December 25, 1991The world watched on television as the Kremlin flagpole lowered the flag of the Scythe and Axe and raised the tricolor of Russia. Mikhail Gorbachev, the only one in the history of the Union, announced his resignation and transferred state power to Russia Yeltsin. The next day,December 26, 1991The Supreme Soviet of the Union adopted a final resolution declaring the official dissolution of the Union. The 69-year-old empire collapsed and the Cold War ended. And this day has also become the most important day in human history. As in a Western poet's poem:It was destroyed like this, they were destroyed like this, not with a bang, but with a boo.
In 1991, I was still in secondary school. I can still remember how shocked and unbelievable the people around me were when they heard the news. Now when we turn the pages of history, we will find how this day is taken for granted. 69 years is quite short for a country. Research on the causes, effects and consequences of the disintegration of the union has not stopped since 1991. Although the views of the political and academic circles are diverse, the number of published studies** is even greater. But one thing that almost no one objects to is thatIn the last moments of the Suzhoulian, the whole country had completely fallen into a Kafkaesque society.
Franz Kafka was a Jew who lived in the Czech Republic under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I am an employee of an insurance company. His main works include "Trial", "Castle", "Metamorphosis" and so on. For most people, Kafka's mind jumps bigger, the plot is grotesque, and some are difficult to understand. Readers will always start with a question and end with a question. Kafka, on the other hand, uses an off-screen spectator and symbolic language to reveal hostile societies and isolated, desperate individuals. So what is a Kafkaesque society?Someone summed up its trait as, "No matter how bizarre, ridiculous, or illogical the rules are, most people will not hesitate to follow them." Because if you obey it, you will pay the price afterwards, and if you don't obey it, you will pay the price immediately. In short, sooner or later, they will pay the price for the actions of others. ”
K is the main character in Kafka's "The Trial". On his thirtieth birthday, he was inexplicably arrested from his apartment, without stating the charges for his arrest, without the formalities for his arrest, and without knowing who was trying him. He knew he was innocent, but any argument was futile. After a year of trial in such a daze, K was executed "like a dog" on the eve of his thirty-first birthday. The whole story seems to be a calm statement of an unrelated matter, but it makes people feel depressed and breathless after reading it. And the same is true of the former crisp union on the eve of its disintegration. Crisp peopleI don't know what I'm doing, what awaits me in front of me. It's like being wrapped up in the dark of night in a long queue with no head or tail in sight. Stumbling and stumbling, with a difficult step. No one spoke, and no one told you why you were doing it. If you stop or turn your head, you will be pushed or even trampled to death by the people around you, "like a dog". Even if you look up, you will be pulled to an unknown place. Everyone's heart is filled with fear and loneliness, but they can only give in and endure. Because there are countless pairs of eyes behind each one that are watching them. Everyone is maintaining and promoting the operation of such a huge system. Until the catastrophe is gone!
After the Schacht case of 1928, Staling carried out a purge of the opposition in the Soviet Union, headed by Trotsky. Hundreds of thousands of people were arrested, tried, detained, sentenced, and even executed during this period. A large number of Politburo members, marshals, generals, scientists, writers, etc., were assassinated, exiled, and killed by the KGB. Stalin fashioned himself as the only god of the Crisp Union. This fine tradition was perfectly inherited by his successors. Excessive concentration of power inevitably leads to excessive corruption. From the mid-70s of the 20th century, under Brezhnev's rule, the privileged class of the Crispy Union multiplied to about 700,000 people, plus their relatives totaled as many as 4 million, about 15%。Such a large rentier class is stubborn. Whoever touches their interests will be ruthlessly attacked. The state apparatus becomes an instrument for the interests of the privileged. The upper class of society is extremely luxurious and shameless, and never cares about the plight of the people at the bottom. They are helpless in the face of economic difficulties, clumsy and inefficient in dealing with international problems, and ruthless and decisive in dealing with the people at the bottom. The entire bureaucracy, from top to bottom, is focused only on individual interests. On the eve of the collapse of the Union, Gorbachev was still bargaining with Yeltsin over the issue of pensions. All of this is fully embodied in aKafkaesque bureaucratic society.
What kind of transformation does a person go through in a Kafkaesque society?In "The Trial", it is depicted that K comes to the office of the "court", and the foul air inside causes K to feel intensely unwell. "Eventually, people will get used to the air very well," the staff told K. And when the staff helped K to the door with fresh air, they were reluctant to send one more step. The staff who had been exposed to the fresh air had the same symptoms as K. This depiction is very characteristic of Kafka. Think about it, when we knock on a mysterious door with a gift for the first time, do we feel ashamed and uneasy in our hearts? Our initial performance was clumsy and unnatural. But slowly, we get used to it and can do it all with laughter. At this time, we learned the unspoken rules and really blended into the air here. As everyone knows, these things that we are used to have made us feel "disgusting". Until one day we came to a completely unfamiliar environment. Everything around us becomes transparent, and we find that the "skills" we rely on for a living are completely useless, and we are at a loss.
In a Kafkaesque society, there is no morality and no credit. There is no loyalty, and betrayal has no price. At the end of the crisp couplet, all the suppression is appearing in a "good for you" appearance. Most of the rights of the people of Sulian were denied, and only a small part of the rights due to them were taken as grace. More than 70 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, and the elderly have worked for the country all their lives without even being paid their retirement salary. Pension is actually the most basic embodiment of national credit. The collapse of the severe credit system has led to the closure of a large number of factories and a serious outflow of funds. Except for a few people who can take advantage of the opportunity to get rich, most people's wealth is zero. But all this is not seen or heard in the newspapers and radio. Because even ** and the person in charge of propaganda are Kafka.
At the end of the Judgment story, K is taken out to be executed. He also initially thought of resisting. But the executioners who escorted him "held down their arms and pressed them in a way that was so well trained and dexterous that they could not resist." After struggling, K suddenly understood that resisting was useless. Even if he resists, creates some difficulties for his fellow travelers, and fights to take the last moment of his life, he cannot be called a hero. This was a relief to the guards who escorted him. Then the three of them walked forward in perfect harmony. At this time, K had already succumbed and accepted the alienation of society. The only question left is: where is the judge he has never met?The Supreme Court, which he was never able to enter, is in **?How helpless and hopeless. At this moment, K is watching his own death. In a typical Kafkaesque society, everyone is actually watching their own end.
The society that Kafka is talking about today is actually a true portrayal of the era in which he lived. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, where Kafka lived, was one of the world powers of the time. Before World War I, the empire spanned eastern, central, and southern Europe, and was the second largest in Europe after Russia. But the strength of the empire did not increase the well-being of the people. Under the rule of the brick **, there were only slaves and no citizens. The rights of ordinary people are greatly suppressed and exploited. But no one under the power dares to show dissatisfaction, and can only submit to the constraints of a certain pattern of behavior. The rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire used the instruments of power to infiltrate the will into every crevice of society. Under the rule of this "strong country and weak people", human nature, morality, and conscience are alienated by the powerful. Thought and discourse are controlled and monopolized. People are forced to accept and obey in a state of simple numbness. But no one could have imagined how much power silence contains. The First World War was an opportunity. ended the rule of Austria-Hungary and at the same time passed the baton to the hands of the former Crisp Union. Kafka's essay is an indictment of Kafkaesque society, and it is also a judgment!
At the end of today's article, the last sentence of the full text of "The Trial" is quoted:He is dead, but this shame will remain.
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