the nature cominism
The Nature of Communism
I make no pretenses: I dislike communism. It is a noble concept, but it is one that can't work without a radical change in the human psyche, and I'm not sure I'd want to live in a world where people were, effectively, labotimized.
My personal belief is that communism, as it exists in the world today, and capitalism are the same thing. True communism doesn't, and can't, exist.
True communism depends on human nature being basically altruistic. For communism to work, the members of the society either need to be altruistic enough to want to work for the benefit of their neighbors, or they need to be forward thinking enough to see that what benefits the whole benefits themselves. They must be very far-sighted indeed, because large-scale social benefits tend to be more abstract in nature, and more difficult to recognise. In contrast, when you get your paycheck, you can buy your VCR, and there it is on your table. You can directly relate your work to the results.
If human nature is basically egoistic, then true communism doesn't work. If people are basically selfish, then they won't work for the common good, and there will be a tendancy to freeload or otherwise take advantage of the system. For communism to work in that case, you would you need to make sure that everybody was doing their fair share. You would need a system of "points", to make sure everybody is doing their part. People then work to earn points, so that they can justify receiving their share -- or else they don't get their share, or they go to jail, or they're kicked out of the community, or some other fascist reaction.
Capitalism is also a value-point system, with the "points" being capital. Therefore, communism is just a form of capitalism, only worse. It is worse because people can't get ahead -- they can still starve, but they can't get rich. I call this commu-capitalism, and it's poster child is the former Soviet Republic.
It is my belief that people aren't
I make no pretenses: I dislike communism. It is a noble concept, but it is one that can't work without a radical change in the human psyche, and I'm not sure I'd want to live in a world where people were, effectively, labotimized.
My personal belief is that communism, as it exists in the world today, and capitalism are the same thing. True communism doesn't, and can't, exist.
True communism depends on human nature being basically altruistic. For communism to work, the members of the society either need to be altruistic enough to want to work for the benefit of their neighbors, or they need to be forward thinking enough to see that what benefits the whole benefits themselves. They must be very far-sighted indeed, because large-scale social benefits tend to be more abstract in nature, and more difficult to recognise. In contrast, when you get your paycheck, you can buy your VCR, and there it is on your table. You can directly relate your work to the results.
If human nature is basically egoistic, then true communism doesn't work. If people are basically selfish, then they won't work for the common good, and there will be a tendancy to freeload or otherwise take advantage of the system. For communism to work in that case, you would you need to make sure that everybody was doing their fair share. You would need a system of "points", to make sure everybody is doing their part. People then work to earn points, so that they can justify receiving their share -- or else they don't get their share, or they go to jail, or they're kicked out of the community, or some other fascist reaction.
Capitalism is also a value-point system, with the "points" being capital. Therefore, communism is just a form of capitalism, only worse. It is worse because people can't get ahead -- they can still starve, but they can't get rich. I call this commu-capitalism, and it's poster child is the former Soviet Republic.
It is my belief that people aren't