What is communism?

[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!

 

[Pandaman1911]

I perceive it as a socio-political ideology. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't see it as an evil force that's going to corrupt our children, nor do I see it as a good idea. It's just another way of doing things.

 

[Ham_authority95]

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.

It's something that should be talked about in the Religion and Politics section. PM a mod to get this thread moved.

 

[gg4u2]

Australian here:

A system where the concepts of ownership or money dont exist and everybody is equal. The issue with it lies in the contemptible nature of humanity and the lack of checks and balances i still prefer it to today corporatism though.
The native Aboriginals here actually had something quite close to a working communist society ( though they didnt call it as such) before europe came, they had no land or money and worked equally as far as their decentralized nature allowed .

 

[ultimateownage]

It's a system that's one step from fascism, with the only real difference being that the communist oppression makes everyone the same while fascist oppression emphasises the different levels of society.
It's also a little like Anarchy in that I can only imagine both of them ending in Fascism or an equivalent system.

That said, Communism has it's merits but it's just unlikely that it will ever be pulled off well. Forcing communism is never going to end in something good. Americans and other western countries really do exaggerate how bad it is though, but I'm sure that will wear off sooner or later once they realise the Cold War ended two fucking decades ago.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

My understanding about the USA's hatred of communism is due to the fact that the USA follows capitalism. Generally a system where everybody shares everything equally won't be popular with a system that supports a very small number of people getting money and power through the subjugation and control of the masses.

Of course, I could be wrong on both counts.

I've always been a great supporter of the enlightened despotism style of government where one person has complete and absolute control, but everything they do and all their decisions are to the benefit of their people, not themselves or corporations. (or that's how I understand it).

 

[imnot]

REQUIRED

Basically everyone is equal, which is all very nice until everything stops working.

 

[Naeo]

American here. My understanding of what communism is is that the government controls/owns/manages everything in the economy. I.E., the government is the economy. But ti goes further than that, down to deciding individual pay without variation, and so on. In order for communism to work, it requires that all or the vast majority of people in the system want to make the whole system work, which does not happen in reality.

My personal perspective on communism is that it's great in theory, it can probably work in smaller groups/communes (rather than cities and states/provinces and countries), but again, only if everyone in the system wants it to work and makes it work. I don't particularly oppose communism on an ideological basis, but rather a pragmatic one: historically, pure communism has not really worked in a general sense of the term "worked". I don't hate communism, I just don't think it works in the real world.