or “made” at will but becomes only possible under conditions that are totally independent of the will of individual political parties, classes, or persons.

(From Three Faces of Marxism by Leonhard)

The revolution which modern socialism strives to achieve is, briefly, the victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, and the establishment of a new organization of society by the destruction of all class distinctions. This requires not only a proletariat that carries out this revolution, but also a bourgeoisie in whose hands the productive forces of society developed so that they allow the final destruction of class distinctions.

- Engles

I swear that this day, this exact day, 11 September 2011, at exactly 8:46AM, I am going to kneel down, and kiss the ground. I’m not a muslim, yet I would like to kiss the ground, hoping that directly underneath it, because I live in Asia, will be America, in honor and remembrance of those who died.