Flowers, Swords and France

"Please tell me."

After hearing these words, Ciel's originally calm mood suddenly felt a strange feeling.

Oh my gosh! I'm talking to the instructor! Who else in New China can get this honor?

However, the excitement only lasted a moment. In any case, he is just a person sitting in front of him now. Although he is much wiser than ordinary people, he is still just a human being after all. Although he deserves respect, Ciel feels that he can still treat him as normal.

He swallowed secretly, then raised his head and looked at Dr. Marx calmly.

"Doctor, I have read many of your works before, such as "The German Ideology", "The Holy Family", "The Communist Manifesto", etc., as well as some of your political comments published in the "Rheinische Zeitung", " Charles carefully left out Das Kapital because it would not be published until 1867. "I have to admit that you have wisdom beyond ordinary people and deserve to be more famous than you are now."

The doctor was slightly moved. He didn't expect that the young man in front of him, who was well-dressed and looked like a rich man, would actually have time to look at his works (he was not as famous as he was later), "Thank you for your compliment. I I'll take this as an encouragement, but I don't think you came here just to say a compliment?"

It seemed that he still hadn't relaxed his guard against himself. Charles sighed inwardly, and then he stopped holding anything back. He looked at Dr. Marx intently. "I'm afraid your main political and economic views are no longer a secret. I am not qualified to comment on your academic achievements, but I think that in other aspects, you have a point of view that is very questionable."

"What do you mean?" After hearing what Charles said, the doctor was really interested.

"In your previous "Communist Declaration", you once proposed that 'the proletariat of the world unite,' to smash the old world together and create a better future for mankind. This sounds good, but as far as I am concerned It seems that this is extremely unlikely to happen." Charles said very slowly, carefully choosing his words, "Although, there is no doubt that they should stand together."

"What do you want to say?" The doctor frowned.

"What I want to say is that for workers all over the world, although they are all exploited by the bourgeoisie at the same time, they do not identify with each other. This is because, in addition to class, people also have countries and nations. Identity." As if opening up a conversation, Charles continued, "Sometimes, inspired by national and ethnic identity, they even hate each other."

The doctor looked at Ciel curiously, waiting for him to continue.

"Let me give you an analogy. There are two countries like this. Country A has developed its industry earlier and has advanced technology. Therefore, its citizens have taken the lead in leading a wealthier life, while Country B has lagged behind for a long time - for example, a century. Because country B is more backward, the treatment of workers must be lower than that of country A. In order to pursue higher profits, the capitalists of country A moved their factories to country B, so the workers of country A moved. Their income will definitely be greatly reduced , or even a large number of unemployment... At this time, the workers in country a will not think that this is a relatively reasonable process. They will not only hate the capitalists in country a, but also hate the citizens of country b, because in their view, It was the citizens of country B who took away their jobs..." Charles expressed his conclusion, "So, not only will the workers of country a and country b not unite and plot to overthrow the bourgeois rule of the two countries, And they are emotionally opposed to each other."

The doctor listened to Ciel's narration in silence while thinking calmly. This kind of mutual discussion finally allowed him to gradually dispel his wariness against each other.

"You make sense." Finally, he nodded slightly, "When productivity is unbalanced, this abnormal phenomenon does occur. However, from a long-term perspective, in the end, the productivity levels of country a and country b "It will be roughly equal, and then the workers in both countries will face the same level of exploitation by the bourgeoisie, and this will be a reason for them to unite."

"It can also be a reason for them to war with each other." Ciel immediately replied. "The proletariat, fueled by national and racial identities, will happily arm themselves and fight each other. British and French, German and Russian, one country against another. The resources of the world After all, the market is limited. In order to compete for these limited things, various ethnic groups will use all their strength to fight until the winner is determined. "

So there was a world war.

"What do you mean?" The doctor was obviously dissatisfied with Ciel's words. He glanced at Ciel displeasedly. "This judgment is baseless and full of conjecture. You are treating people as if they have no intelligence." A mob? This is ridiculous.”

However, Ciel was unmoved by his gaze. He no longer cared about who the person opposite him was.

