Robert Ford’s Communist is a tale that is very simple.  There is no major conflict, no real action, no suspense, it’s just realistic tale that is dives into everyday life with a twist.  It’s a story about growing up to quickly and facing the real world.  Ford does this effectively by capturing it in such a simple setting, one that anyone can picture themselves doing.  There is no flare, as it takes place on a cold November Saturday in Montana that involves Les,16 year old, Aileen, a presumably widowed mother, and Glen Baxter, a communist that had a relationship with Aileen.     There are more than a few references to communism through Glen Baxter but it takes a different role.  Baxter has to live a life like a nomad because of his views of government and is always on guard to the point where he wouldn’t mind ending his own life.  Given the fact that this takes place just after the age of McCarthyism in the 50s, this hits home even harder, exposing the paranoia and the harshness that was Cold War America.  Oppression and tolerance or the lack there of is what rang throughout the story, as Glen Baxter has had to deal with both as he hoped to one day live in the USSR.  This was not only a problem in America in the Cold War, but it has been a problem around the world as all sorts of people and cultures have different levels of tolerance and reactions toward other people.  

Afghanistan is by no means a free place for all.  It has never been a tried and true democratic society in its history but it did have its progressive era in the 1960s and 70s.  Women were finally starting to become more equals in Afghan society.  “Women were allowed to pursue education, vote, hold public office, and become legal equals to their male counterparts” (International Journal 105).  Women have traditionally been oppressed in Afghanistan.  Afghanistan had always been a strict patriarchal society where women were always treated as clear inferiors to their male counterparts.  Men always made the law and ruled the house while women were usually relegated to the household.  This started to change in the 60s and 70s but unfortunately was short lived.  When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December 24th of 1979, an Afghan nationalist group known as the Mujahedeen fought the then superpower with the backing of the United States.  The Soviet Union invasion failed and Afghanistan prevented itself from falling to Communist rule.  Unfortunately, the Afghan government collapsed as a result of the war and the country went through a red scare much like the United States shortly after the war.    The country became covered by paranoia and the fear that the teachers were teaching kids Communist values and sympathizers.  Education took a step back during this time and schools were often destroyed.  “Schools that were suspected of disseminating communist propaganda were often set ablaze.  In 1983 the Afghan Foreign Minister notified the U.N. that 50% of the schools in Afghanistan had been destroyed” (Glad 2009, International Journal, 105).   With the lack of foreign aid, the Taliban regime took over the education system in the 1990s and adopted a strict adaptation of Islamic law.  This included “reforming” the education system and making it based around a strict interpretation of Islam.  As a result, Afghanistan became a strict patriarchal society once again.  While there were a few underground education systems for women that had some foreign aid, but people were fully aware of the consequences of being caught and many weren’t willing to put their lives on the line.  It was reported in 2004 by Ministry of Education that only 33% of population went to school, with zero being women (Glad 2009, International Journal, 106).  After the Taliban as a central power collapsed due to the United State invasion, Non-government organizations have helped women and others obtain and education.  Students in schools under the Ministry of Education went up from 900,000 in 2001 to over 6 million in 2008 (Glad 2009, International Journal, 107).  This success has only been brief as the Taliban have been fighting for control again, blowing up schools as a method to scare children and families from going to school.  In addition, the rise of ISIS in the area has threatened the education system and could result in a sharp drop off in education rates across the country if their influence continues to spread.  They have even started their own education system where children are being taught the concept of Jihad as well as learning how to use weapons (Glad 2009, International Journal, 109).  Unfortunately, the oppression of women in Afghanistan seems doomed to repeat itself with the emergence of ISIS and the continued resistance of the Taliban with no end in sight.  Education has always been one a sign of oppression and patriarchy in Afghan society and it seems like the trend of oppression of women through education will continue for the foreseeable future.  How this relates back to Communist was the then struggle of Communists in America to push communism that ultimately was met with force in the form of incarceration by the government.  Some issues are seen as so awful and detrimental to a society that they have to be enforced by law.  These detrimental issues can be as something as a bad form of government that oppresses people to blowing up innocent people just so women can’t go to school under the strict interpretation of a book.  Les learns about this issue and the brutal effects it has on people early on in his life and it shows him what the real world is like sooner than intended.  

