This story perfectly illustrates communism
Under the communist regime in Albania, there was a notorious place called the prison of Spac. It was built into the face of a mountain where winters are harsh and summers insufferable.
Now, this place is not for criminals.
It is reserved for those who dare to speak against the regime.
These people are forced to work in the mines, surviving on scraps and enduring systematic torture.
It is a place designed to break even the toughest souls.
But then something special happens.
A small puppy slips through a hole in the prison fence.
The prisoners take him close; they raise him; they name him Tart, and feed him with the little bread they have.
Over time, Tart grows up to be a big, loyal dog.
For them, he's a humane thing in a place guarded by animals.
Then the political prisoners organize a massive revolt that brings the entire prison to its knees. For three days, there’s a vicious fight against the guards.
They don’t have any illusion that they can gain their freedom, but all they ask from the regime is to be treated like humans.
During the chaos, Tart is witnessing his friends being beaten, so he fearlessly attacks the guards and the special forces.
The regime swiftly rejects their demands and brings in the army.
The revolt is crushed, and the prisoners face further punishment. Most of them receive added sentences, while the 4 main organizers are sentenced to death.
For their sublime act of courage and resistance, today they’re remembered as martyrs of freedom.
But the regime isn’t done...
They gather all the prisoners, set up a hanging tripod, and announce that there will be one more trial.
This time, the accused is Tart.
One of the prisoners, a former Colonel, says to the guard: “Please don't hurt him, if you want a soul, take mine instead.”
“Don’t worry”, one of the guards sneered, “Your turn will come.”
Tart becomes the fifth martyr.
Now there are 3 core lessons we can learn from what happened in Albania that can help us better understand authoritarian regimes.
First, you must never underestimate human brutality.
History has repeatedly shown that ordinary men, in the sense that they’re not clinically insane, are capable of doing horrendous acts.
In this case, at first, the guards might have been hesitant; they might even have felt sick at having to punish their fellow man.
But as they keep going, they develop a hatred for them and show no mercy.
You know, the guards will eventually lose their humanity.
They’re at a level below animals.
They become more cruel than their superior officers and even more cruel than the rulers of the communist party.
The second lesson is that an authoritarian leader will do whatever it takes to kill the brain of that society.
He does it by keeping people dumb and poor.
It will identify those wise, mentally tough individuals and will find a way to silence them. It will ruin their reputation (character assassination), imprison them, or kill them.
What’s left, then, is a society full of people who are capable of doing their jobs but not more.
You had very skilled individuals. They were capable drivers, doctors, engineers, builders, teachers… But they weren’t wise. They couldn’t think for themselves. They couldn’t get out of the trap of propaganda.
As a result, they were unable to train the new generation to become independent.
Now, people love to say there were some good things about communism, and I agree.
They built a massive artificial lake and 3 hydropower plants. They fought illiteracy and advocated for equal gender rights. They also built roads, schools, hospitals, factories...
When we talk about the achievements of communism, I often joke by saying, “Of course, you are building all of that when you have an entire population working for a loaf of bread for 5 fucking decades.”
Or I'm like: "US, Denmark, Switzerland, and others are so unlucky. They didn't have communism, and that's why they are so backward."
All joking aside, no matter what they have achieved, in no way does it justify the deaths of 14,000 people and killing the brain of the population.
It also doesn’t justify shutting off the warrior spirit.
Historically, Albanians have always fought against much bigger opponents [Romans, Greeks, Macedonians, Ottomans, Slavs, Fascists, Nazis], yet we managed to preserve some of our lands, DNA, language, and culture.
The enemy after WW2 was different. We were completely blindsided by the ideology. We didn’t really understand how communism had infected the population until it was too late.
We did manage to overthrow the regime in 1991, and that’s a great achievement. I mean, look at Iran, Cuba, Venezuela… They are still oppressed.
The problem is that the new government didn’t really make radical changes. They didn’t set up a system to punish those communists who committed crimes; they didn’t educate the population and help them heal.
In retrospect, it was clear that the population no longer had the warrior spirit.
They were entirely broken.
We know this by what happened next.
In the 90s, scammers stole $1.2 billion through pyramid schemes, which then triggered a civil war.
To make matters worse, the army didn’t protect the weapon depots, and now ordinary people were armed to the teeth.
Here’s where it gets really interesting…
You would think a heavily armed population would destroy the two major parties who were responsible for their lives being ruined, but no… Instead, they killed each other.
After the civil war, the same politicians who were responsible for the crisis were back in power as if nothing had happened. None of them had a single scratch.
And here we are today: Still a weak population.
The third lesson is that communist and other types of totalitarian regimes engage in unnatural selection.
They pick the weakest people (psychologically speaking) and put them in key positions of power. These individuals do not work for the good of the family, let alone the country; they work for the good of the party.
On the other hand, the psychologically strong people - the ones who saw beyond propaganda, the ones who didn't compromise their values and principles (even though they knew the punishment) - were imprisoned, tortured, or killed.
Their families were not spared either. I'm not exaggerating when I say that they were second-class citizens.
And those who got out of prison had no status at all, despite their capabilities. You know, there have been many cases of people with prestigious diplomas... people who clearly had a high IQ level... who worked as cleaners.
Now, you might say, "I happen to live in a free country, so my mind is safe."
Well, not really. Because the methods of brainwashing and menticide are being applied everywhere, the only difference is that in democratic countries, they’re used in a subtle way.
I’ve explained in detail in this video: