Would you live in a communist state?

Unknown Soldier · 10-17-2011, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lucifer_sam

Like it or not, the Occupy Wall Street movement has done one thing decisively well: exhuming the concept of class struggle from philosophical tedium into modern awareness. And while many of the movement's aims don't fall explicitly within the regime of communism per se, there remains a prevailing sentiment of disparity between capital-owning and capital-producing (bourgeois & proletariat) classes. Without drastically restructuring American economic policy, we cannot meet (most of) these goals, which begs the question...

Would you live in a communist state?

Bear in mind, communism is defined as the abolition of private property, or the abolition of capital-producing property. If you are unsure of the implications of this statement, I suggest reading Marx's The Communist Manifesto, not a Wikipedia article. NOTE: The modern interpretation of communism is very, very different than what Karl Marx envisioned...where even laissez-faire systems implemented in the PRC can come to call themselves "communists."

Karl Marx originally envisaged a rich industrialized country for his doctrine and not a peasant based society like imperialist Russia. He probably had Great Britain or Germany in mind when he wrote his Communist Manifesto in the 19th century. If he were around today he`d probably be looking at the USA as the perfect model for a communist society.....its an interesting concept.

The Monkey · 10-23-2011, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

Karl Marx originally envisaged a rich industrialized country for his doctrine and not a peasant based society like imperialist Russia. He probably had Great Britain or Germany in mind when he wrote his Communist Manifesto in the 19th century. If he were around today he`d probably be looking at the USA as the perfect model for a communist society.....its an interesting concept.

When East Germany was turned communist in the 1940s it was far more industrialized than the UK or Germany was in the 1840s. I guess though you could argue that in the East German case the communism was forced upon the country by an external power rather than rising up within itself.

Anyway, my feelings towards communism is that any single concentration of power, such as that of the communist parties in all communist revolutions to date, will almost inevitably lead to corruption. The only exception to this rule is probably the Paris Commune of 1871, but since it lasted for just a short time, it's hard to analyse its potential for success. But that specific case was closer to the anarchism of Mikhail Bakunin than the communism of Karl Marx, so maybe it's not relevant to compare to the other revolutions.

hip hop bunny hop · 10-23-2011, 09:28 PM

Guh. This is a prime example of why Communism disgusts me so thoroughly.

Whether you're talking Leninists or Anarchists - they are all obsessed with ideological purity. The level of dogma present is just jaw dropping....

Even if we ignore this tendency on the micro-level, it's frequency on the national level is jaw dropping - trotsky & stalin, tito & stalin, sino-soviet split, sino-albanian split, the gang of four, etc....

Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra · 10-24-2011, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hip hop bunny hop

Guh. This is a prime example of why Communism disgusts me so thoroughly.

Whether you're talking Leninists or Anarchists - they are all obsessed with ideological purity. The level of dogma present is just jaw dropping....

Even if we ignore this tendency on the micro-level, it's frequency on the national level is jaw dropping - trotsky & stalin, tito & stalin, sino-soviet split, sino-albanian split, the gang of four, etc....

...That's one of the most completely random out of context youtube clips I've ever seen in my life.

10-23-2011, 09:28 PM	#3 (permalink)
hip hop bunny hop Music Addict Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 1,381	Guh. This is a prime example of why Communism disgusts me so thoroughly. Whether you're talking Leninists or Anarchists - they are all obsessed with ideological purity. The level of dogma present is just jaw dropping.... Even if we ignore this tendency on the micro-level, it's frequency on the national level is jaw dropping - trotsky & stalin, tito & stalin, sino-soviet split, sino-albanian split, the gang of four, etc.... __________________ Have mercy on the poor.