novels4u.com

“Every? Regardless of the circumstances? Even the 12th child of a seamstress in Bangladesh can become rich, or a disabled boy from India. Although if you don’t have the same opportunities if you have a disability, you don’t need to look to India, it’s enough to stay here. Anyone who doesn’t work should kindly stand aside and keep quiet. If we’re in a good mood, they’ll get a little something because we’re so kind. But kindness is not a right, but a paternalistic act. Everyone should have the right to a humane existence in order to be able to claim the rights that are enshrined in the so-called human rights,” replies the lady who is talking to her counterpart is still considered poor, cool.
 “What does this have to do with human rights? They apply anyway and we take them seriously,” explains the other with conviction.

“Take, for example, Article 7 of the Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines equality before the law. On the face of it, this is complied with. It is striking that economically weak people are significantly more likely to be convicted of the same offense than people with better financial backgrounds. This not only has to do with the fact that they can afford better legal representation, but also with the judges’ instinctive recognition that this person belongs to their class, while the former belongs to the mob. There is an unspoken pre-judgment due to appearance, demeanor, dialect, perhaps coupled with physical inadequacy, which is probably never openly admitted, but is reflected in the condemnations. Or take Article 22, the right to social security, which stipulates that everyone must enjoy the economic, social, and cultural rights that are essential for their own dignity and the free development of their personality. Sounds good, it would be if it allowed this. In reality, social security is just enough to ensure that you don’t starve or freeze to death. Even this is done with calculation, because people who have to fight every day to get the essentials of life do not rebel, have no strength to educate themselves politically, let alone to get involved. But no matter whether social benefits or wages, which just ensure survival, guarantee the so-called authorities that people are too drained and exhausted to defend themselves against this injustice. It is even being exploited to the extent that these groups are being played off against each other for election propaganda. The culprits are quickly found. Foreigners or social welfare recipients or homeless or unemployed people, the parasites who make a nice living at the expense of those who work. Which brings us back to the beginning. Regardless of whether it was the nobility, the church or, subsequently, the bourgeoisie, all of these rulers financed an unemployed life at the expense of the lower classes. But they do it smartly. They distract from themselves and drive wedges between people. The battle of each against each other is on while they sit back and watch in amusement.” The waiter brought coffee again. Didn’t they finally want to leave? At least one could have made room for someone who could actually tip.

Scene V.

“Good evening Mrs. Dr. Winterfeld,” a gentleman in a fine tailored suit suddenly addresses the lady, who looks poor on the outside, “What a pleasure it is to meet you here!” He actually seems pleased. “And who is your charming companion?” he continues to ask.
“That’s not my companion and I don’t know her name either,” explains the person I spoke to. “She just sat down next to me because there was no other free space, not necessarily with pleasure, as I can imagine.”
The gentleman looks thoughtfully around the coffee house, where almost all the tables are now free.
“Well, we probably chatted a little longer than we initially intended,” replied Dr. Winterfeld, who correctly interprets his look, “But if you’ll excuse me, I have to get going. I look forward to seeing you at the next innovation retreat.” With that, she shakes his hand and leaves. The table companion watched the process, speechless and with her mouth open.
“Mrs. Dr. Winterfeld,” she repeats, aghast, “That was a real doctor, a female doctor?”
“Well actually she has two of them, the titles, but I have the impression that even being addressed with one makes her uncomfortable. She doesn’t value appearances, which is why she is so often underestimated,” explains the unknown gentleman, “But she is not a doctor, chemist or biologist and has created one of the most successful companies in the world that deals with development and implementation “We are concerned with technological possibilities to improve all of our lives.”
“And is she a communist or a Marxist?” she asks rather naively.
“How do you come up with such nonsense? Did she say it?” the gentleman answers the question in an extremely uncharming way with a counter question, which neither of them notices.
“Not said directly, but she rails against capitalism as if it were her mortal enemy. There’s hardly anything else,” she replies.
“It’s also a way of shortening your world view. Not every criticism of capitalism means a demand for communism. Marx, however, in his writings provided an excellent analysis of this sick system that has now contaminated the entire world. Accepting and thinking through this does not require any confession, and certainly not a cult affiliation, as is attributed to Marxists,” he explains.
“Then why is she walking around so, so, so ragged?” she can’t help but ask.
“Because she doesn’t need to shine through appearances. She has achieved too much in her life and has probably made more money than many others,” he says.
“But she rails against property and wealth,” she doesn’t want to admit defeat yet.
“I said she made money, not that she owned it. One of their mottos is that managing money has the enormous advantage that you can also do good things with it, even within this system. It’s only bad if you let it own you. That means that, apart from what she needs for her modest lifestyle, she puts everything into further development,” he says with a shrug.
The clatter of breaking dishes can be heard. The waiter, who was following the entire conversation, dropped the tray from his hand. The gentleman turns to him briefly and can see exactly how embarrassed he is for having made such a misjudgment. ‘But what should you stick to other than appearances to pigeonhole people?’ he seems to think. Then the gentleman turns back to the woman wearing the costume.
“Maybe you should rethink your priorities a little and the way you organize people,” he said, turned around and left.
“And she is a Marxist, a thoroughly evil, expropriation-loving, anti-democratic, dictatorship-obsessed Marxist who doesn’t have a single useful argument to present against capitalism.”

* * *