Counter-Revolutionary

Reading maketh a man-

Most of the people who would be reading this blog entry will be staunch believers in the above adage. Still there are some who would term experience as being the best teacher of life. Experience does teach us a lot about how to live our life, in the environment that we are accustomed to. But if a greater, more comprehensive knowledge is needed on a variety of issues that we do not come across in our daily life, there is no option but to read.

Friends, this is not a boring formal post on the reading habit. This post has been inspired by the churning of the stereotyped opinions in my mind about issues like slavery and communism, due to a couple of books I read recently. So, if you believe that slavery is not humane or communism really gives everyone equal rights, read on..

"Slavery- the greatest sin ever perpetrated by human beings on earth. Abraham Lincoln was a God's messenger to the slaves; he freed them from the tyranny of the South Americans." - my history books told me this much. But there is a flip-side to everything and this fact was proven by Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind". This is the first book that showed the Yankees( the North Americans) as cruel specimens and the blacks as being safer under their bondage as slaves. There are a handful of lovable blacks who remain loyal to their masters even after their emancipation. The reader's heart simply goes out to them. But there are a few instances which did make me feel that the slaves were what they were because they were rigorously trained to be so. After all, what would a man-controlled machine do if it is taken out of its comfort zone and asked to work on its own?? They were taken out of the African Jungles, given food, clothing and shelter and made to work. The book portrayed slavery as a kind of a mutually beneficial establishment between the blacks and the whites. But the author failed to convince me of its benefits, solely because, in a few scenes, the slaves are physically tortured to do the masters' biding, heedless of the slaves' individual opinion. For instance, the house niggers are asked to work as field niggers and they are scolded for refusing to do what they were not trained to do. After all, they were nothing other than poor brainless machines programmed to do just certain specified things. Ms. Mitchell did churn my heart a bit but the final opinion was definitely against slavery. They could ve been given normal human rigths when they were taken out of the jungles. That part was a snag in her justification, though.
We the living- Ayn Rand... This book definitely showed the uglier face of communism of which i was unaware previously. Though I am no political wizard who knows the nuances of the policies of the various parties, I did have a nescient soft corner for any party that was anti-religious. This book, showed that how much ever one feels like sacrificing himself for the sake of the people, there are certain limits- certain things which cannot and should not be sacrificed by anybody gifted with human life. One's aim in life, personal likes and dislikes and the spending of one's time are all individualistic and subjective characteristics. If any change is effected in these aspects, without the whole-hearted assent of the person, it would be the end of his life and the reason for his living. Basically human beings should be clear and firm about their purpose in life and should not sacrifice their hearts' desires to get down to a level where all are equal, for there is no such thing as equality among human beings each of whom is distinct in atleast one aspect from the other. Sacrifices for the sake of humanity have been done by great people like Mother Teresa. But that was her calling in life. It cannot be everybody's calling to serve humanity. If an average human sacrifices his desires to help others in distress, it results in more distress because he ends up feeling more pitiful towards himself than towards those who were suffering. Also, the book highlighted the abuse of power by the hypocritic communists in the USSR. Hats off to Ms. Rand for boldly bringing out such a candid book!