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COMMUNISM! AHHHHH!
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Is Communism a valid form of government? If not, could it be modified to where it would be, or is there anything we could learn from it? How does it compare to capitalism?
Personally I think Communism is a flawed and overly-idealistic system. However, in its defense, I think that from the very beginning it's suffered from bad planning; often it seems that people oppose not Communism, but rather Stalinism (dicatorship, complete lack of freedom, genocide, etc.). The biggest flaw I see in the system is that the government structure in the first communist country allowed the unintentional rise of a dictator, which became the staple of communism for all nations which followed. Perhaps if it had been given a better structure (comparable to the U.S. Constitution, which is pretty much universally seen as a triumph of state-building) the system could've done much better.
Still, I don't think it could legitimately work or ultimately avoid collapse.
Nonetheless, much can be learned. The ideologies of Communism are often quite good, and I think that if properly implemented and combined with capitalism, it could make an excellent form of social democracy.
There were good and prosperous Communistic countries which lead me to believe that a modified Communist type goverment could be a quite powerful and popular form of leadership, its sad that all types of government except democracy are outlawed in democratic countries, its very ironic as well.
I've never heard of Communism being outlawed. Not in my country anyway, it wasn't that long ago that we still had communist political parties in Denmark. They have just broken up or changed names since.
But I agree with Mr. W. It's overly-idealistic.
I wouldn't trust anyone with a leadership with that much power over a country. Maybe I just got a very pessimistic view of humanity. But history seems like a very good indicator.
Most phenomenon descriptions are based on ideal model. But unfortunately, humanity couldn't miss the perfection more...
@Ori - Well, there is nothing so powerful to force people working together than strong leader. But this leader needs outside opposition, if there is none, there is no need for having leader. Every time in history when larger group of people united, they united against someone else. Whole history is described by cycles - example of strong Prussians, they believed they could do more, started a war. Get defeated, get poor. Need for leader, and they found one. Great leader managed to get them from crisis => they become strong. We are strong, we can do more...
I always said dictatorship is the most effective, but still, if the leader has no big problems like poverty or war, people become lazy. Lazy to work, to think... look at today's USA what laziness did there.
Most effective? Perhaps. But at what cost? I've never heard of a dictator that actually cared for his people. Stalin killed millions and Hitler tried to wipe out the jews.
@HH: *Ahem* Josip Broz Tito.
Regarding your question about outlawing dictatorships, in Holland it is such. If you want to set up a communistic government you'd have to look elsewhere.
I also agree with you that it depends on the leader, in the middle ages we had kings and queens that earned their place to rule and were beloved by their underlings. I feel absolutely nothing for no current leader in the world and I'm sure that there are many who feel the same.
The day a leader comes along that makes me want to rise in the morning and think "How can I help my nation today?" is the day chivalry returns.
@Def: I agree, situation shapes leaders but not all men are equal. That's something we are led to believe.
I'm sure there are peacetime leaders that have done great deeds, not sure whom they are because I find that part of history very boring but there have to be a few at least.
@Everyone: Overall I agree, its an ideal but given enough effort it could work. Perhaps even in conjunction with democracy and free market, after all even Rome had both a senate and a dictator in its early years and no, that dictator was benevolent and gave up his power so the senate and the people could rule.
In other words, polar opposites working together. Autocracy and Democracy.
Ever heard about Castro? What about roman dictators?
Honestly I think that dictatorships are one of the worst possible forms of government imaginable. I'd almost prefer anarchy to a dictator. There is absolutely no leader I could ever trust with my well-being who possesses all powers over me, controls the entire nation, etc. Some dictators may bring great progress, yet it's often short lived and costly for the people, and is readily available to be destroyed by the next dictator who replaces them. Republics have many flaws, yet I think they're the best guarntee of freedom we have.
Sorry, but anarchy is not really a form of government xD. Well, with anarchy you won't solve any bigger problem of your civilization. Every man just for himself, nothing to give for the society. And human tends to group anyway, since anarchy is very close to natural law and some people know they will be stronger if they are in group, groups will form anyway... and now you have a circle...
