I liked Obama’s speech on Wednesday in Brussels. “We must never take for granted the progress that has been won here in Europe and advanced around the world,” he said. Did the break-up of the Soviets seem too quick and peaceful? Here we go—the poorly buried plague is resurging. We thought no one can even think of returning to such a stinking past as the one we had in the Soviets. How could anyone be so mad? One can, because one forgets, one can never learn and one can never get taught and know nothing of one’s national history.
The plague has always been around. And its resurrection comes ugly. What we’ve been, in the past twenty years, laughing at mistaking it for a harmless “nostalgia for dolce vita in the sweet, sweet Soviets” when the grass was greener and women prettier, is turning into an ugly fascist-type hysteria, hatred and harassment of opponents or just anyone who thinks differently.
But, again, the plague has never vanished, has never been buried. The red fascists never saw a trial like the Nazis did in Nuremberg after the war. No progress should be taken for granted. The 23 post-totalitarian year haven’t cured the plague of totalitarian mentality, intolerance and disrespect to one’s freedom of choice. Like the decades of living in the free world haven’t cured the Soviet plague’s twin sister, hatred and intolerance, in those who themselves fled the Soviets for freedom. Did they flee totalitarian lawlessness and humiliation, only to nurture something their native country badly needs to cure in order to survive today and prosper in the future? To nurture the worst enemy of their own native country’s brighter future?
“No amount of propaganda can make right something that the world knows is wrong,” said Obama about Putin’s attempts to revive what was once gone. Building an empire on a foundation made of lies, fooling one’s own people and attempts to fool the world is wrong, and no amount of lies can ever make it any less immoral. No amount of hatred can cure the plague and make up a solid ground for a democratic and happy nation, “for human dignity and opportunity and individual rights and rule of law”, a “better history”.
Stop hatred, stop feeding the plague.