What I learned from EHAP

Mr. Houser

When you walked into Mr. Houser's room, right away you knew you were in the presence of a Cool Liberal Guy. He had a bumper sticker that said "One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day", and there was a big poster that someone had brought him from the Soviet Union on one of the expeditions to Russia that Mrs. Novak would lead every other year. The poster had a big forceful multi-colored Lenin on it, thrusting his fist forward to the tune of "Let's all pull together for the XXIV'th Five Year Plan!"

When you're that age, anything with a strong brand identity and a counter-authoritarian feel is automatically sexy, so that's why the Communism poster was so cool for us then. How silly for us to have ever thought that Communism was counter to any kind of authoritarianism.

Glenn Herrman and Communism

Mr. Houser was giving the lecture on Communism. Glenn Herrman, our local arch-conservative, was sitting in the back row.

Mr. Houser was explaining it from the Communists' point of view. "So, once people are no longer oppressed by the capitalists, there will be full employment. That will mean people won't need to steal. And so there won't be any crime either. Finally, freed from the need to enforce laws against crime, the police force will no longer be needed."

Glenn said, "So if you had a good serial killer going around, he could continue for years."

Mr. Houser continued. "So the entire state will just, as Karl Marx put it, wither away."

Glenn murmured, "...Decades...".

Mr. Houser looked worried.

Daniel F. Boyd / boyd@csgeeks.org

Last modified: Wed May 15 16:59:08 2002