The Improbable Voyage by Tristan Jones

Author:Tristan Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781574090628
Publisher: IB Dave's Library
Published: 1998-10-25T07:00:00+00:00

This, I knew, was now no longer a mere exploratory voyage; no longer a mere attempt to pass on a little hope to all the handicapped folk who might see or hear us; this was now a demonstration, a long drawn-out procession, if you like, to show the Pretenders to the Danubian throne that river Danube was not a private Russian river, but that it could, and should, be navigated by all voyagers, from wherever, and no matter what their political stripe might be.

Some people might say that it was now to become a provocation. So it might have been, but a rightful one for all that, and an unanswerable one in the bargain. I would show everyone, on both sides of the river Danube, and as far-flung from the banks as we could possibly reach, what everyone can do, if they have the faith to know that what they are doing is right and is on the side of mankind’s self-evident, sacred rights.

Later, I knew that some fogies, old and young, might protest that I might have made things awkward, or even as bad, or worse, for voyagers that followed me, but I would reply that Zola and Dickens, and Dostoyevsky too, had struggled against mighty adversaries for the dignity of the human individual, and while I could not ever claim to be in their company as a writer, by God I would, like them, try to create a little catharsis against all the sullen bullying and repression that I saw down the Danube valley, all the hidden resentment and all the screaming silences in the face of a sinister, brute force. It is only hidden repression, in the long run, that survives and thrives. It cannot stand the continual daylight of exposure. What I would expose would be mere drops in an ocean of wrong, but it was my human duty to expose them and hang them out for all to see and feel and hear and know about. I would not merely warn my fellow sailors; I would say to them “This kind of thing has got to be countered” and I would say it as loudly and clearly as I could.

There must be a limit to government bullying and interference. If anything threatens human freedom of movement or expression within the limits of social responsibility it should be removed or changed as soon as possible. If anything or anyone tries to stop or delay the passage of any vessel on her lawful occasions, then we should counter whatever it might be, by any and all means in our power. Where it has been impossible for me to counter it, then I have exposed it for what it usually is: someone trying to get something that isn’t theirs from someone else by force or by threat.

If anybody thinks that I received any special or different treatment from officialdom in the Eastern Bloc countries of Europe because I earn my living by writing, they could not be more mistaken.

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