Within the country of Senegal in Western Africa lie the Sereer Siin people.  This is an example of a culture that is based off of true traditional beliefs dating back to early civilizations.  It is a true patriarchal society where women face oppression and are forced to bear children and tend around the house and do little else.  Men do the more “honorable” tasks like hunting, farming, collecting, and other necessities in the land.  Women are seen as objects, sold off to their husbands by their parents.  “They belong to their clan and lineage of origin as long as they remain unmarried. But once married, they are no longer members of the original clan” (Abib 98).  They become nothing but caretakers, trapped in the house raising children with no true hope of becoming more.  When they try to speak out, they are silenced.  They have no rights, as men rule the relationship in all forms.  “She is a tongue-tied victim who suffers the martyrdom of moral outrage and abuse of customary power, as any idea that aims at questioning man's power is systematically repressed. And with a one-side oriented customary law, men have the latitude to divorce his wife without the risk of being punished by traditional law” (Abib 100).  Women are true second class citizens, with no hope of becoming anything more because of the strict traditions and customs that have been passed down from generation to generation.  Abib also writes on page 100 that if women break the moral and legal obligations, then they are subject to moral and even physical punishments.  In addition, women who either cannot or do not feel ready to have children are seen as pariahs in their community.  “A woman who cannot impregnate does not deserve to be kept at home” (Abib 102).  If women are not the perfect person in terms of doing her “duties” in cleaning up the house, raising children, staying quiet, and becoming pregnant when the husband feels like it is right, then they are shunned by society.  It is a strict system that values its traditions and is not willing to change for the sake of progress.  It is a backwards system that almost every society has adopted at one point or another.  The difference between the Sereer culture and almost every other is that most eventually moved on to a more fair system for women and gave women a more equal chance at being successful.  In perhaps the summary of the Sereer people in one phrase, silence is golden.  This means that when the women is quiet and does what she is told without objection, the household is a well-run, family friendly, productive household.  .  This is similar to how America felt about communists like Glen Baxter in that if they didn’t hear views that like that of communism, then the safer and better the country would be.  This shows that suppression of voice and diverse opinion is a global phenomenon that occurs in every civilization, both in the most modern ones and in the most traditional ones.  The aforementioned Sereer culture goes on today so it shows that there are still improvements to be made globally, as it is not isolated to one specific place.  It doesn’t matter how advanced a civilization is, customs and traditions will always have a role in a society for better or worse.  

    Tolerance is another issue that Glen Baxter has to deal with.  Aside from oppression, tolerance is something that many people of dissenting opinion have the general people doesn’t have.  This is once against the case with a communist in the United States.  With the red scare wounds still relatively raw, the people still had a strong case of paranoia.  Glen Baxter made enemies easily just for his views of the world, no matter how wrong they might’ve been simply because he believed in them.  This however is not unique to America.  Different countries have all sorts of different tolerance levels to different people.  In the 2012 Progress in Health Science journal, a study of college students in Poland and Belarus were conducted to see the different tolerance levels toward certain people in different countries.  The study includes what their definition of tolerance is.  It is “the ability to exercise a fair and objective attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, religion, nationality, and so on may differ from one’s own” (Prog Health Sci).  The results were difference than one might expect in America.  In both countries was an overall intolerance to friends, neighbors, or spouses that were homosexuals, drug addicts, or a person who had HIV or AIDS.  Polish students were generally more tolerant of ethnic and racial minorities than Belarusian students.  However, students from Belarus students had nicer words and more nice things to say about these ethnic and racial minorities despite not accepting them as friends, neighbors, or spouses more generally than the Polish students.  Other findings in the study were that the majority of both Polish and Belarusian students believed that government money shouldn’t be provided to other cultures or traditions.  In addition, Polish students spoke highly of the Greeks and Italians, and spoke negatively about Gypsies and Russians compared to the Belarusian students who spoke highly of the British and the Finnish and thought negatively about the Germans, Arabs, and Chechens.  Both Belarusian and Polish students spoke highly about the French.  The study concludes that “Poles are not tolerant nation, but their acceptance is increasing. Belarusians are tolerant, but their acceptance is declining” (Prog Health Sci).  This shows each countries’ unique bias’s and prejudice’s to specific groups of people.  Unfortunately for Glen Baxter, he fell under the specific category that many Americans wouldn’t tolerate as many Americans wouldn’t tolerate a communist of any type in the 1960s.  This still applies to today’s America as well.