Well using the logic displayed by many creationists, you could say anarchy is a form of government just like atheism is a religion xD
lol walrus,
I do think the are right, dictatorship idealy is technically the most efficient form of government but it has one problem...
humans are a**holes- and cannot be trusted with absolute power, i just dont think most human beings can handle it.
Yes there has been some good dictators but that doesnt outway the number of really bad ones.
on the subject of communism- true communism really only works in small groups, and in small groups it is truely a great system- that being said it unfortunatly it really doesnt work well on large scale because again humans are gready a**holes (there is a pattern here).
government works best when it includes both communist and democratic ideals its the only way to keep the a**holes incheck.
I am not creationist and I certainly don't display their kind of logic. Kill me if I do.
@Deer,
Well if the entirety of humanity are a**holes, which for the most part they are, then we can't really trust anyone with power, not a dictator, legistlature, oligarchy, anyone. The government will be forever flawed. However, I think a republic gets the greatest variety of people in (as long as they're lawyers lol) and thus provides the best representation of what the people want.
@Commander,
Thank (the nonexistant) god for that!
Wait scratch all that...
You guys are right dictatorship is way better, so I have an idea...
Lets overthrow all world governments and crown Deer_hunter as The Allpowerful God Emporer of Mankind.
No more worrying about who money and goods, because they will all belong to me, and because i am all kind loving and merciful in my benevelent wisdom I will give all people and equally small alowance from my horde.
No more worrying about jobs- i will give everyone jobs (carving my face into every mountain on the planet).
Worried about war? with me incharge there will be know war everyone will be equal and forced to be blissful under my reign- with no more nationstates there will be no more international conflicts and what about religious war you say? there will be no need because everyone will worship me (cuz i am god emporer duh, it goes with the title)
Many people complain about the harshness of the prison systems, i would fix this...
by sending all prisoners to spend there sentence in the confort of a Siberia gold mine.
and finally in the area of science and medicine, Many past dictators have limited science and even killed the educated. i would be different- I would encourange the sciences for the benifit of all mankind with things like curing disease, finding better energy sources, stopping climate change and making me live forever...
Lets Start this revolution now!
Promise more, get it into local radio broadcast and I can already see heaps shouting your name.
Well, maybe I can make you minister of work and prisons, when I conquer the world. We have some common ideas regarding inferiors.
Balderdash. I will overpower all of you. Surrender now, and perhaps I'll make you ministers in my grand regime of science & reason. This world of chaos and war shall crumble, only to be replaced by the power of the WALRUS DOMINION! We shall have order, and we shall have greatness. For science and progress, gentlemen!
... O and one more thing i forgot, the complete extermination of the walrus vermin.
we shall nuke the walrus, and then there will be peace.
Nuke the walrus? We live in in the arctic, you'd destroy your entire fresh water supply :l
While Communism works great in theory, it has a lot of problems in real life. When Mao Zedong was hding out in Yenan province with a small guerrilla force fighting the Nationalists, the morale and brotherhood of his band was amazingly high. His small army was fighting for the vision of a nation they and their descendants would thrive in. The problem was that when after the fighting was finished, he and his top advisers had no idea how to run a country. Whenever they would appoint they didn't know and trust to a position of power, there was a huge opportunity for corruption to seep in.
Well, Mao, the Kim Yong dynasty and Stalin are bad examples of communism. To be honest, I dont know if there were any good examples for a communistic state.
In general a real state of communism requires to shut down selfishness and the development of a collective non-abusive consciousness next to your own personality. And thats pretty difficult since we evolved to support our own group and not the collective as a whole. We have to go step by step into the right direction.
So communism doesnt fail because its a nice theory, it fails because of us all. I believe that communism is a good way, but everyone has his own image of it, so I can only tell from mine.
I think communism fails chiefly because its government system isn't designed properly. If a communist state were constructed with a political system as good as, say, the United States' (to contrast "YAY! DICTATOR!"), they might get somewhere.
But without the dictator who would horde all the wealth and order the executions?
These are dark and dangerous ideas walrus
Who the **** needs a dictator? Certainly communism dont, it can also work in a pseudodemocracy like the USA or Germany. O_o