What is communism?

[dillinger88]

I haven't made any serious research into communism, but from what I can tell from scraps of information I remember; communism is equality for all which sounds like in my head 'You have a dollar; everyone has a dollar'

I'm fairly ignorant in this respect and pretty much playing devil's advocate, but I think it's more "you have a dollar; you must share it with everyone."

There's two ways of looking at it. but to be honest I don't think it can be represented fully by either of those statements.

 

[matt87_50]

its great, but its gotten a bad rap.

 

[Maximum_Power_Cheese_Supreme]

Communism means taking a statement such as:
"In America, you can find a party."

and reversing the subject and objects the statement. "In (Soviet) Russia," or something of the equivalent is added, and the verb is often left unconjugated, and the articles are omitted, mimicking perceived Russian-accents.

"In Soviet Russia, the Party finds you!"

No I honestly don't know. Something to do with the people owning the corporations, or the government owning the corporations, therefore the government owns the people. There is this understanding of the way communism 'should' be, and the way it usually turns out via the eventual corruption of man. Capitalism isn't a great system, but it seems to have a better reputation and more stable for democracy. However, I think I would think the opposite if I lived in Russia or China (without the propaganda too).

 

[coolkirb]

Communism has a couple key points
-It must have been achieved though a violent revolution, if not it is socialism communism MUST have been achieved through violent revolution
-Their will be a temporay dictatorship (which has allways become perminate) in which wealth will be redistributed
-all resources are shared equally, "everyone will give what they can and take only what they need" though I am sure I got that quote wrong

Thats about as simple as I can put it

 

[Soviet Steve]

The usual way people think of and use the concept of ownership tens to include the idea that it is something that is applied to an individual, even in the case of shared ownership people tend to think of that state of ownership being multiple individuals.

This concept of individual ownership is exactly what communism abolishes in that ownership in communism becomes impossible unless it is communal. Therefore in this context abolition of ownership is pretty much synonymous to common ownership.

At least thats what i think

I didn't say "ownership" however, I said "collective ownership" which is ownership by the state.

 

[RicoADF]

Communism in it's pure form can't exist because people are too stupid to accept it. Our nature wouldn't allow such a system to last long because there will always be people who want to have more than others, who want money and power. Even though in the end none of that shit matter. This is what real communism should look like. Not the Russian and Chinese version, but this:

This basically, the Federation is communism that would work. Where people work together for no personal gain, but all would benefit from it. People have the oportunity to do whatever they want without the barrier of wealth. Overall a far better system, one that doesn't work today as people are too selfish to accept equality.

 

[thespyisdead]

being from an ex-soviet state(and living in a near proximity to one ATM(fyi, i was born post collapse)), and having immediate Russian relatives, i have gotten the impression, that communist Russia was not such a bad place(from hat i understand, , if you kept your mouth shut). things were built on time, while today you are lucky if something IS built at all, and things were built to last. generally, the standard of life was higher then too. i've been looking at programs( from Britain) that were looking at what people thing of the current matter of things on russia, and people say that things WERE better during the soviet times (like pensions being a whole lot bigger back then)

 

[SovietPanda]

communism is awesome, thats what it is. in seriousness communism is all about equality and working for the state. in principle it is a sound idea, in practice it is pretty much impossible since humans are evil (and by evil i mean not some programmed robot with no emotions and no dreams)

Sorry to pick on you but i this point has been made by a few times by different people and i just wanted to say my piece on it. "in principle a sound idea but flawed in reality" is just bad logic. A sound idea works reasonably well in reality. A lot of people seem to take this view on communism, I think it must translate into "It's a nice ideal, but it just doesn't work" but it irks me the way alot of people express that.

Slightly more on topic I think the biggest reason communism falls down, and must fall down, is the whole equality issue. If everyone has access to equal wealth, then why would i feel the need to become educated enough to be a doctor rather then working as a cleaner or in a factory. I don't want to sound like im saying one job is more important then the other but the stress and responsibility associated with medicine or similar jobs in my mind deserves higher reward.

I feel i've rambled abit, don't really know if i've really helped this conversation along, but with a screen name like mine i could hardly resist being apart of this topic.

 

[direkiller]

I'm not posting this to find out what communism is but rather to find out how communism is percieved, especially by americans who generally seem to have a pretty skewed idea about it.

I'm doing some research on cultural perspectives for an assignment in a course on organization analysis, and for this I'd like to get a general idea about what people think about communism in general and if at all possible the ideals on which communism was founded.

My basis for the statement that americans seem to have a skewed idea about it is really years of listening to american popculture but can be examplified by the phase "accuse them of being communists" which has a premise that clashes with absolutely everything I know about the subject. I dont wish to elaborate on this because I'd rather not bias any responses.

Also before you ask I'm from Denmark, and to the best of my knowledge there has never been a hugely successful communist party in government here.

I'm not really looking for a debate on the pros and cons of communism (though i am open for that debate as well) which is the reason why I'm not posting this in the religion and politics board.

Edit: To clarify I'd like input from absolutely anyone willing to give it.

well it hasn't been relevant here after the fall of the CCCP(and being accused one haven't been relevant sense the McCarthy hearings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army%E2%80%93McCarthy_hearings)

What most Americans think is Communism is really various forms of socialism( mao zedong,Lennon,Kim II,Ho Chi Minh). I don't know why we changed it except maybe as an f-u to Carl saying Capitalism has the seeds to it's destruction so his idea was already with bad blood with us.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Communism is basically going to end up no other way but a Dictator run shit hole with Socialism mask on. Communism won't ever work as it relies on people not being selfish on a broad scale and not being corrupted by absolute power over a country. Socialism wouldn't work either.

