Communist Society

Many men have attempted to rectify the problems of this world, many have sought out very horrible means to achieve almost utopic ends. Two perfect examples of this are the sayings with completely different context; the ends justify the means and the road to hell is paved with good intentions both in context can be true yet normally have disastrous consequences if so. In fact, it is just that, the observation of problems and the intense will to attempt to fix them which has caused the deaths of over 100,000,000 people in the past century alone. Looking at this number we must accept that is was an unnecessary cost which has gained nothing but death and changed several countries borders which set off one of the longest silent conflicts that pushed humanity to the edge of destruction. It is the crux of mankind that we should not be perfect in our reason, yet we are so sure of ourselves in our ignorance.

This very simple to understand political belief system sometimes holds the name of its creator, Karl Marx. Marxism is the economic social system based upon the political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It is quite impossible for one paper to document the entire set of ramifications, socioeconomic effects, and how It will function should the system, be enacted on a large scale population.

The title of Communism is sometimes used interchangeably with Marxism, named after its founder Karl Marx (1818-1883). Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) envisioned a radical transformation of society attainable only by open class conflict aimed at the overthrow of monopoly capitalism.

Marxism can be summed up in the Encarta Reference Library. Marxism is a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies. Throughout history, two things have always been common political and economic belief systems, Thesis and Antithesis. In this case Marxism the antithesis of capitalism which is defined by Encarta as an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and motivation by profit. Marxism is the system of socialism of which the dominant feature is public ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange.

There are two major offshoots from Marx, these being Communism and Socialism. To quickly sum up the effect Marx had in total, there is a quick list of those Self-identified communists hold a variety of views, including Marxism, Dengism, Trotskyism, Stalinism, council communism, Luxemburgism, anarcho-communism, Christian communism, Islamic socialism and various currents of left communism. There is also Revolutionary Socialism, Utopian Socialism, Libertarian Socialism, Market Socialism, Eco-Socialism, and to end it we have Christian Socialism. The offshoots of the Leninism (Marxism“Leninism) are the most well-known of these and have been a driving force in international relations during most of the 20th century is that Lenin was the perfect totalitarian to create the most dangerous accomplishment of Communism, he conquered Russia.

It's no question that nearly all examples of Communism or Socialism have destroyed the parent country. This is somewhat because Communism is an incredibly easy system to sell to very poor, this is not because poor people are stupid or not hardworking or that they are resentful of the rich, but because Communist and Socialist rhetoric normally sound so sensible, fair, and workable to the degree that everyone has a part and is not left to the gutter. What is wrong with sharing? Why can't government control private enterprise to ensure affordable prices of basic necessities, etc.? Why can't people be equal and have enough to cover their needs rather than have an imbalanced society that is run by the greedy at the expense of the needy?

It's important to explain here that this is very appealing because it's not meant to create a prosperous system. Food is now rationed for everyone with the same meals where the Poor class of people is (technically) given free food in exchange for 12 hours a day of forced labor so in a sense, they give back to the state that which they receive. The more capable workers are placed in administrative positions, and with no bonuses, no overtime pay, hardly any promotions, which almost seem to be chosen at random, efficiency drops to an all-time low. This is the core problem with Communism: it does not provide the chance or encouragement for the common man to satisfy his own greed for the acquisition of more material possessions. All that communism can really do (which it does quite poorly) is arranged for the common man's very essential needs, and nothing more. Communism almost always removes the same enticement that exists in capitalistic societies for anyone to try harder and get more successful”satisfying their greater propensity for greed as compared to their peers.

To exemplify this one should place themselves into the shoes of a person in a communistic society, that it is rather oppressive. What should happen if instead of the state-sanctioned housing and 2 meals a day, a young couple should wish to leave the city and factories to live in the mountains and only work only 6 hours and have three meals a day? Under such a totalitarian rule where the means of production are in the States hands or under a socialist state, where a looser coalition of people has control of said means of production the worker is not free. Marxist economics has often been taken and criticized for many reasons along the lines of where it had been put into place and failed. Several critics will point to the many Marxist analyses of capitalism while most others argue that the communistic financial structure projected by communism is entirely unworkable. As Labor theory of value, one of the most important supporting pillars of communism is criticized for the reason that the selling price of a product per component or service minus the adaptable per unit cost regulates the influence margin which in the end adds to the exposure of fixed costs; so, the basic selling price of a product or service in labor in the market, is set by the supply and demand, the basic consumer choice (pretty much exactly down to what the customer wants), and advertising,(all free market) rather than labor which the Marxists based the entire premise on relieve oppression and not causing it.

However this system is not put in place to take care of people, it does a piss poor job of that, it is set up to do two things, one privately and one publically. This was to (privately) control the population at all costs and to (publically) get rid of the so-called bourgeoisie, which required giving over nearly all the power to the government. Interestingly another totalitarian government existed alongside the communists, that being Nazism in Fascist or National-Socialist Germany. One of the first people to write and publish a study comparing the rule of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union was Hannah Arendt. In her 1951 work, The Origins of Totalitarianism Arendt traced the origin of totalitarian movements to the nineteenth century, focusing especially on antisemitism and imperialism which held to motive for the German people (publically) the Prosperity of Germany and Imperialism, and privately the totalitarian control of the German people, and that of people deemed worth less than human by the Nazis.

One of the more influential writers, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said on the subject of Communism and how it has oppressive in a similar way. Solzhenitsyn that Russians had been taken and removed as the ruling nation in the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn believed that all the original parts of traditional culture and of all other ethnic groups were equally oppressed in the indulgence of the atheism and Marxist“Leninism. Essentially Solzhenitsyn pointed out that Russian culture was then to a much greater extent bottled-up than any of the other existing cultures in the Soviet Union. He placated that this was the case because the Communist regime was most afraid of the possibility of ethnic rebellions among Russian Christians than among any other ethnicity. Therefore, Solzhenitsyn argued, Russian nationalism and the Orthodox Church should not be regarded as a threat by the West but rather as allies.

Which brings this to the possible final point, where the best counters to Communism are often pushed down by Communists to maintain power. The most effective counters to Communism are not political ideologies, nor is it enough to simply state the problems and shortcomings of any communistic system. One must do exactly like the communist fear, this isn't to start massive uprisings (although a good way to fight tyranny), or to uphold the counter-communist ideologies of the West. It is to Support the Family and individualism, the free market, Religion, and Nationalism. Nationalism and religion are the two most important parts being that they uphold freedom and self-governance. Mostly Communists have a hatred of nationalism since they view it as a tool of the elite to control the population why they turn around and do the same thing they accuse their enemies. They view this self-governance as an opioid of the masses, akin to religion. Why be proud of your nation, if the nation is an inherently oppressive construct of the ruling powers? To them, Freedom (also illegal) is equated nationalism to militarism and fascism.

This is why this is so important since those who maintained a totalitarian state knew best what would threaten their power and would fight against their rule. Nationalism provides self-governance, pride in one's nation and a sense of importance. Where religion gives a man has basic means to live his life virtuously outside of the state-sanctioned laws, and the free market allows a man to work as hard or as less as he likes and he will be rewarded for his hard work. The man who works hard eats more, and the man who works less eats even less.

Cite this page