Tyrants – imagined and real

By ????? ????????, Russian American News and Views

In today’s rapidly changing world, the idea of an article often becomes obsolete before you start writing it. Sometimes it’s very pleasing, if the problem disappears. But this article, to my deep regret, will not lose its relevance any time soon.

Why? Because I want to devote it to a very serious problem: the dividing of families on the basis of political views. This is a pain that many feel.

When we read about the civil war in Russia and found out that the communist son would betray his father who did not approve of the Bolsheviks, somewhere inside me there was always a doubt: how could it be – to hand over one’s own father to the KGB? To betray a husband or a wife? This is just crazy. It’s impossible to believe, but I knew it happened. I didn’t feel all that pain and intensity — it was hypothetical. It didn’t happen to me personally.

Today, politics has divided people, circles of friends, companies, but most importantly – families.

I can’t say that I feel it fully, because our own children share our views in general, and we can always discuss any problems with them. I do not remember imposing our opinions on them, but we always encouraged questions and we answered those questions. Also, if we didn’t know the answers, we admitted it.

I don’t feel the situation as closely as many others, who call and share their misfortune with us — the loss of communication with their children.

“What do I do? I can’t say a word to my daughter, she starts screaming that I don’t understand anything. She doesn’t listen to a single argument; instead she goes crazy if I ask her even one question.”

“My granddaughter is very smart, she graduated with honors and she does excellent work. She took a leave of absence at her own expense and went to the States to help get Clinton elected… she walked door to door … She is very depressed now.”

“My son just broke off with us when he found out that we voted against Clinton. We never imposed our opinion on him. Sometimes I wanted to discuss and ask questions, but he immediately went nuts on us, so we fell silent.”

“We can’t discuss anything with the children, they have long written us off as old-regime idiots (although these ‘idiots’ paid for their education in universities and the down payments of their houses), and they simply do not want to talk to these idiots.”

“The worst thing that scares me is the impossibility of a normal discussion of concrete facts. I immediately get stigmatized: I am a racist if I just ask, for example, about why they make ‘black proms’ (graduation parties only for blacks). Or you are a fascist if you vote for Trump.”

“‘How could you vote for a Republican, they’re killing people!’ That’s what my 16-year-old grandson told me, sincerely believing it.”

Many people hear such things from acquaintances or find themselves in a similar situation.

I feel the pain and bitterness of people who have gone through so much in life. It is almost impossible for me to discuss anything with liberals, although, there are some encouraging signs. Very rarely do you see people ready to talk.

More recently, a chance meeting with a longtime acquaintance (let’s call him Misha), a man of liberal views, left me hopeful. Knowing that our views on Obama were divergent, I joked that I don’t even want to talk about the current president in his presence, to which Misha sadly remarked, “You know, I voted for Trump.” Probably my dangling jaw made him understand the degree of my amazement, because he added, “Well, it was impossible to vote for her.” Yes. It was impossible. But many of our people did vote for her, people who in theory should have known more and understood more about what liberalism really brings with it, in its modern American-European version. It brings the destruction of any freedoms – and in this lies all the horror, despite the beauty of the word “liberalism,” designed to justify the freedom of the individual.

I think everyone will agree that the task of parents is to protect their children. And if we can protect little children by explaining to them why they shouldn’t  grab bubbles in boiling water with their fingers or poke a wire into an outlet, then the grown-up children are much more difficult to protect, because in response you could hear something that not even an enemy wants to hear. But they need to be protected all the same, they are our children at any age and we love them anyway.  They will, of course, reap the fruits of what is planted in their heads by universities and schools, but reaping these fruits will be very painful.

No, I don’t encourage you to discuss political problems with them every day and quarrel about it. I’m very sorry for those who are in a position where they can’t ask a question and discuss things calmly. The paradox is that “the left,” who monopolized the right to humanism, tolerance, good feelings (remember, “Republicans are killing people”), are the same leftists who instantly start up, like a good sports car, and go on insulting and shouting, unwilling to talk,  and displaying extremely contemptuous attitude towards those who think otherwise. Where are the good feelings towards others? I don’t know.

I would like to bring up in this article some of my considerations that may be useful to you as arguments, if you suddenly have the opportunity to speak; if you accidentally overhear; if you are seen or if someone feels your pain. Most of these things you already know or have heard before. I didn’t discover anything new. But maybe, somehow, it will help.

A small digression
CONTINUE