The Message is a birds eye view of the origin of Marxism, how it came to be a political system, what kind of a society it is, its daily life, all woven around my personal experience.
"The remarkable power of his "message" derives not from rhetorical device but from the searing authenticity of his early life experience."
"Without exception, the most potent critiques Soviet Communism have been written by those who have had first-hand experience of it."
"His [Dr, Michael Hansen] engrossing book "The Message" is both a history of his daily life under Communism and a philosophical and moral meditation upon Romanian Communism as a spiritual pathology."
-Professor John Fleming, Professor Emeritus of literature at Princeton University, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Past President of the Medieval Academy of America.
"The way the author was able to capture the stark reality of life under a Communist government, and the ways in which Communism strikes down the idea of individuality in those nations, was both heartbreaking and eye-opening to read about."
-Pacific Book Review by Jack Chambers
I was Born in Romania during WWII and, I lived there, under the Communist rule until 1978; thirteen years before communism collapsed under its own weight. I had no choices and I had to live in the only environment available to me. I had nothing to compare communism with, except my own common sense. I witnessed how my father and my four uncles, all coming from poor families, raised to achieve higher education and professional success within our pre-WWII capitalist system and, how all suffered professional and small business setbacks under the glorious and "fair" communism. As they had to be and do as the communist system wanted, with what communism provided; their dreams withered. When my own dreams, as a young dentist withered, I decided to emigrate to the capitalist realm. Our borders had been heavily guarded against those who wanted to get out. Nobody wanted to get in. It took some creativity to succeed but, I did it! Capitalism seemed so easy to live in, even for a pennyless, unlicensed, not speaking the local language, lonely person like me. When communism collapsed, I used the opportunity to understand what I always wanted: why did communism happen? What was it that wrong? Why was communism such a dismal failure? I bought books on this topic and, I was disappointed with all of them. Communism is not a political issue; it is the collapse of human qualities. How and why it happened in Romania, read in my book, THE MESSAGE. After living for several months in a refugee camp in Austria, I found an American Sponsor in the USA and, this allowed me to emigrate and establish myself in the Los Angeles area. I achieved my California Dental License and, I established from scratch my own full service dental clinic in South Orange County, California, which I owned and operated for thirty-nine years. Meanwhile, I enjoyed photography, creative writing, landscaping, classic movies, reading history, philosophy and investigating what I could never do in Communism: spirituality. I have one daughter and two granddaughters who bring me a great feeling of joy seeing them free to live their dreams. Thank you, USA!
