Life Before and After the Fall of Communism in the Czech Republic
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Life Before and After the Fall of Communism in the Czech Republic
Recently the senate and county elections in the Czech Republic confirmed that the preference of Czech voters is shifting to the left, what's more the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia got the second highest number of votes. The results are disturbing, because the last time Communists won the polls, the Czechs ended up being oppressed for over 40 years until they managed to overthrow the government. Now it seems that the same people have suffered from a collective memory loss. Have they forgotten how life was before 1989 and what crimes the communists committed during their reign? Voting for the communists is a mistake, which should never be made, because it is considerably better not to have them interfere in our lives.
One of the biggest differences between now and then is the atmosphere of the time. Back then people described the atmosphere as "shades of grey". They were not encouraged to be different, on contrary individualism was oppressed and frowned upon. As a result most of the people were afraid to do or say anything that would make them stand out of the crowd. This resulted also in an atmosphere of fear. Nowadays individualism is supported in almost any area possible. From a young age people are pushed to be creative and this creativity distinguishes us from others. We have freedom of speech, which means that we can complain about anything even our current government, whereas back then if you said anything negative about the communists they would put you in prison.
The concept of freedom was also very different. There wasn't a real democracy with the communists in power. The communistic regime in Czechoslovakia was characterized by the absence of free elections. Many basic human rights were limited such as freedom in political or religious beliefs, freedom of speech, the right to assemble or the right to education. This affected the
Do 2 lives of people immensely
Life Before and After the Fall of Communism in the Czech Republic
Recently the senate and county elections in the Czech Republic confirmed that the preference of Czech voters is shifting to the left, what's more the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia got the second highest number of votes. The results are disturbing, because the last time Communists won the polls, the Czechs ended up being oppressed for over 40 years until they managed to overthrow the government. Now it seems that the same people have suffered from a collective memory loss. Have they forgotten how life was before 1989 and what crimes the communists committed during their reign? Voting for the communists is a mistake, which should never be made, because it is considerably better not to have them interfere in our lives.
One of the biggest differences between now and then is the atmosphere of the time. Back then people described the atmosphere as "shades of grey". They were not encouraged to be different, on contrary individualism was oppressed and frowned upon. As a result most of the people were afraid to do or say anything that would make them stand out of the crowd. This resulted also in an atmosphere of fear. Nowadays individualism is supported in almost any area possible. From a young age people are pushed to be creative and this creativity distinguishes us from others. We have freedom of speech, which means that we can complain about anything even our current government, whereas back then if you said anything negative about the communists they would put you in prison.
The concept of freedom was also very different. There wasn't a real democracy with the communists in power. The communistic regime in Czechoslovakia was characterized by the absence of free elections. Many basic human rights were limited such as freedom in political or religious beliefs, freedom of speech, the right to assemble or the right to education. This affected the
Do 2 lives of people immensely
Cited: 1. Santayana, George. The Life of Reason. London: Prometheus Books, 1998. Print.