Once a communist is forever a communist May 26, 2013

image by axinia

I was born and grew up in the Soviet Union. When I moved to Europe in my 20-ties, my first shock was to see a sign in the forest: “private ground”.  I just could not comprehend how a forest can be private! Later on I realized how deep the concept of private belongings was rooted in the West when I saw how they teach small children in kindergartens to play with toys: the most popular phrase of kindergarten teachers is ” this belongs to that boy/girl, you cannot take it, you should ask first”. I guess a person who grew up in the West will not find anything strange in it, but it was a total shock for me. I was astonished to see how much the owning of private things was being emphasized, and that from the tender age of 2! Even now I strongly disagree with that way of up-bringing.

Another thing which I will never understand is the copy-right. I was posting about it before. I believe that any product of creativity, especially when beautiful and useful cannot really “belong” to anyone but to everyone.  As many of my readers know I never claim any copyright for my texts or photos. Also I can easily give away or share my personal belongings, it seems so natural for me.

Recently I was thinking about all that and how deep this feeling of collective possession and sharing is rooted in my heart and mind. Although I am living since 15 years in Europe I still cannot get used to the Western mindset in respect of this matter.

Once a communist is always a communist?

I found an interesting quote regarding this point, a quote by one of the greatest spiritual masters:

“The only nation which I have found very good, is Russia. Because of Communism they are collective and desireless, because all their desires were fulfilled by Communistic ideas, they didn’t have any choices left, and also they were collective. In a way Communism has suited the public not the government. While the other way round – democracy has suited the government to make money but the public has suffered”(1981) Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

May be this quote will not be clear from the materialistic point of view, but from the spiritual one it makes perfect sense!

LOVE

axinia