Monday, September 05, 2005

So long and thanks for all the thrills




Thanks for bringing me to Leningrad, comrade. :)

The locals have probably guessed by now where these crumpled drawings have come from. In Portugal there is something called "Festa do Avante", a yearly festival organized by the Portuguese Communist Party, but attended by people of all political colours (even the sort of individualistic no-party freaks like me - the only "parties" I trust are the recreational ones). I had never attended it until this year when my friend sort of dragged me into it. Well, after three days, and now that it is over, I can say that I have not yet been converted to the Communist Party but I certainly have been converted to the Party of the Communists.

Communism may not work, but communists surely do! :)

The festival cannot be compared to any other that I attended, and this thanks mainly, not to the events, but to the people. The festival comes together from the selfless giving of volunteer work, and it is full of passion and dedication, that shows everywhere from how well things work to how friendly the staff is, even as the day is ending and everyone is surely exhausted to the point of collapse. This is not an ideologically neutral fact. There is a coming together that cannot happen in an ideology like capitalism, dependent upon hard competition for its success. Cooperation - that is circumstancial in capitalism but central to Communism - is the key to this.

Whatever our political affiliations, this spirit of generous and selfless cooperation is someting that must be salvaged. It is surely something that might be adequately taught to a child, far before she is ready for the subtle forms of directed egoism that make capitalism work (undirected egoism, of course, needs no teaching as it comes far too naturaly to most children). Ii is something that should survive whatever else may be built on top. Essentials should not be forgotten.

A casual note: Go to most festivals or parties and notice how most of the beautiful girls parade themselves. They parade their beauty as if on display, hidden behind glass, haughty, jealous, snob, distant, complete with a metaphorical price tag. I have always found this quite repulsive. Even in that respect there was a difference at this festival: In the way they danced, walked, talked, the girls where giving their beauty away, with open smiles, natural friendliness, and genuine happiness...

PS: In case you were wondering, the mention of "leningrad" comes from the simple accident that shostakovich was being played as I first arrived at the event.

9 comments:

António Araújo said...

Yes, thanks for illustrating my point, dear marketing robot. :)

Sofia said...

...

Anonymous said...

nice blog, nice drawings. just one thing: communism works. You will see. I'm glad that you liked the three day dream make come true. Like cunhal said: we must make the dream into life. I count on you, "comrade"

PC: sorry for my bad english...

António Araújo said...

Dear Julius,
your english is perfectly fine :)

(mas tambem podes falar em portugues, que este blog e' poliglota ;))

thanks for all the nice comments!
I'm not one for "-isms" but I am one for people, and I think that good, kind, brave, and dedicated people can make any "-ism" sort of work (as much as things ever work in real life, anyway), and I did get to meet some people, in those days, that fit the description, I think.

If you believe it works, do keep trying to make it work, though "making it work" is not as important as the attempt itself. I sometimes think that making things work is a big trap in life. If you can't make it work, at least make sure that it fails beautifully :)
A lot of things that could have
been beautiful failures make the mistake of turning instead into horrible successes by insisting upon victory...

but I digress! I have some other wonderful pictures from the party, taken with that other "mechanical pencil" that I carried around. At this moment I am away from a proper computer so I may put those up today, tomorrow, or maybe only next week when I get back in Portugal. But soon...

António Araújo said...

This blog is also about that. The kind of drawings I choose to put up here are many times great "failures". But they insist upon being themselves. They do not fake this or that in order to become more agreable. They do not overwork their image to be more pleasant. They do not change merely to please. They never bend their knee. They are a natural, direct process. They insist upon being beautiful. Beautiful victories, if they can, beautiful failures if they must. But always beautifully themselves.

Anonymous said...

os teus desenhos são fantásticos e o blogue muito interessante e expressivo... Ah... só uma coisa: o meu "ismo" é também sobre pessoas. um abraço e continua a desenhar. Ah... cheguei bem a casa, arranjei boleia. E no outro dia lá estava eu, de manhã cedo, no trabalho... Mas obrigado na mesma... ;o)

António Araújo said...

Ah, eu por acaso estava para te perguntar isso - eu acabei por sair mais cedo, teve que ser porque estavam a mandar embora toda a gente que nao pertencia a organizacao e os meus truques de ilusionismo nao conseguiram simular a posse de um cartao :)...

Broken M said...

Ando tão desactualizada....

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