chapotraphouse

Steban, the Student Communist - "What makes you ask that question, above any other?"

You - "Because they can't handle me."
Steban, the Student Communist - "Maybe your problem is that you think it's their job to handle you..."

You - "Because I can't handle them."
Steban, the Student Communist - "Maybe your problem is that you think they're yours to handle..."

You - "Because they won't let me forget the life we used to have together."
Steban, the Student Communist - "Ah, gendarme. Your problem isn't ideological, it's personal..."

You - "I don't know! It's just what my brain told me to say."
Steban, the Student Communist - "That's because your brain is floating in ideology, gendarme. It's practically drowning in it..."

Steban, the Student Communist - "You asked that question because you're still under the influence of ideology. That's natural. You're like a fish that's only now discovering that her whole life has been dictated by the movements of sea currents."

Steban, the Student Communist - "That's what ideology is. It's like there are these invisible forces everywhere, pushing and tugging you this way and that, and you don't even know they're there."

You - "What does this have to do with communism/women?"
Steban, the Student Communist - "Everything, man. That is part of the communist project, to destroy the ideological structures that reduce men and women to these hollow shells of identity."

You - "Is it even possible to imagine a world without ideology?"
Steban, the Student Communist - "Of course it's possible. Just extremely difficult. You practically have to be a world-historical individual to do it."

Steban, the Student Communist - "Do you know the story of Dobreva and Abadanaiz?"

Steban, the Student Communist - "The so-called 'Revolutionary Lovers'. They were the Dual Commissars of Revolution in Insulinde."

Steban, the Student Communist - "Julia Dobreva came from Graad. Jean Abadanaiz was born in Revachol. She was brilliant, charismatic, a revolutionary comet. He was her partner and stabiliser, the planet who kept her in orbit."

Steban, the Student Communist - "It's from them we get the notion of dual-leadership, the décomptage, Revachol's truly great contribution to revolutionary thought. I believe it even persists in some form in the RCM, even to this day."

You - "It's too bad they died like all the rest of the communards."/"What happened to them, Dobreva and Abadanaiz?" Steban, the Student Communist - "They died on their own terms, like real revolutionaries. There's a lot to say for that."

You - "So... you're saying women are only bourgeois because of ideology?"
Steban, the Student Communist - He sighs. "There's more to it than that. People still make their own choices. It's a matter of being aware what's influencing them."

You - "What does this question say about me?"
Steban, the Student Communist - "Yes, that's the question you should be asking yourself."
Echo Maker - His companion nods, but offers no further solace.

You - "I need to take some time to think about all this..." (Conclude.)
Steban, the Student Communist - The young man nods but says nothing. He appears to be distracted by something...