I found this lovely Romanian tune at the beginning of the ABC reader that my grandfather brought from communist Romania to teach me to read and speak Romanian. It is called "The Party" and, evidently, it is a paean to the Romanian Communist Party which ruled under Ceausescu.
THE PARTY
Wherever I go,
whatever I feel,
nearby is
the Beloved Party.
It's the new school,
the beautiful book,
the full pot
we have at dinner.
It's the green meadow,
the sunny day,
the hydro-electric power station
that gives light.
Need I add that the paean, like the Party, like ANY political party that is "your party right or wrong", is pathetic? Partisanship amounts to a willingness to be used as an advertisement for what happens when people stop thinking and using their judgement to sort through the realities of life.
Hannah Arendt's emphasis on the importance of sorting, sifting, and judging right from wrong, fact from fiction, and reality from fantasy is too easily overlooked by those who wish to keep their Party on a spiritual level. Ultimately, her support for allowing Heidegger to teach in a university in spite of his collaboration with Nazi Germany reveals her commitment to a true democracy in which a battle of ideas is encouraged and nourished under the assumption that the good ideas will win out over the bad.
Romania under Ceausescu operated under the opposite presumption- that the "good idea" must be force-fed and bred into every foolish citizen who cannot think for himself. The Party is only as good as its propaganda. And the democracy is only as good as the contest of ideas and understanding which underlies its formal institutions and policy mechanisms.
Where do you cast your vote? With the truth, regardless of whom represents it, or with that Party you can't quite help idolizing?