The United States isn’t the only melting pot of cultures in the world.  The country of Kazakhstan much like the United States has many people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds that have settled in one country.  Much like the United States, Kazakhstan has been able to adapt many of the different cultures that these people have brought to the country.  These different cultures include the ones originally from Kazakhstan, but also Russian ones, and various Middle Eastern cultures.  This influx of cultures started in the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed and people started to migrate to a variety of different places, one of hot spots being Kazakhstan.  Mahmud al-Kashgari, a Turkish philosopher, believes that this is because of the Kazakh tradition of hospitality.  He says “Hospitality is a sacred duty. The owner had to die defending his guest, even the man he didn’t know. Lovers who flee their lands because of the parents and relatives persecution were taken under the protection” (International Journal of Environmental & Science Education, 5040).  Other thinkers believe that it is because of religion.  While the primary religion in the country is Islam, some people believe that it is the ancient spiritual religion that dates back thousands of years that contributes to the welcoming of others.  Because of the thousands of years of practicing one religion, they accept other religions that may not believe in theirs.  This in part explains the good relationship that Kazakhstan has with western European countries like France, and Germany.  Another important role in this are the social institutions established in the country.  “45.4% of our fellow citizens believe that the country's leadership build a multinational state without privileges and discrimination. 20.8% of respondents believe that in national policy the preferences are given, first and foremost, to the state-forming Kazakh ethnic group” (International Journal of Environmental & Science Education, 5043).  Citizens were also asked about “the state policy in the sphere of interethnic relationships”, in response, over 50% said that it is built around a lack of given privileges or discriminations toward anyone.  The driving force behind this peaceful cultural melting pot is peaceful and fair policy for everyone that has been passed by the government along with the peaceful traditions by the people of Kazakhstan that have accepted a variety of different people.  The right government along with the right people to accept various cultures is crucial to the acceptance of minorities.  America was not this place for a long time and it still isn’t the perfect place for this either.  The United States does accept many different cultures, but it doesn’t welcome everyone with open arms as people have certain standards that they stand to.  

Communist has a central theme of growing up and seeing the real world too early.  However, the concepts all focus around Glen Baxter being a communist in a time in America history where communists were strictly looked downed upon and faced public humiliation for being one.  Glen Baxter was exactly that, a person that was looked down upon because of how he viewed the world.  What the multiple examples of tolerance and oppression have showed is that everyone in the world has their own preferences and views that they agree with and those that they can’t stand.  It adds a whole new layer to Communist as it magnifies the struggle that Glen Baxter goes through mentally.  The feeling of isolation that he has in America and what so many others have because people don’t respect him for his world view is something that is shined on Les at an early age of 16, perhaps too early.  Wherever Glen would’ve gone at the time that wasn’t the Soviet Union, he would’ve been met with different types of opposition because of people’s personal beliefs and tolerance.  Some might be willing to have open conversations with a variety of other people, while others might have had him arrested.  This plays into the oppression aspect.  Glen is oppressed in America by the same people that have zero tolerance toward him.  Oppression is something that has always existed and that will probably always exist, whether it is through the Taliban, or the Sereer people.  

There is always someone that faces some sort of oppression and whether it is fair or not doesn’t matter as it is what it is.  The world is not a fair place and the sooner certain people realize it, the sooner people can learn how to address it.  Glen Baxter learned this and while it doesn’t necessarily make him feel better about his current situation, he knows that there is a place for him in the world and he just needs to get there before his mental side gets to him.  He is by no means the first, and won’t be the first.  There is always a place in the world for people where they are free of oppression and everyone is tolerant of his or her unique view, you just have to find it before losing all hope.  