"No, this has nothing to do with intelligence, this is people's nature. Oppressed people will willingly run to each other and kill each other for the benefit of the upper class. I admit that this sounds a bit incredible, but this is indeed what happened often in history. Yes, isn't it? In order to enhance their own power, people will choose one thing to identify with. They identify more with the concept of 'nation' than class. The poor in France will not be willing to consider the poor in Germany, and the proletarians in England. The classes don't care about the death of Chinese people either Life, and vice versa. As for black people...ha, how many people regard these poor children as human beings? They are either primitives or slaves, and their situation will not be much better in the future. In order to unite together to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie, the proletariat is more interested in following the bourgeoisie of their country, fighting other nations as a unit, and grabbing resources so that they can enjoy a relatively wealthy life... …This is not me making inferences out of thin air, but…”

"This is nonsense!" After hearing this, the doctor finally couldn't stand it any more. He interrupted Charles very displeasedly, "Sir, you came to me just to express such a nonsense. Based on conjectures and judgments?”

Baseless? Isn’t everything that happens in future history based on it? Ciel finally endured these words in his heart.

Marx's mentor was a Jew, so he may not have understood how deeply nationalism is deeply rooted in people's hearts. People of this era have not experienced the rise of nationalism in Europe in the future, nor have they seen two wars in which all citizens were thrown into the war. World War II, so of course it is impossible to imagine the spectacle of proletarians fighting each other inspired by nationalism.

However, in reality, national, ethnic, and even racial identities are so deeply ingrained in the minds of the so-called proletariat that many times they completely overshadow their class identities.

If this is because of the malicious propaganda of the bourgeoisie, didn’t even the Soviet Union, which claimed to want to liberate all mankind, advocate the Yellow Peril theory in order to oppose China? This "yellow" is no longer an ideological dispute, but a naked racial attack.

If this is the case among the "proletarian brother countries", how can we expect anything from other countries? Nationalism is more in line with people's recognition and expectations than communist ideals. Although it is regrettable, this is a fact after all, at least in the next few centuries. Even in China, aren't there many people who claim to agree with the Communist Party but at the same time applaud the "killing of white skinned people"?

Let alone ordinary people, as a German nationalist and associate mentor Engels who vaguely held the theory of German superiority, if he could live to 1914, what would he think of Germany's participation in the world war? Will he, like the Social Democrats of the Reich, vote unconditionally for the holy war of the German nation?

Fortunately, history can no longer be assumed, which is also the blessing of history.

For the next few minutes, the two of them said nothing. In this silent confrontation, the atmosphere slowly relaxed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I may have been a little excited just now and said some extreme words." After a moment of silence, Charles finally recovered from his excitement. "You don't need to take it too seriously."

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

"If you think about it carefully, your words are not completely unreasonable, but they are indeed too extreme." Dr. Marx also regained his composure, "However, this is easy to understand, because you don't seem to be a proletarian."

"This has nothing to do with whether you have money or not." Charles smiled and waved his hand, "It's just a personal opinion. You can agree or not accept it. This is your freedom."

The two people silently reached a consensus that "each of them will reserve their opinions and discuss it later."

"Can I ask your name? As a visitor, it is really rude for you to talk to the host for so long without saying your name." The doctor also smiled slightly, "Or, do you have some important mission? , so that you don’t dare to show your face?”

It can be seen that although he does not agree with Ciel's point of view, he has already regarded Ciel as a "talkable" person.

"My last name is not important. I am visiting you today just to inform you of this information person, so that you can prepare early, and to exchange opinions with you... It seems that the communication is not bad now." Charles smiled, still Avoiding answering his question, "If you insist on giving me a title, you can call me Mr. T..."

"Mr. T?" Dr. Marx was stunned for a moment, and then not only laughed, "Okay, thank you, Mr. T. If it's convenient, can you also answer a question for me?" (To be continued. . )

ps: I have no disrespect towards Teacher Ma, and the so-called "complaints" are made with a sense of regret.

In the final analysis, the mentor and that group of sages had too optimistic expectations for people’s enlightenment, but in the end people were not like that... To put it in a rather fashionable phrase, it should be said: it was not the mentor who was wrong. , but the world...