Battle of ideals

  
They say everyone is a communist

Before they are 25

And if you are not, you are a fool

But if you are still one after 25,

Then you are a fool

Here in Nepal it is the exact opposite

Here we grow up idealizing

And idolizing the west

Thinking how glorious they are

In their developed state

We want the same development in our country

We see the poverty around us, the hardships

We want these to be gone in a trice

We want factories, we want multinationals

We want money to be flying around

We want everyone to have a salaried job

We want televisions and internet

We envy the Americans who we hear

Have a car even if they are beggars

We think that is the answer

At this stage we might even argue

And fight with the communists

We are very passionate, and we will ask

So what did you do for equality?

Do you shun your privileges?

Do you give up your car and take the bus home?

Do you stand in line at the government hospital

Instead of paying for a fast track

at your expensive clinic?

Which sane person

would give up their privileges?

When your life is at stake,

where does your idealism fly?

And if you can be so selfish and greedy

And want the best for yourself,

How can you blame others for wanting the same?

How can you oppose capitalism which

Makes all this available to you?

What a grand idea it is!

Where a person with ideas can experiment

On the free market

And the person with the best idea wins!

So free and fair! Isn’t free competition the best?

Why should the winner not reap the benefits?

How can you be against such fairness?

Equality? Equity? Why should the world be equal?

Why should the system bear the burden

Of a freeloader?

If people have different capacities

And different capabilities to work hard

Why should their rewards be the same?

That sounds eerily like communism,

how suffocating!

How can you look at yourself in the mirror

If you wear jeans and skirts

And not promote home-spun Dhaka?

If you have not done all this,

Can you call yourself a communist?

You can do it because you are a fake!

And then we grow up

And start travelling our own country more

Spending more time on the news and features

Than on sports and entertainment

We see how factories pollute the environment

We see how multinationals extort

The poorest of the poor

And actually entrench the poverty

We see how packaged noodles

Reach the remotest village in the country

But the valuable resources of the same village

Don’t go out,

Because if they did the people would be rich

We see how the fight for nature

Be it forests or earth, minerals or water,

Has robbed nature blind

We see how coke and pepsi

Are killing our guccha soda

A farmer who works a body to death

Accumulates a lifetime of knowledge

Skills that she can pass on,

Stories that he can tell

Intuition that she can trust

And if she is curious, even wisdom

A factory worker who spends his life

Let’s say, for example

Cutting extra threads off of finished clothes

Learns a skill that is of absolutely no use

Tells stories of drudgery and dullery

And at no point has any chance of feeling

A magical connection with nature

Or a justification for the order of society

And their place in it

(Not saying that order was perfect,

The point is we need to improve that order

Not trade it for a situation where

The only option is a job in the factory)

We see people trading their independent lives

Full of stories and magic, and in tune with nature

Lives where they work when they want

Take a day off when they are sick

For a life of a nine to five

Where everything is measured in money

And no one has anything to fall back on

Unless they work their body to death

We see how free market is a myth

And it is anything but free

And how it is a just a playground

For the rich and the powerful

Who create monopolies with a flick of their hand

And watch their competitors bleed to death

We see how the world’s powerful

Entertainment machines

Slowly, step by step strangle our arts

Until we don’t know how to articulate

What we feel until they teach us

And we would like to do what we can

To stem this unstoppable tide

Perhaps, nothing can be done

And we only register our note of dissent

We want to say that all the world’s resources

Are equally given to all of us

And no one has the right to

Lay down fences and say

This is mine and you shall have no right

I will pay you your wages by the day

And I will take the billions I earn from it

Haliya system is gone in Nepal

But this here is modern day slavery,

Writ large, hidden in plain sight

We want to say that

No one has the right to monopolize

The earth, the water, the forests

No one should reap these benefits unduly

As much of humanity suffers and struggles

For the most basic needs

But the world has grown

So far away from these easy concepts

So convoluted, so unruly

That these simple wishes

Sound utterly ridiculous

But still we persist, on principle

Even though we fight a losing battle

And we know it

Even though we must be a part of

What we oppose, every day

Even though we know that

Even giving up all our privileges

And living in a squatter shed

Would contribute nothing,

Absolutely nothing,

To advance the cause

Because we want to keep trying,

Keep looking for solutions

Because we do not want to lose hope

No matter that the battle was lost

Long before we even recognized the battle

Maybe there are things we can do

Maybe we can say that a world where

Even a beggar has a car is not the ideal

But the one where the president rides a bus, is

That a world with the best private hospitals

Is not ideal

But the one where everyone is sure of

Being taken care of, is

That a world with many factories

Or “employment opportunities” is not ideal

But the one where everyone feels valued

For what they do, is

And are independent and secure at the same time

In each profession that is

Absolutely necessary to the world

And are not enticed away

By salary

Maybe we can slowly work towards this system,

Step by step

We may fail, as we cannot compete forever

Against the behemoth machines of capitalism

But some of our steps might even succeed!

But maybe we should refrain from saying

That these steps are inspired by

Our communist ideals

Because then it will be our turn

To face those dreaded “tough”,

“Unanswerable” questions

That we had been so smug at arriving

At the ripe old age of twenty five

What do you think you can accomplish?

Does your silent support make any difference?

Any difference at all to the lives that you champion?

Have you not seen how communism has

Failed and fallen all over the world?

This is a religion of dictatorship

Is that what you want?

So you are ok with a clamp on

our freedom of speech?

(This from the generation of democrats

Who fought for democracy,

Against totalitarianism

And for whom monarchy and

“communism” as they know it

Are one and the same in their dictatorship)

Are you saying we should annihilate

All those we disagree with us?

Isn’t that what Marx said?

So you support those killers who

Murdered their way to the throne?

Who completely brainwashed a generation

With their idealistic mumbo-jumbo

And now refuse to take responsibility for it

Act like the most capitalist of capitalists

And don’t even have any shame?

Are those your leaders?

Is that your communist ideal?

Have you gone totally mad?

We of course do not believe that

Our “communist” leaders are very communist

That actually has been proven long ago

And we want to do what we want to do

Without being a part of any political party

Because all politicians are capitalists,

At the end of the day

Which leaves us,

The Marxists and Engelsists on principle

With nowhere to practice

But that is entirely another story