The
rapport of the gavel echoed through more than merely the four walls of the
courtroom. The sound carried through the very constitution of my soul. Agape’s
name was emblazoned across my chest and my skin burned with the same heat as
the famous chest in The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne,
1992). What if all the district
attorney had said was true? What if it was not? How does one know what to
believe? Thomas Jefferson once said, “Follow the truth wherever it may lead”
but how easy is it to actually find the truth? Nietzsche said, “There is no
truth. There is only perception.”
With
all the swirling lines of media propaganda and the constant incoming slew of
political statements, how does the general public decide what is truth and what
is merely illusion? Travel back with me to the age of Stalin (1929-1953) and
imagine just how much information the general public was not privy to. To this
day, many still believe that Stalin was a brilliant geneticist, scientist, and
strong leader due to the imagery propagated to the working class.
Sofia Petrovna
touched me deeply due to my own personal saga dealing with the legal system and
the stories that weave their way into the public lore. In the beginning of the
story, Sofia Petrovna is a very hard working woman, a loving mother and a woman
who exists largely to assess the outside world. She is seen analyzing the women
around her in her work place. She notes parts of their personalities, their
skills and weaknesses and the way a woman may affect the rest of the team. She
does not however seem to have a very rich internal world. She is (unlike her
son and his friends) not very politically savvy.
Sofia Petrovna has lost her husband and she finds herself
in perfect timing to join the up and coming force of working class women. She
has a solid job and is a valued team leader. She is the mother of an
intelligent son who is prominent in school and truly stands out from the rest.
He is politically active yet she is not the reason he became that way.
Suddenly, everything changes. People she knows are being arrested. Her son is
arrested. His best friend is arrested. The young woman in love with her son
commits suicide. Yet, Sofia still seems to believe the propaganda of her
government.
She wrestles furiously with the world she had come to
believe she knew so well. She even suggests that her son must have done
something to get arrested. People just do not get arrested for nothing in her
country. Looking back upon history, it is obvious to see that the purge of
Stalin collected intellectuals, scientists, specialists, reactionaries,
aristocrats, and anyone who did not fit the type who would blindly follow their
leader. During that time, however, it was not so easy to see what was going on
around them.
Anyone lacking in vigilance would end up arrested. This
created a massive fear among the people of Russia. Many began turning people in
just so they would exemplify due diligence and not see themselves arrested.
This created space for personal vendettas, snitching and outright lies in order
to make oneself look good in the government eye. It also left a lot of
confusion in the minds of those who could not yet see what was going on. From
outside the story, it is easy to judge Sofia Petrovna. It is easy to believe
that she should have seen what was going on much sooner. It is easy to assume
how she should have felt and how she should have behaved.
Pravda, the main publication circulated to the people of
Russia, means truth. Printed news at this time was a main vein for social
knowledge. Within the confines of a social construct, knowledge is dispersed as
those in power see fit. The information that reaches the general public is up
to them. When Doctor Kiparisov is taken (Chukovskaya, 1967, p. 31) the
temperature of the peaceful office Christmas party suddenly changes. Sofia
Petrovna is shocked yet she quickly comes up with a rationalization. Kolya had
made it clear to her that Leningrad would have to remove certain elements when
they proved to be unreliable. Sometimes it is easier and more comfortable to
believe the painted picture propaganda rather than the cold hard truth.
After her son’s arrest, Sofia Petrovna begins the process
of searching for the truth about his case. It is at this point in the story
where the shadow self of Mother Russia and the shadow self of Sofia Petrovna
begin to arise. She is told not to wait in front of the jail and finds herself
forced into the dissonant underworld of wailing children and cold feet waiting
to find any morsel of information about loved ones who had been arrested
(Chukovskaya, 1967, p. 47). Unfortunately, Sofia Petrovna still does not see.
She believes that her son is a rare innocent and the rest must have done
something to have been arrested.
When Kolya is said to have confessed to his crimes
(Chukovskaya, 1967, p. 78) his friends know immediately this cannot be truth.
However, Sofia Petrovna, staunchly clinging to her faith in the government,
wrestles with the conflicting information. The undercurrent of her cognitive
dissonance begins to surface although it will be a long time before she is able
to see the light clearly. It is exactly this type of staunch belief that a
government, interested in socially constructing the world to suit their needs,
is looking for.
As a child I did not have a television. I was not allowed
to read secular books or listen to secular music. I was removed from things
that my peers all seemed to know. As I morphed into a young adult, I chose to
stay removed from popular media. I was too sensitive for the news or current
events. I was also a child born into a long line of military men serving the
great United States of America. I was a patriot. I believed in my country. I
was proud of my forefathers fighting for the rights I had been born with. The
day Agape Armageddon Towns was arrested served as a catalyst that utterly changed
the way I saw the world around me.
Capitalism is supposed to be the American dream. What we
see around us is opportunity, apple pie and dreams coming true. However, when
one faces the fact that minorities compose the majority of the prison
population here in the United States, the American dream quickly transforms
into a nightmare. The prison system becomes a money-making machine and incarcerated
minorities become the slaves of today. Since the 1960’s prison construction has
boomed and our government has had no trouble filling its cells with prisoners
(Lynch, 2002, p.110). Are there two Americas: one for the privileged and one
for the rich?
