Conversation · Steban, the Student Communist

"... and whenever we do try it just devolves into a corrupt farce..."

"... and we keep fracturing over theoretical disagreements..."

"If communism keeps failing every time we try it..."

"If no one can agree what real communism even means..."

Alright, here we go. We're devoting all your available brain cells to coming up with a question about communism. Scratch that, to coming up with the question about communism, the alpha and omega of communism questions, and that question is:

Oh god, that's bad. Surely I can think of something better.

Maybe in another life, but not this one. Face it, this is the question that's been simmering inside you all along.

No-no-no! This was supposed to take your mind off the other thing!

Hang on, I thought I was really getting into the theory back there!

Sure, you spent some time getting lost in your theoretical labyrinths, but this has been the beast at the centre this whole time...

(Whisper.) "Are women bourgeois?"

The young man gives you a slightly confused look, as though he's sure you asked something else and he simply misheard.

No, he heard you crystal clear.

Somehow it sounded even worse out loud.

You only said what everyone else was thinking. Look around -- do you see any women here?

"He wants to know if women are bourgeois, Steban..."

"Yes, I heard him. Give me a moment." He takes a deep breath, then turns to you...

"What makes you ask that question, above any other?"

"Because they can't handle me."

"Maybe your problem is that you think it's their job to handle you..."

"You asked that question because you're still under the influence of ideology. That's natural. You're like a fish that's only now discovering that her whole life has been dictated by the movements of sea currents."

"That's what ideology is. It's like there are these invisible forces everywhere, pushing and tugging you this way and that, and you don't even know they're there."

"What does this have to do with communism?"

"Everything, man. That is part of the communist project, to destroy the ideological structures that reduce men and women to these hollow shells of identity."

"Do you know the story of Dobreva and Abadanaiz?"

"I thought that was just some gibberish you made up for the passphrase."

"No. They were the Revolutionary Lovers, the Dual Commissars of Revolution in Insulinde."

"Julia Dobreva came from Graad. Jean Abadanaiz was born in Revachol. She was brilliant, charismatic, a revolutionary comet. He was her partner and stabiliser, the planet who kept her in orbit."

It's too bad they wound up equally dead on some nameless island in Ozonne...

"It's from them we get the notion of dual-leadership, the décomptage, Revachol's truly great contribution to revolutionary thought. I believe it even persists in some form in the RCM, even to this day."

"Is that true, Kim, about the décomptage?"

"I had no idea its origins went all the way back to the Revolution itself. But it makes sense, in a way..."

"What does this question say about me?"

"Yes, that's the question you should be asking yourself."

His companion nods, but offers no further solace.

"So... you're saying women are only bourgeois because of ideology?"

He sighs. "There's more to it than that. People still make their own choices. It's a matter of being aware what's influencing them."

"I need to take some time to think about all this..." (Conclude.)

The young man nods but says nothing. He appears to be distracted by something...

He's wrestling with some question of his own.

He's lost in his own thoughts. You wonder what silt you've stirred in the bottom of his soul.

"It's too bad they died like all the rest of the communards."

"They died on their own terms, like real revolutionaries. There's a lot to say for that."

"What happened to them, Dobreva and Abadanaiz?"

What became of them, though? There seems to be a blank paragraph in the history books...

"You mean the Revolutionary Lovers?"

"Not just lovers, they were the Dual Commissars of Revolution in Insulinde."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Who were they?"

"The so-called 'Revolutionary Lovers'. They were the Dual Commissars of Revolution in Insulinde."

"Is it even possible to imagine a world without ideology?"

"Of course it's possible. Just extremely difficult. You practically have to be a world-historical individual to do it."

"What does this have to do with women?"

"Because they won't let me forget the life we used to have together."

"Ah, gendarme. Your problem isn't ideological, it's personal..."

"Because I can't handle them."

"Maybe your problem is that you think they're yours to handle..."

"I don't know! It's just what my brain told me to say."

"That's because your brain is floating in ideology, gendarme. It's practically drowning in it..."

Is "Ideology" some kind of high-proof liquor? Because that's the only thing your brain is floating in.

Maybe I should keep this one to myself.