March 11, 2015 6:20 AM

My generation used "Stairway to Heaven" as a prom theme...and we seemed to have survived intact

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - They’re calling it “prom-munism.” Seniors at an Albuquerque school want their prom to have a Communism theme. Seniors at Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School near I-25 and Paseo del Norte voted online this week for the theme of their prom this year…. “They wanted prom-munism, so that’s what got voted for the most,” said senior Sarah Zachary. She voted for “A Night in the Reef,” because the prom is expected to take place at the Albuquerque Aquarium on April 25…. “We have a lot of jokesters in our grade, so they wanted it to be funny and a lot of them are really intense with politics,” Zachary said. However, students who asked to remain anonymous don’t believe Communism is a joking matter…. “I would hope Cottonwood would realize the seriousness of having a very powerful and destructive idea as the theme for a prom,” one student wrote. Another said, “While the seniors meant no harm in their choice of theme, it is not appropriate.”

I wonder sometimes about the people who get their knickers in a twist over communism. On the one hand, it’s merely a socioeconomic system that didn’t work out so well. The theory behind it is sound enough, but the execution- particularly by the old Soviet Union- was nothing if not inept. As an idea, it’s sort of like Christianity- if it had been employed as originally intended, it might have worked reasonably well. Unfortunately, both were co-opted by power-hungry despots who valued power, social control, and personal wealth (their own) over the ideology they championed. Now both have become synonymous with corruption, ineptitude, and greed.

That communism would become the theme of a high school prom ought to serve as indication of just how little of a threat the ideology poses to anyone or anything today. That some have chosen to take offense over “prom-munism” shows just how humor-deprived some can be. It’s a prom, people. No one’s proposing centralized control of our economy or healthcare system. If anything, perhaps it will help students learn a bit more about the reason communism eventually collapsed. Of course, there’s no way to stop petit-bourgeois teens from failing to see the humor in “prom-munism,” but I’d wager their parents aren’t exactly a barrel of laughs, either.

It’s a prom, a bunch of geeky high school boys hoping to get laid and a group of high school girls who just want to dance and get drunk. The theme seems like it should be a nonstarter. If that’s the biggest problem you have, you might want to think about lightening up a bit, knowhutimean?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 11, 2015 6:20 AM.

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