Museum of Communism and Harry Potter

Our Political Science class went to the Museum of Communism on Thursday, and it was interesting to look at Communism in a country that had suffered under an oppressive regime. This gave it a very personal aspect, but at the same time, it had a great bias against Communism in general. I could understand why they looked at their experiment with Communism as a failure, but it spoke of nothing about the positive social aspects of the political system. One of the least objective parts was the mini-biography about Marx. After describing his theories, it ended with “as a result of his work, 100,000 people have died”. They blamed his theory on the death of thousands, but such a link is not historical in the least. It is quite unfair to blame deaths on a theory that was corrupted; the regime was not Marxist, but Marxist-Leninist and definitely had its faults. It was a shock to look at this museum with its corrupted facts when compared to the amazing museums we saw in Terezin. It really made me desire a more objective view on the history of communism in the Czech Republic.
Besides the museum, my weekend wasn’t the most interesting. We did visit Vjsherad and climb Petrin Hill, but a lot of my weekend was focused on reading Harry Potter 7. What was especially weird was that Rob Monson was here visiting for the weekend, I wasn’t the greatest host what with not being able to put the book down. We did randomly ran into his brother in Prague (they didn’t know that they were both here at the same time, it was an amazing coincidence). It’s like I’m at home, and am just living a normal life, reading Harry Potter and hanging out with the Monsons, and now watching Ratattoie with my friends. At the same time, I look out my window and I have this great view of the famous Prague red roofs and my lifestyle already feels more European. Giving Rob a tour of the city also reinforced the fact that I’m not at home during this summer, but studying here in Prague and immersing myself in the Czech culture. Even though there are similarities, I'm not in Kansas anymore.