Dreams That Do Not Matter (gmw fanfiction)

Girl Meets Commonism

Verity's POV

"Are you now or have you ever been a member of the communist party?" Mr. Matthews asks when the class starts. 

"The cold war, sir. Democracy versus communism. You get what you earn versus everybody gets the same thing," Maya pipes in, sounding strangely like Farkle. 

"Wait, so you're telling me that in communism everybody shares with everybody else?" Riley asks. 

Basically, that was the former idea of communism. That those who have a lot give things to those who have nothing so that they don't have to suffer. However, this model of society, communism, is highly utopistic, therefore was never fulfilled and what is now commonly known as communism should correctly be referred to as socialism. For the main thought of communism didn't work with the fact that people are greedy and selfish and power-hungry beyond imagine. But still, I wonder how the thought of everybody living in harmony could change into so many pointless deaths so quickly. 

Farkle answers her, "Yes, Riley. The communist philosophy is that everybody's the same and everybody gets the same thing." I think it's not as much about everybody being the same, it is more like nobody owns more or less than anybody else. The solution: nobody trulyowns anything. Well, except for leaders. They could own everything, have all the power, respect and even be worshipped.

"So, you mean when somebody doesn't know something on a test and somebody does, you're supposed to share that information?" Riley continues. Oh, it makes sense now. It's all about Maya cheating on a test. I was wondering why the lesson on socialism all of a sudden. 

"Yeah, that's communism. But it's a little more complicated than that," Mr. Matthews explains. I hope for the sake of everyone that he actually goes into depth this time and not just graze over the surface about losing uniqueness and such. People should be warned about true dangers of socialism. Hasn't anybody here read the Animal Farm? It is depicted there quite clearly. But I know that I'm hoping for a more in-depth lesson in vain.

"Your individual goals don't matter. You're one of many. There are no social classes. Nobody is more or less successful than anybody else. That's communism."

But that's not even the biggest issue there was in socialism. When World War II. ended, Europe was in desperate state and because Soviet Union with Stalin as the head of state and communistic party was one of the victors, Great Britain and France let Stalin take over all of the states he freed from Nazis. But socialism was in some ways just as bad as Nazism. All contacts with the outside world became nonexistent, nobody owned anything, therefore could not decide what job to have, when to move. Although people were paid for the work they did (mostly), and so happened that money lost its value and the crops they needed were taken away from them by force and they were given money without value instead. Soviet Union was so economically insufficient that there were famines and many people died. Leaving the country was practically impossible. There was also the Secret Police and its members were basically everywhere and even your friends or neighbors often rat on you, because only those in the communist party had advantages. If you spoke two bad words about communist party, you suffered bad consequences. And those who advocated other thoughts than communistic philosophy were imprisoneda nd tortured. And not to mention the fact that Stalin alone, even if you don't count other leaders of the Soviet Union, killed much more people than Hitler with his Nazis during World War II. If Riley, Maya and the rest were told this, I bet it would make them reconsider their advocating of communism. 

Next day

I look next to me at Missy, who is currently sleeping with her head on the desk supported by her hands. I'm also only half awake, but still at least pretend to be paying attention.