Communism is simply a terrible ideology, but it is often misunderstood, especially on an Internet where all sorts of falsehoods run wild. I will attempt to explain what Communism is as well as its history as best as I can. I suppose I have an agenda behind this, because my family lived in Beijing at the height of Mao's power.
Let's look into the idea of Marxism first. Marx was not part of the proletariat, or working class. He was a member of the middle class who looked at the plight of the working class and saw the terrible working circumstances that they lived in. So you could say that communism began with a genuine interest in helping these people. Marx decided in a couple of rules that became the main ideas of Communism.
1. History is a series of class conflict. Marx found inspiration in the ideas of Hegel, who said that new ideas will clash with the status quo until a synthesis of the ideas results. To put this in an analogy, the Romans used to worship a variety of Pagan Gods. When Christianity came along, there was a brief struggle of ideas that resulted in a new Christianity becoming the main belief, a Christianity with additional motivations of materialism and with new beliefs and rituals, such as the date of December 25 for Christmas. In the same way, Marx applied the idea of idea conflict and substituted classes. He argued that history chronicled the exploitation and the alienation of the working classes by the "upper class." 2. The ultimate triumph of the working class. Marx believed, however, that eventually, the working class would wake from its oppression, band together, and overthrow the bourgeoisie (middle and upper classes), using their past experience of being exploited to avoid exploiting others. This communist utopia would result in the collective ownership of everything by everyone. Unfortunately, this point has numerous shortcomings. For one, Marx expected developed nations like Britain and France to adopt Communism first, rather than the poorly-developed Russians. The exact opposite happened. Moreover, the working class still has not found unity. Even to this day, we categorize the working class by their occupation: plumber, mechanic, laborer, etc., and even the working class still uses this categorizing scheme. When people say that "If humans were perfect, Communism would succeed," they mean that if the proletariat leading the revolution were perfect, then communism would happen. However, if the people were really perfect, would they really be prompted to rise against the bourgeoisie instead of working industriously? Instead, throughout history, we have seen that the few who set themselves to lead their fellow proletariat were corrupted by the power they received, using it to gain and consolidate more and more power. 3. Ideology. Marx mentioned ideology several times without actually defining it. According to his confidant Engels, ideology is the rules that the dominant-class-ruled society sets to confuse the subjugated class. In other words, in the case of capitalism, it was argued that the upper class used capitalism to confuse the working class into having private property. The upper class would have the agenda of keeping the working class working for them. Ideology is extremely important to any Communist country. To the Communists, the idea of fostering a perfect ideology was extremely important to them, and that is exactly why there is so much propaganda and censorship in Communist countries. 4. Labor Theory of Value and the evil of capitalism. Marx looked at how hard the working class worked and sympathized with him. What this theory means is that the only thing that should determine the cost of a commodity is the amount of time and effort it takes to make it. Marx did acknowledge, however, that different objects had a use value (the direct use of it) and an exchange value (the market price). For example, the use value of firewood is that you can burn it and it keeps you warm, while the exchange value goes back to the basics of the Labor Theory of Value. Marx argued that capitalism was stiffing the working class; that capitalism wasn't giving workers their fair share of the money. He called the gap between what they should earn and what they actually earned the "surplus value." He also argued that capitalism destroyed social relationships over more objective relationships; in other words, people were becoming overconcerned about the market price of a good instead of how much work it actually took to make it. He called his "Commodity Fetishism." There are some glaring problems with this. Economists both in his time and in more recent times have shown that there are many other factors to the price of a good, including the prices of its raw materials, the skill required to make the good, and all other costs (the electricity to run a factory, for instance). Marx's absolute claim that the only source of profit is the exploitation of workers has seen much criticism as well.