I could go with problems with the Centrally Planned Economies as well but I am not sure that is what you are asking. Just to say on this before I get quoted Centrally Planned Economies are the opposite of Free Market/Capitalism I do not think either can work in their purest form for extended periods of time.

 

[Fusioncode9]

I always thought it meant complete equality. Like a person who studies for 12 years and becomes a doctor, and then makes the same amount of money as a high school dropout who became a janitor.

 

[Zyntoxic]

Swedish here.

I'd say communism works very well in smaller groups like collectives and organisations like that, but I don't believe in it at a larger scale.

not because human greed, while it certainly could be a factor I kind of believe it could be worked around to make it work.
I believe the biggest issue is individuality, human brains work completely diffrent from each other, that's why people have different oppinions, different tastes and different personalities.
and a government would never be able to listen to what each and every one of the citizens wants, not all people wants bread some wants cookies other people likes green some likes blue.
so because of this it still wouldn't be equality, even though everyone is given the same they don't percieve it the same.

another problem that actually was a problem, since everyone was to be given the same, there was no reserves for mistakes and faliures, in russia there was for example the problem that every one is given a bicycle but some families gets broken ones, but there are no money reserves, so these families had to wait until next time the government bought bikes for everyone.

 

[Naeras]

In theory it's a system that would give personal freedom and peace, while sacrificing economical freedom.
In practice it doesn't give any of those things.

(Norwegian btw)

 

[evilartist]

Communism is more or less about the equal distribution of wealth among the people. Those within the lowest income brackets benefit from this distribution, while people with the highest tax brackets are paying out of pocket to make that possible. I feel it's unethical, as it seems unfair to punish someone for working harder for money.

 

[A random person]

Actual definition: more or less this:

Communism evolved of Marx's idea that every body should be equal, so they should be paid equally. It didn't seem fair to him that a owner of fabric earns all the money just because he happens to own it. The people do all the work and recieve nothing.
The basic idea would be that all workers own the fabric equally and recieve a fair payment that way.

Many communist movements support the idea of councils. This means that cities organize themselves with votet councils, of which some members form bigger councils and so on.
This is about as far as the basic understanding goes.

Practical communism:
All communistic countries happend to be dictatorships. I think this is probably because every revolution has it's leaders and once they get power they want to keep it.
This is also the main reason why communism is seen as a bad thing. For many people it is equal to dictatorship.
Also does communism not work with Millions of people.
5 year plans for Economy are way to slow they can't react and nobody can forsee what will happen to the economy in 5 years.

Also does the communist system require intelligent people. Stalin for example kept his people stupid. They were taught to read, so they can read the propaganda, but he had no interest in forming an intelectual elite that could threaten his position.
The communist movements arund 1900 predicted education would form a new kind of man, smart and caring. It simply did not.

The communistic system in it's basic understanding works, but for a maximum of around 50-100 people (this was tested) You see your every day example in your family, that comes very close to the idea of overall sharing and equal rights.


Anyone who uses communism as a swear word hasn't understood a thing about what it actually means and that there wasn't an example of a real communist nation and that there never will be one, because it's not possible.

Far-right nut definition: the cause of everything I don't like.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

Communism in it's pure form can't exist because people are too stupid to accept it. Our nature wouldn't allow such a system to last long because there will always be people who want to have more than others, who want money and power. Even though in the end none of that shit matter. This is what real communism should look like. Not the Russian and Chinese version, but this:

What episode is this from? I'm trying to get into TNG and this looks like an episode that would pique my interests.

 

[Talon_Skywarp]

British

Communism is the idea that people work together not for their own greed or wants, but for the good of their fellow man and nation. Nationalization of all industry and services.

Anyone against it should really look at the state of the world ATM. Because Capitalism is doing really well right now!

It is the future.

 

[Rex Fallout]

Communism is, according to Marx, what will follow Capitalism and is in essence what Utopia will be. In practice it has murdered more people throughout history than just about any other ideal, (Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin and Vladmir Lenin are in the top 10 of the greatest mass murderers in Human history, Mao is 1st) an ideal that refuses to allow innovation of any sort because it destroys any sort of incentive for your hard work, and while we have attempted it numerous times it has failed miserably each and every time we try it, (with exception to China because everyone is feeding it, ie- it doesn't really need to feed itself any longer just allow other nations to use its citizens as practical slave labor) and yet for some odd reason people still want to try it. I just assume these people hate other humans and want them all to die.

I am american but that isn't what the Government has taught me. To be quite honest I don't really remember the government saying much of anything about Communism growing up. We just discussed it in class with a teacher who supported it and whose logic confused me. "Communism is utopia, we just have to kill some people along the way to get there." "But if you murder innocent people in an attempt to have utopia is it truly utopia? Because wouldn't a real utopia not involve killing innocent people? Actually isn't that the definition of Utopia- To live in a society where we are all safe and happy without fear of death?"

 

[dantoddd]

That's completely wrong. One of the definitive characteristics of communism is that it completely abolishes ownership.

"Communism is a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classless and sometimes a stateless society structured upon common ownership of the means of production, free access to articles of consumption, and the end of wage labour and private property in the means of production and real estate"

From Wikipedia, but also practiced by every communist state that has ever existed. No ownership and no state and no laws etc. is anarchism.

You've misinterpreted what is actually said in wiki.Communism, as originally proposed by marx, is precisely a state without ownership, laws or government. This is fairly explicitly described in das capital. What you are talking about is sort of pre-communist socialist state that lenin and others went about forming. Even if you read that wiki definition it talks about a stateless state; can you talk about communal ownership without state, that's like talking about who owns the sky.

 

[dantoddd]

Everyone works for the state, which own and run all industrial concerns.

And/or, anything I don't personally like.

Oh, Australian, BTW.

This is not true, that is state communisim, not true communism. There would be no "state" in true communism.

socialism!