If you went to the Greenville Theater in the weeks just before Christmas, you saw a very good presentation of the play, “Anastasia”.  

The premise of the show is that, when the Czar and his family were killed in 1918 during the Russian Revolution, the Czar’s youngest daughter, Anastasia, was absent and thereby lived on elsewhere; in real-life, the rumors centered around her perhaps living in Paris, with her grandmother.  Over the years, a number of women claimed to be Anastasia.

The show did a very good job of emphasizing the vast gulf between the extravagantly exquisite finery, all in spotless, resplendent white and gold, of the royal family and other nobles, contrasted against the stark poverty of the country’s serfs.  

Those serfs, of course, were tied to the land, and their livelihood and fates were at the mercy of the nobleman who owned the land which the serfs worked.  Serfdom is effectively synonymous with slavery.

The theater show is a musical, and focuses on the life of Anastasia.  Nevertheless, the contrast of her life as a princess and her fabulous finery created an obvious emphasis on her life versus that of the oppressed population which perhaps only struck most theater-goers subliminally, if not explicitly.

The Russian Revolution was promulgated by the vicious Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the Mensheviks (also Marxist Communists).  The Bolsheviks ultimately declared the Menshevik group to be illegal.  

The Russian (Soviet) Communist period had its own depredations and ongoing actions destructive to the people living in the country.  

The European Revolutionary Period was a slow, haphazard revolt against tyranny and transition towards freedom.  It began in England with the Magna Carta in 1215 and the English civil wars and revolutions of the mid-1600s.  The American Revolution of 1776 certainly set the stage for what was to follow, influencing not only the French Revolution in 1789, but also the Italian, German, and general European revolutions of 1848, and finally the Russian Revolutions in 1905 and 1917.  Not all of those many revolutions achieved the success of the American Revolution.  

Inequalities prevailed, despite the changes.  

The Russian Revolution of 1917 in particular merely traded one tyranny for another, and oppression continues in Russia to the present day.  

Even in America, the contradictory nature of slavery versus the American ideals of liberty could not be successfully addressed in 1776; the plantations of the Southern states could not survive without slavery (as would be evidenced after 1865).  The choice was to (1) build a new nation built on freedom, with the contradictions of slavery included, and resolve the issue of slavery once the nation was established, or alternatively, (2) destroy the possibility of a country founded on freedom, while slavery remaining unresolved.  Either choice would have had no impact on slavery – standing on principle have served no purpose.

It was not until 1863 that American slaves were freed – and that date is still one of the earliest instances of slavery being brought to an end in any country.  

Slavery has been a normal part of human existence since before the first humans migrated from Africa into Asia and Europe, for tens of thousands of years in the past.

Slavery among American Indians lasted into the 1900s, and slavery remains common even today in much of Africa, Central Asia, central Russia, and eastern China.  Planet-wide, more than 30 million people currently live in slavery.  

The rich finery of the Czar and his family prompts for some, the question of wealthy Americans like Elon Musk – the richest man in the world today.  Is Musk the same as that overdressed Russian Czar, or is he different?  

Elon Musk, in stark contrast to the Czar, has earned what he owns; he has made his fortune.  He created his wealth.  Wealth is not a pile of gold, wealth is not ownership of people, and wealth is certainly not achieved by taxing a population.

Musk has built new businesses such as Tesla and SpaceX.  They have been tremendously successful – with “successful” meaning that Musk’s businesses provide huge quantities of goods and services which people desire and are now able to purchase.  

That level of success is possible in the U.S., because America’s laws shield people from government interference – tyranny – with a person’s right to live his life the way he wants, his right to do with his life what he wants, and to pursue his business and economic welfare as he chooses – i.e., “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, the American credo.

Imagine trying to put into action any notion of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, in Russia – whether today, or during the Communist era, or in the Czarist era.  Throughout history, prison and execution (and possibly torture) have awaited anyone in Russia with such radical thought.  The same is true in China.

Equality

That credo of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” enables not only the singular achievements of people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in America, but (again, in contrast to life in Russia, China, and to various degrees, elsewhere in the world) for the average person.  The innumerable small businesses begun by millions of Americans – on a continual basis across all the years since before America’s founding – are so easily possible and so commonly successful for the same reasons that make possible the achievements of people like Elon Musk.  

The same principles must apply to everyone, across the board – no exceptions.  Ending slavery in the U.S. proved that:  the number of achievements by ex-slaves and the descendants of slaves have been a substantial contribution to the American levels of productivity and accomplishment, giving us all so many additional products and services.

Productivity and success builds on that which is already in existence.  What comes before becomes the foundation for the new ideas that, using what is currently available as a springboard, prompts the creation of new ideas, products, and services available for sale.  

In contrast, there in many foreign countries there is virtually no foundation for transforming new ideas into commercial success.

Freedom – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – is the timeless and ongoing underlying springboard which makes possible the seemingly-endless introduction of new products.

Want to end the world?  Want to send it back to economies based on serfs and slaves?  Become a tyrant – a dictator, a czar, a slave-owner.  Tell Elon Musk and other innovators they need your permission to develop a new product.  Reduce the productivity which makes America the dominant power of the world.  Some politicians in the U.S. certainly seem to be intent on doing just that, if it furthers their own aims, with total disregard for the consequences.

Equality – if it has any sensible meaning – means equal opportunity; that whatever one person of whatever social status can do, any other person of any social status can also accomplish.

In a country like that – as in America – the only ones who will fail are those who fail to choose to persevere until success is achieved.  The successes of those like Elon Musk are remarkable; few will reach that level.  But that level of achievement remains possible to all.  If your goal is something much less – perhaps a lawn-care service or a shoe-repair shop – in America, success at such a goal is still more possible than anywhere else in the world.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

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