Mao on the Wall

When I was young we often discussed events in The Second World War. The Holocaust in particular. How could people not know what was going on in the concentrations camps? How could millions of people be exterminated without the world knowing about it? We thought that many people knew, but just didn't have the guts to speak out against it. That they pretended not to know. That they were either ignorant fools or cowards.

 

We were not going to be like that. We were for a world of freedom and social justice. But not the hard line Soviet form of communism, of course. We had pictures of Mao on the walls of our students' rooms.

 

Our children now ask us how could we do it. Mao caused the death of millions of people. We answer that we saw China as the model for a new kind of "soft" communism, a better world for the poor and equality for everybody. They do not understand, how we could ignore the facts. They think that we were either ignorant fools or cowards.

 

One day they will have children themselves. Will they also blame their parents' generation for ignoring the cruel facts of the world and for upholding ideals that lead to the extermination of millions? They will have learned from us, I hope, and not repeat our errors. They will make their own errors, I fear.

 

Time will show.

(Conservatives repeat the errors of the preceding generations, liberals commit new errors).