lvatt
9th November 2007, 19:24
Hey guys, I've been registered here for a couple of months already but I realized I never made a proper introduction (how rude of me!)
Anyway, there's nothing very interesting about my life so instead I'll say why I became a dedicated Marxist.
I am an Italian-Canadian, and I grew up in a fascist family. Yes, fascists, as in my parents were militant supporters of Benito Mussolini when they lived in Italy. Since I am an only child, my parents always tried to pass on their beliefs to me.
So I grew up being crushed under one argument after the other about why blacks and jews and muslims and asians and homosexuals (etc) should be kicked out of the country, of how refugees steal the jobs from real pure-blood italians, etc. My father, unlike my mother, was also a calvinist christian fundamentalist and he tried to implement in me a fear of god and tried to teach me the evils of communism and homosexuality and all those things christians don't like.
So, how does someone like me become a Marxist? I believe my entire life has been geared toward this. While, as a child, I naturally followed in my parents beliefs, the more I was exposed to it the more I realized how inhuman and disgusting the political right was. When I saw other people suffer and had my parents justify it by divine appeal, I knew there was something wrong. I wanted to believe in a system that helps people instead of destroying them and exploiting them. I wanted to believe in a system in which there was no absurd and arbitrary sense of morality that teaches you to hate someone because of their sexual orientation.
What I wanted was a system of tolerance and cooperation, where the community strived to help its people instead of trying to eliminate those who were only trying to help but who weren't made for it.
Why are homosexuals less worthy as humans than the rest of us? What about ethnic minorities? To me, it made no sense at all. The more I grew up, the more I wanted answers and explanations. The more I tried to understand, the more my parents got mad. But then... if their system was as divine and as infallible as they said it was, then why were they afraid that it be put in question? Did they somehow know that fascism and capitalism are a set of lies that cannot resist a true and unbiased analysis?
And what abour religion? Why is homosexuality so horrible? If there truly was an ultrapowerful being all-knowing and all-compassionate, why would such a being create such absurd rules? I ask my parents. "It's because it's in the bible." But then, who wrote the bible? Why should we believe what's in there? If someone tells me to believe something, isn't it normal for me to ask why such thing should be believed? My parents got mad again. Apparently, "questioning god" was not permitted. Can there be a worse violation of logics? A philosophy that hides under a pretense of absolute truth and tries to repress people from trying to truly search for answers. It became obvious to me that religion was a fabrication to control the minds of people.
Of course, I eventually broke all links with my parents. As I worked for a living, I learned of the nature of exploitation. I saw that the big capitalist dream was all a lie. People are machines who only have for rights those that they fight for. When I studied Thomas Hobbes, Aristotle and Jean-Jacques rousseau in college (I studied in both law and philosophy), my understanding of the political spectrum began to become clearer. This is when I discovered Marx, and I found that he was everything I had ever hoped for. Finally, a philosophy that agreed with what I had always thought and proved that my parents were wrong all along. His writings in the manifesto of the workers' condition moved me almost to tears. From that day on, I decided that I was a Marxist. My dream is to return to law school (I had dropped out after two years) to finish my studies and specialize in labor law to (I hope) one day become an union leader to help the workers as much as I can against exploitation.
I believe that a true socialist revolution will take time to truly achieve, but through one step at a time I am confident that a society such as one envisioned by Marx can be created. True justice exists only in the proletariat's victory, I no longer have any doubts of it. But I also believe that plans that are executed too quickly will have a hard time because people are naturally resistent to change. Through one little change at a time through the years, though, I believe anything can be achieved.
Well, so this is my story. Sorry if it was a bit long.
;)
Anyway, there's nothing very interesting about my life so instead I'll say why I became a dedicated Marxist.
I am an Italian-Canadian, and I grew up in a fascist family. Yes, fascists, as in my parents were militant supporters of Benito Mussolini when they lived in Italy. Since I am an only child, my parents always tried to pass on their beliefs to me.
So I grew up being crushed under one argument after the other about why blacks and jews and muslims and asians and homosexuals (etc) should be kicked out of the country, of how refugees steal the jobs from real pure-blood italians, etc. My father, unlike my mother, was also a calvinist christian fundamentalist and he tried to implement in me a fear of god and tried to teach me the evils of communism and homosexuality and all those things christians don't like.
So, how does someone like me become a Marxist? I believe my entire life has been geared toward this. While, as a child, I naturally followed in my parents beliefs, the more I was exposed to it the more I realized how inhuman and disgusting the political right was. When I saw other people suffer and had my parents justify it by divine appeal, I knew there was something wrong. I wanted to believe in a system that helps people instead of destroying them and exploiting them. I wanted to believe in a system in which there was no absurd and arbitrary sense of morality that teaches you to hate someone because of their sexual orientation.
What I wanted was a system of tolerance and cooperation, where the community strived to help its people instead of trying to eliminate those who were only trying to help but who weren't made for it.
Why are homosexuals less worthy as humans than the rest of us? What about ethnic minorities? To me, it made no sense at all. The more I grew up, the more I wanted answers and explanations. The more I tried to understand, the more my parents got mad. But then... if their system was as divine and as infallible as they said it was, then why were they afraid that it be put in question? Did they somehow know that fascism and capitalism are a set of lies that cannot resist a true and unbiased analysis?
And what abour religion? Why is homosexuality so horrible? If there truly was an ultrapowerful being all-knowing and all-compassionate, why would such a being create such absurd rules? I ask my parents. "It's because it's in the bible." But then, who wrote the bible? Why should we believe what's in there? If someone tells me to believe something, isn't it normal for me to ask why such thing should be believed? My parents got mad again. Apparently, "questioning god" was not permitted. Can there be a worse violation of logics? A philosophy that hides under a pretense of absolute truth and tries to repress people from trying to truly search for answers. It became obvious to me that religion was a fabrication to control the minds of people.
Of course, I eventually broke all links with my parents. As I worked for a living, I learned of the nature of exploitation. I saw that the big capitalist dream was all a lie. People are machines who only have for rights those that they fight for. When I studied Thomas Hobbes, Aristotle and Jean-Jacques rousseau in college (I studied in both law and philosophy), my understanding of the political spectrum began to become clearer. This is when I discovered Marx, and I found that he was everything I had ever hoped for. Finally, a philosophy that agreed with what I had always thought and proved that my parents were wrong all along. His writings in the manifesto of the workers' condition moved me almost to tears. From that day on, I decided that I was a Marxist. My dream is to return to law school (I had dropped out after two years) to finish my studies and specialize in labor law to (I hope) one day become an union leader to help the workers as much as I can against exploitation.
I believe that a true socialist revolution will take time to truly achieve, but through one step at a time I am confident that a society such as one envisioned by Marx can be created. True justice exists only in the proletariat's victory, I no longer have any doubts of it. But I also believe that plans that are executed too quickly will have a hard time because people are naturally resistent to change. Through one little change at a time through the years, though, I believe anything can be achieved.
Well, so this is my story. Sorry if it was a bit long.
;)