What is your definition of Communism?

[Nomad]

[...] The only way it would work is if you changed human nature, changed man into a "New Man".[...]

Yeah, and that's covered by marxist theory. According to it, human nature isn't static, but is rather shaped by the society we live in. The mission of the socialist stage of the society is to alter the shape of society, so that the human nature is shaped accordingly as well. The "New man" will come with the perfection of the new system.

 

[Doitpow]

I personally will say that communism is impossible in a human society along with the original definition of anarchy. The original concept of anarchy was that one day humans may live without a supreme power who must dictate what we can and cannot do. We would theoretically maintain all the things that the government would provide (roads, schools, parks, and the like) as if it were our own possession. Now communism originally, to be honest, wasn't a bad idea. There is no way that humans could ever live in a true communist society out of greed because there would be some person who would want what another person has. Although I am not a political scientist, and thus do not hold a degree in political science so I am not an expert upon such thing. Feel free to attack my claims

Don't mind if I do.
Examples of anarchist societies exist all over the globe. The problem with our societies is that people are to afraid of not having someone to tell them why to do that they will accept any meglomaniac in charge, we need to take some damn responsibility for our lives rather than letting others do it. Then we will dictate the terms of our own existance.

 

[li-ion]

A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart; an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head.
-Georges Clemenceau

 

[paasi]

If I understand you correctly you are drawing comparisons between facisim's "for the good of the nation" and communism's "for the good of everyone." I would just like to point out that a nation's people are not the same as the nation itself.

Also the core principal of facisim, which is not very sound anyway, was greatly distorted under the Nazis.

Well, I am sorta drawing parallels because that's basically where nazism branched off from communism in that during Hitler's Third Reich the terms 'nation' and 'the people' seemed to have been interchangable.

edit: Godwin's law or not, I think the comparison between nazism and communism is very valid, and I'm sick of teenaged neo-hippies with a Che shirt and a hammer/sickle pendant telling me how awesome communism was when in fact the Soviet model that they bear the symbol of was a complete and utter travesty that thoroughly trumped nazi Germany on the field of cruelty.

The communism demonstrated in USSR and China are Marxist-Leninistic form of communism. It was going in a semi-decent way until Stalin rose to power in which case it was basically a dictatorship, not communist nation.

Real communism as thought by Karl Marx was supposed to be like a small island community where you farm potatoes and your neighbour fishes and you share everything you get. Neither tries to rule over another and you live happily everafter.
A nice little fantasy land, pity it isn't possible what with the way human mind works in general.

Also hiks89, one of the basis' of communism was atheism, because Marx saw that religion was a cancer that ate away at human mind and used up necessary resources like the way medieval Greenland never lasted; the Norse people (vikings) who had been converted to christianity cut up the last of the trees to make a church, after which there was no way to keep soil fertile and they were forced to abandon Greenland.

So, Communism was not neccesarily a bad thing, just impossible to actuate realistically.
Socialdemocracy is the more realistic way to go.

 

[Nomad]

Or syndicalism.

 

[Fronken]

I know exacly what communism is, it means that things reverse against you:

"In mother russia, car drives you"
"In mother russia, waldo finds you"
etc.

...right?

 

[irishstormtrooper]

christianity is communism

BS. Sorry if this is late, but that is just plain stupid. Since when is a system of religion similar to a system of government?

 

[irishstormtrooper]

I know exacly what communism is, it means that things reverse against you:

"In mother russia, car drives you"
"In mother russia, waldo finds you"
etc.

...right?

Wrong! Those jokes were meant to mock things. Nothing is done to people, just that no one owns anything.

 

[stompy]

And check this out: The nazi and communist parties of Germany and Russia respectively were collaborators during the first years of WWII until Stalin reckoned he'd be better off if he could pretend to stem the tide to the east and emerge from the war as some sort of saviour.