I am a Communist,you know,riots in Greece,strikes,katalipsi(thats what we call locking up the scool,preventing access to teachers,parents,sometimes even police).I've been to those.The thing about communism is that it cannot be fully applied.You cant be equal whith the one running the country,like it or not he has more power.People say"Commies are bad" and stuff like that because,it's not perfect.I agrew Stalin was a disaster.But Stalin is just a historical figure.He's not the essence of communism(many people mistake him for being that).Yes,in my country communists made traitors eat hay and then they hang them but only traitors.But later in the dictatorship everyone considered a communist was tortured then killed(at a steet in the center of Athens,there is a tree,that they hang communists and tortured.Nearby people couldn't sleep because of the screaming).Politician in my country(without the dirty money)make 8.000 to 9.000 euros a month.That's gotta be around 11.000 bucks)when a construction worker makes around 400-700 euros a month and they work all day).Capitalism had it's time.See what happens:houses taken,starvation,poverty.I believe the west world should try Communism
Under communism, people had their houses taken, people still had poverty, people still starved. Both of you are correct that the cases of Mao and Stalin do not necessarily prove that Communism is intrinsically wrong. Unfortunately, that's quite beside the real world. The fact that so many communist governments bungled up the implementation of communism, that people such as Mao and Stalin turned power hungry and conducted purges, that they started with good intention but lost sight of their altruism, and that discrimination and death was still so widespread in Communist countries shows Communism does not work in the real world.
Communism sounds very good, with everyone equal, but to implement it in an unequal world, it is inevitable that someone suffers. In capitalism it has been the poor, the proletariat. In communism, it has been the Chinese "landlords," the Russian "kulaks," the bourgeosie. Take your pick. Communism is not communism without blood in revolution, and that is why I thoroughly detest it. My family lived through the ravages of Mao's Cultural Revolution; had my great-grandfather not been the village party leader, my grandfather a respected man, and my granduncle been a general in the People's Liberation Army, they might have been wiped out as landlords.
The reason why they still starved is because the leader was really for totalitarianism instead of communism, or the leader was more of a military commander than a communist.
And sp why is communism so bad? you're helping the poor and taking from the rich. And in capitalism you're taking from the poor and giving more to the rich and forcing the poor to sell their own labor.
Remember that communism requires revolution, which requires a military force or presence. If there is a military commander taking reign over this, the chances are high that a totalitarian government will take hold.
And sp why is communism so bad? you're helping the poor and taking from the rich. And in capitalism you're taking from the poor and giving more to the rich and forcing the poor to sell their own labor.
I'm all for equality. Don't get me wrong. I disagree with communism because it cannot be implemented correctly. Tell me how you will help the poor and take from the rich. Tell me how you will convince the poor you're helping them, then take from the rich without them trying to rebel against you, then try not to act like a dictator when they react with violence. Tell me. Communism has too many things that are easier said than done.
If you have nothing constructive to say, keep it to yourself please. We're not here to mindlessly bash on communism or to use epithets for homosexuality.
i think communism is a good, bringing people together to make 1 big... country, if you like, the idea is great, no war, peace, although im not a communist myself, i believe in what it stands for
Seeing the politics as left-right is a very bad way. Politics should be seen as a square: Individual freedom ! I ! ! ! !x___________O Economical freedom
Basically at the X corner, there is fascism and dictature where there is no liberty, at bottom right is communism(O) where you have no economical liberties but total individual freedom, and at top righ(I) is libertarian, where you can do whatever you want, and state doesn't regulate the economy.
If we are talking shapes, I like to think of the political spectrum as a circle not a line with a right a left and a middle. This is because communist and fascist dictators always end up very similar in nature, so instead of being opposites they are right next to each other on the circle.
No, Stalinists and Fascists are right next to each other, and Stalinism is pretty much just totalitarianism masked by a bad form of Leninism. There's different braches of Communism like Socialism, Marxism, Trotskyism, Leninism, Maoism, Stalinism, Democratic Centralism, the list goes on.... It is like the different forms of Christianity.
AND HAS ANYONE WHO HAS EVER POSTED HERE OR ANYWHERE ELSE ACTUALLY READ THE MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY?
I don't think it helps Communist states that theya re hated in many countries. If Britain went Communist the "special" relationship with America would be gone and we would be dropped like a stone. The manifesto shows how good Communism is on paper. However, as it turns out, it seems hard to implement. Going along with popualr opinion here it doesn't help when people like Stalin are in charge, however from the studies I have done on the Russian Revolution as well as Stalins leadership of the Soviet Union. He did quite well. THe five year plans had many succeses. And his rise to power was almost as good as hitlers (in the way he did it not that he got into power).