Over the past few years, Agape has written me many
letters of horrendous occasions within the walls of Attica. Sofia Petrovna
received one letter from her son. Agape and I speak multiple times per week.
Sofia Petrovna received no phone calls. I have visited Agape as often as
possible. Sofia Petrovna never saw the face of her son again. I send Agape
money any chance I get. Sofia Petrovna was not allowed to send her son money. I
have stayed up to date with Agape’s case. Sofia Petrovna was not offered
anything beyond the statement that her son had confessed to his crimes and
would be serving ten years. I am grateful that I do not have to live in silence
as Sofia Petrovna did. However, I see no more justice in the American prison
system for all its pomp and circumstance.
With every magazine, every television show, every
clothing designer, every fast food restaurant, every classroom text, and every
Sunday church service, we as Americans are told what to believe. Money is the
language with which we speak. Capitalism became a dream for one percent of the
population while the ninety nine live in a dark reflection of the great white
beast. What we need are reality television shows that actually confront
reality. What is it like to live in an inner city neighborhood in America? What
is it like to be a poor minority? What is it like within the walls of any given
American prison?
In Capitalism: A
Love Story (Moore, 2009), Michael Moore does a phenomenal job exposing the grimy
underbelly of such a well-designed system. He delves into many uncomfortable
truths about what happens when “the love of money” becomes “the root of all
evil (The Bible, I Timothy 6:10).” Like Sofia Petrovna I wrestled with the
facts as they presented themselves to me. I had run from the truth for so many
years, uncomfortable with the six o’clock news.
Sofia Petrovna could not handle the weight of the facts
upon her chest. She began telling fantasy tales of her son’s eminent return
(Chukovskaya, 1967, p. 102). She began telling everyone of the girl he would
marry and where they would go for their honeymoon. The one letter she had truly
received she spoke nothing of. In the true letter, she learned of his abuse.
She hid it under her pillow and in that moment she realized why she must not keep
it. Once one arises to political awareness, what is the next step?
For Sofia Petrovna, she realized she must not keep the
letter. She burned it and with that act perhaps lost a little of her sanity.
She had fought so long to stay constant with the picture that had been painted
for her. She justified and rationalized every act she could find a way to
augment to suit her needs. She watched the world emblazoned burning around her
and refused to see the truth. She knew there was nothing she could do to fight
her government. If she revolted, she would merely be transported away or
killed. Her only way out was to resort to her fantasy world. She removed
herself from everyone and after many years of living external to herself, she
moved to an internal realm where she had never before dwelt.
How does one fight an entire government? How does one
revolt against a system so corrupt? How does one claim social responsibility in
a world where those in power paint the picture for the general population to believe?
These (and many others) are questions I ask myself every day. Now that I have
been outside The Matrix, the girl in
the red dress in no longer attractive (Warner Home Video, 1999). In any regime, the ruling class is a much
smaller percentage than those being governed. How is it then that a thousand or
so Bolsheviks could rule millions of Russian people? How does the one percent
hold so much power over the ninety nine? What made the rise of Hitler’s fist so
powerful that millions of innocent Jews were slaughtered under his command? Can
anyone blame Sofia Petrovna for retracting to her fantasy world?
For the crime Agape Towns was accused, a white man would
have received a three to five year sentence. As a black man from a low income
demographic, his sentence was seventeen years. Since his incarceration, my
whole life has changed. No longer do I have the luxury of ignoring the presence
of corruption all around me. No longer do I have the ability to ignore the
current events of my country, of my globe. I have risen to social consciousness
and unlike Sofia Petrovna, I have decided to dedicate my life’s work toward
leaving this world a better place. I cannot allow myself to escape to a fantasy
world although I can understand why she did.
Do I believe it will be easy to stand up for what I
believe? Do I believe that a system so well constructed will be easy to change?
Do I believe that the one percent will stand down and share their funds with
the rest of the starving world? Do I believe that those in power will sit down
and pass their baton to me? No. However, I do believe that this world is ripe
for change. I do believe that I am not alone. I do believe that oppressed
peoples deserve freedom and justice and liberty. I do believe that those in
power must be held accountable. I am not naïve and I do recognize that the
entirety of the history of mankind is marked by the struggle between those in
power and those subjugated by that power. I also believe in the power of a
different kind of dream: the kind of dream dreamt by Martin Luther King.
References:
Chukovskaia, L. K. (1967). Sofia Petrovna. J. D.
Murray (Ed.). Northwestern University Press.
Hawthorne, N. (1992). The scarlet letter.
Wordsworth editions.
King, M. L. (2012). I
have a dream. Random House LLC.
Lynch, M. (2002). The culture of control: Crime and social order in
contemporary society. PoLAR:
Matrix. Warner Home
Video, 1999.
Moore, M. (2009). Capitalism: A love story
[Film]. Beverly Hills, CA: Overture Films.
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