Wait, what? While it is true that Hitler and Stalin signed a non-agression pact, Hitler was the one who later broke it. Have you heard of Operation Barbarossa [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa]? Germany attacked the USSR first.

Silly stick? Oh please... I see by your avatar that you're gonna be hard to convince... This quote comes directly from the mouth of Hitler himself (though I expect it to have been in German orginally, see):

"I want everyone to keep what he has earned subject to the principle that the good of the community takes priority over that of the individual."

Community over individual. Sure, there's still a concept of ownership in a nazist state, but the wellbeing every individual is still secondary to the common good.

First of all, Hitler's quote is most likely propaganda... remember, he had a campaign to win, first of all, and then a war effort to keep up.

Secondly, while fascism and communism are very similar, their differences make them very distinguishable types of governments. Fascism is when the individual exists for the State, and all they produce is to keep the State running. Communism, on the other hand, is the opposite, where the State exists for the individual, and facilitates that the individuals of the State are looked after and generally keep things running smoothly. Like you have noticed, communist governments, even though they'd never admit it, tend to turn fascist, as they get power lust. I mean, looking at the USSR, they were more fascist, since the individual lived to fuel the State, when Marx envisioned the State's sole purpose to facilitate and administer for the individual.

 

[ZZ-Tops89]

Just checking if anyone actually knows what communism is.

retardation. next?

 

[Micah Weil]

Communism is a great theory, unfortunately unfeasible by the fact that human beings are greedy.

 

[theultimateend]

Communism is: BS. Basically the same as nazism (which was in fact based on exactly the same writings and social ideals) with the main exception that the two can't agree on which group of society needs to be eradicated to achieve something akin to socialism.

At the core of it lies a... let's say 'beautiful idea' for lack of a better term. However, I can't see it working on a large scale, what with human nature n' all.

I like your avatar but good lord man if this is honestly the tint of glasses you wear to examine the world you may want to check into another brand.

Thanks, I could use this thread. Seriously, teachers and schools won't tell me what it is and does FOR REAL. They treat me like some 2 year old who won't be able to wrap his head around it and leave me in the dark about an imporatant part on world history. I'll read on.
(And yes, I'm serious. The school officials, even the history teacher, won't tell me any truth about it.) I can't contribute to this, but I won't mind learning about it.

Does not surprise me, public schools in America are certainly in trouble. I've even heard people tell me when the Great Depression was taught, that farmers were the cause, and The New Deal got us out of the the depression. It does not take a lot to get a teaching degree, nor to be a teacher. It does, however, take a lot to be a good teacher, which you will mostly find at private/charter schools.

Of course there are always exceptions, both ways (bad teachers in private/charter and good ones in public) but again, they prove the rule. I usually always have to add the exception bit, it seems arguing exceptions is a favored tactic on the internet...

1 in 3 Americans cannot name the 3 branches of their own government. Yet almost 3 out of 3 feel they understand how other governments function.

The first of those is an actual study the second is my personal experience.

The 3 branches of MY government are legislative(legislature), judicial, and presidential.
I'm not a complete idiot, but at the rate of degradation that alot of schools are going through, I won't and can't say that with confidence.

It's an actual statistic in America . A sad statistic at that.

 

[Aramax]

Communism is simply a form of economical system.

 

[AceDefective]

Commuists oOh No run for teh hills !!!!1111

 

[Consistence]

ahh the internet where anyone can express their opinion regardless of their knowledge,... or lack therefore of.

 

[letsnoobtehpwns]

Communism is the belief that the government should own and control all things.
Short, but not bad for an American 15-year-old.

 

[stratta one]

The governmental status of the future united states? haha... seriously though.

 

[Zersy]

Just checking if anyone actually knows what communism is.

I'm not gonna cheat and only use the knowledge i have accumleated over the years watching tv and playing games

and my idea of communism is ....................



.................



"when the goverment rules everything and everyone has to equal"

"Cough" America "Cough"