Are we truly aware?

As I was browsing among the books I needed to shelve, I spied the book Red Scarf Girl, by Jiang Ji-li. It looked interesting, and a friend of mine is really into communism, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It's an interesting format for a history book, seeing as the author writes it as the memoirs of her twelve year old self, looking back through the lens of time. I anticipated that it would be a decent read, but I was wrong. It was amazing. The content itself was potent, but it also had that extra spark which inspires one to question and dwell upon the issues presented within. The book is about the Cultural Revolution in China, under Mao Zedong's leadership; and it highlights the smaller, more personal aspects often left out of history books. The sheer injustice of the situation that Ji-li finds herself in left me outraged, and I immediately thought about how lucky I am to live in a world where I have an equal freedom to fail or succeed to the degree that I choose. A world where I am free to define my own life, rather than trying to atone for the "crimes" of those in my families past. Imbued with these thoughts, I headed over to my suitemate's room to express my utter incredulity at the notion of such a system. I was so caught up in my zeal that her reaction caught me off guard. Rather than agreeing, or even respectfully disagreeing with me, she termed my subject of discussion as "stupid" and "unimportant". Thinking back on this now, I realize that this is probably a much more common sentiment than one would suppose. How many people actually care about the political possibilities of our past, and potentially our future? Then again, one may note the number of fans of communism, and I wonder how many of them actually know what it is. Sure, our history books tell us the basics, but that's really not what it is. My generation faces a disconnect for m the realities it poses. We've never had any experience with the real thing. To us, communism is an idealized possibility, it even sounds pretty good at first. However, if you look a little father, one can see that this is a for that would only truly be able to exist in a perfect society, something that is a bit of a rarity these days. A true society of equals is impossible, there will always someone who is a little bit more "equal" than the rest. The only difference is the sort of people this form of government advances. Don't kid yourselves, its not the most deserving; its not the hardest working; it's not the most intelligent. It may be those passed over by the other groups, but I don't mean the lower class. It doesn't unite the classes into one, rather it reverses them in a never ending cycle , a cycle that will eventually close in on everyone in it's path. It's not a system of selflessness, but one of selfishness. And I wonder, how many people see it for what it really is? How many people even care?