I was born in Hungary in 1968. I lived the first 18 years of my life in Hungary under oppressive communism and Soviet occupation.
I first escaped Hungary in 1984 but I was deported back from Austria because I was underage. I escaped again in 1987, this time with success, and sought political asylum seeking a better life in freedom and democracy. I arrived in Australia in 1988 as a political refugee.
As someone who lived under communism, I can attest from personal experience to the fact that communism is a flawed system of government. While the ideals of social equality and classless society may be an alluring utopia, the reality is that those in power are quickly corrupted. As the system turns oppressive and abusive, its ideals are quickly forgotten and its purported benefits are outweighed by the consequences of unimaginable abuses.
Although the Soviet Union has now fallen, China and North Korea remain prime examples of the folly of communism, corrupted by power-hungry party officials and rife with unimaginable abuses of human rights. Unfortunately, no system of government is immune to human corruption and overreach.
Growing up in communism you quickly learn that dissent is very ‘dangerous’, therefore it must be snuffed out at any cost. Dissent is said to weaken the authority of the government and enables your ‘enemies’ to strike.
Your enemy is ruthless of course. It will stop at nothing to destroy your way of life. It will use force, with reckless disregard to human life and the stability of society.
For the first 18 years of my life that enemy was the United States of America, the leader of a ‘decadent and oppressive’ Western society which has exploited its own working class and was hell-bent on destroying our ‘perfect utopian’ communist way of life.
It has spied on us, engaged in illegal activities in our territory and encouraged other nations and groups to commit unfriendly acts against us. It was planning to use force to destroy our utopian society, financed ‘terrorist’ elements to rise up against their own people and commit acts of ‘terrorism’ against the State through sporadic counter-revolutions and other subversive attacks on the nation.
The only way the State could protect its citizens from such an insidious enemy is by restricting what people are allowed to say and do, and even what opinions they may hold and express publicly. The State needs unfettered powers to detain, question and, if deemed necessary, imprison people in order to protect the nation from said insidious enemy. Every citizen has to play his or her part, and be vigilant, because the enemy never rests!
Media and news outlets must also support and protect the government in its fight against this insidious and immoral enemy, by refraining from revealing information that weakens or embarrasses the State. Any such action only plays into the hands of the enemy and anyone who engages in such actions is therefore a supporter of the enemy and an enemy of the State him or herself. Such people deserve no better treatment than the enemy would and through their actions they lose their rights as citizens of the benevolent State which has only the best interest of its citizens in sight.
Laws therefore must be enacted to support the State agenda, where laws are falling short of what’s needed, new, more oppressive laws must be enacted as soon as practicable. In circumstances where urgency demands it, the security of the State and it’s citizens outweighs the rights of any individual and extra-judicial action is not just justified, but it is the responsibility of the State to act swiftly and without delay.
That was communist Hungary in a nutshell from my personal experience. Sounds familiar?!
The Vue Post 