The Good Teacher

         In August 1991, the communist regime fell in the Soviet Union. Oh, what a glorious time! After almost 80 years of oppression the iron fist was finally lifted. Now the people are free, they can finally enjoy the fundamental human rights and freedoms that the western world had for so long. There will be freedom of speech, so now everyone can say what they want, no matter how useless it is. Freedom of press, so that the government may pretend to let the press say what they want, just like the government does in America. Also there will be freedom of business , so now you will not get into trouble for oppressing workers and cheating the consumers. The honest businessmen can be as greedy as they want, and no one will condemn them. Oh glory to capitalism! With democracy and capitalism we no longer have the obligation to care for someone else, as we did under the oppressive rule of socialism. Now you only have to care about yourself and your family. Is this not what we dreamed of !? People have many different opinions about the current situation and where our country is heading. One that stands out in particular is that of a history teacher of a tenth grade class in Moscow. Yes, he is definitely a good teacher and a role model for the students .

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         It is a horrible time. School has started! In a secondary school in Moscow a class of about twenty tenth graders is sitting and waiting for the first bell. They are exhausted, just like most of us are in the morning. The bell rings indicating a start of a very long and painful day. The teacher walks in. After shuffling through the papers on his desk, he gets up and starts the lecture.
         “ As you all know last year, something phenomenal took place. Perhaps the greatest event in the history of the world, we were liberated from communism. Under the leadership of good and honest politicians like Boris Yeltsin, the evil USSR was destroyed. We are entering a new era of democracy and prosperity. And if I hear anyone saying that life was better during the Soviet times, I will personally make sure that you fail this class.”
         The students sat in silence , listening.

         “ Those people who overthrew the communist party were heroes. I do not want to hear anyone say that they were not. Those people are your liberators, they freed you from decades of oppression. You are probably not intelligent enough to understand the greatness of democracy and freedom. Therefore it is up to people like me enlighten the ignorant youth. You kids do not understand anything about life , you can be easily brainwashed by those communists who want to come back to power.”
         “Freedom is a fundamental right of human beings. Our freedom was taken away by some stupid ideal.. We want freedom! We should be free to do whatever we want. We do not need to worry about other people. We ,as humans, serve one purpose, that is to live life and get as much as we can for ourselves. The idea of a great deal freedom and democracy is a step toward anarchy. That is what we need! We do not need government or laws to limit our ambitions. We need Freeeeeeeedoooooom!!!!! ”
         “Just think about how long we had to live under oppression of the Soviet dictatorship. Through out history different people have tried to help us. At first just after the Revolution there was the White Army. They were great heroes who wanted to protect the Russian monarchy, and also they needed to protect their own aristocratic status. Other heroic acts of the White Army include killing thousands of their own countrymen. Then there were the Germans in the 1940s. Nazi Germany did a great job in trying to free us from the communist rule. It doesn’t matter that they killed about 20 million of our people, all that matters is that they were trying to free us from the Stalin’s oppressive regime. Yes, they were definitely trying to help our country. Then finally the horrible regime fell with the help of “loving” politicians of the west and “caring” internal mafia. And now we entered a great era of prosperity! Where the country is ruled by businessmen and mafia, and the police is powerless. Where parents are afraid to send their kids to school because there is a great increase of crime. Where a person who is sick will lie dying if he does not have enough money. Where probably half of the people live in poverty. ”
         The students sat in silence , listening.
          “Speaking of poverty, I know that many of you are very poor. I am starting a my own company, just as many people are doing at this time. Soon I will hire pathetic people like your parents and pay them extremely low wages, or maybe even not pay them at all. It is not fair you might say. Well guess what? These are different times. No one cares about fairness now. That stupid Marx! He wanted to create a fair a classless society! I don’t want a classless society! I want to be rich , I want to be the higher class. I want to use people like you to become rich. See classes in society are very good, there is no reason to try to abolish them. We all need each other, it is called functionalism. You need people like me to provide you with a little amount of money, just barely enough to survive. And I need people like you so that I can use cheap, or even slave-like, labor to make more money. Ha-Ha! You won’t have it that easy now. You won’t enjoy free health care. So you better never get sick, because there is no way you can afford to go to a doctor at the prices that they have. No free apartments or cars for you parents. Also school expenses will not be free. You should forget about a university , those are not free anymore like they used to be You can not get these things now, we live in a different time. The age of blind capitalism, where the sole purpose of human existence is to make more money. Freedom and Justice for all!!!”
         The students sat in silence , listening.
         “Another thing that is annoying me is the idea of nationalism. Who cares about our nation!? What did the nation do for you? Nothing! You only need to worry about one person , that is yourself. In my opinion, a country is a good where it is best to live. So I will leave and go to Europe or maybe America. There I can have a better life for myself and my family. There I can fulfill all of my greedy desires. Actually I think that all of the radical ideas like nationalism and communism should be abolished. We need to have a conservative government. A conservative government will make sure that the rich have their power and no one will try to take it away from them. Oh, how great it would be to get rid of all radical ideas! So if I hear anyone saying that communism or nationalism are good, I will fail you.”
         The bell rang and the crowd of students started to walk out of the class. What a great lecture, by a great person! This is the kind of great and “rational” attitude that people of Russia have after the installment of democracy in 1991.No, they are not brainwashed at all… One of the students when walking out said quietly: “This is the great example of how an event in history can make a person crazy.”