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The Philosopher Between the Capitalist and the Communist Chapter 31 : Accuser and Accused By Punkerslut
When Emma and the other Anarcho-Communists reached Athens, there was a brief moment of hope and happiness, there was the brief belief in opportunity and liberty. But soon, this group of Unionists, Socialists, Cooperativists, Anarchists, and general Anti-Capitalists found that Athens was no longer the same city they had left. Everywhere, the Marxists were the elite power group. Young apprentice Socialists were often turned away from the trades and metallurgical schools, ignored for less intelligent Marxist students. Unionists with families were often turned down from jobs when they couldn't provide proof of Party membership, turned down for less skilled applicants with the accepted political background. Cooperativists who wanted land and materials for their private workshops and manufacturies were turned down, often told that the resources were more valuable when deployed for the purposes of the state, which meant empowering Marxist officials and not Cooperativist enterprises. In a way, it was the Anarchist masses against the Marxian aristocracy, and in another way, it was just a bunch of small, huddled groups, Socialists and Unionists and Cooperativists, each wanting something for themselves and unable to provide anything to anyone. Athens was a Marxist city. When Benjamin and the other Anarcho-Capitalists arrived in Babylon, there were cheers and shouts and joys of happiness, a parade through the city to welcome back the forgiven rebels and the once-misled intellectuals. But, troubles and indignities arose without much time. The ideal farming land, all along the banks of the most important estuaries, had been claimed by the plantations of Militarists, leaving independent, family farmers the only alternative of a long distance to water and to market. Professors and teachers applied to all of the academies and well-known universities, they showed up with the accomplishments of their chemistry and physics and mathematics, but they were all given the lowest positions with the weakest influence. Teaching in Babylon elevated the Militarist theoretician to the highest level possible, and so chemists became teachers in how to make flammable material, physics in how to make weapons, and mathematics to show the best angle to fire a projectile to kill an enemy, but they were all subordinate to that ultimate purpose, the Militarist deans and principals. Porters and carters, sailors and travelers, each found themselves access to roads they had always walked upon, and the property-owners carried heavy brass medals on their chests and peculiar emblems on their headwear. Babylon was a Militarist city.
Emma and Benjamin became the most influential members of both groups, appearing to the masses like polished politicians, and showing up at underground, clandestine meetings spitting fire from their tongues. The revolution in Athens grew at the same pace as the revolution in Babylon. In the Marxist-Communist Athens, there was a current beneath the waves that washed in a different direction; in the Militarist-Capitalist Babylon, there was a divergent wind that bellowed out of control in its own directions just beneath the great storm. As the days went by, the part of the Anarchists who believed they would reach something, who thought they had some sort of Capitalist or Communist utopia to finally arrive at, they each softened and softened. And as the days went by, that small part which believed that their masters to be the true enemies, they each hardened and hardened. The entire nature of the cities evolved, from multicultural centers of Communism and Capitalism, to Marxist-dominated and Militarist-dominated governments, to Marxist and Militarist domination over various factions of Communists and Capitalists, to the final form: a few on top who believe in red star and brass medal, the many in the masses who believed in their governments, and the few at the bottom who believed in black masks and Molotov cocktails. As for Spargo and Agent 354, they were each awarded with such a tremendous lump sum of money that retirement was mandatory. And so, not another useful or important thing ever came out of them ever again throughout the rest of their lives.
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