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In theory, communism is a fantastic idea for society. According to Collin’s English Dictionary, communism is “a classless society in which private ownership has been abolished and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community” (Dictionary.com). While communism is most often erroneously associated with the Soviet Union and China, they are in fact a totalitarian deviation of the philosophical ideal. In a true communistic society, no government would be found. In a true communistic society, no government would be found. In practice, communism is doomed to fail due to the flaws of human nature. Two flaws in particular contribute to this collapse more than any other-- greed and pride. Greed is the man who needs what is not necessary for survival. Greed instills in men a thirst for power and wipes all charity from their thoughts. Pride is the man who looks down upon his peers, feeling that he is better than any other, or the man who seeks to rule over them and guide them through his apparent wisdom.
The governments of the former Soviet-Union and Romania, as well as present day North Korea, China and Cuba, are considered to be Marxist-Leninist states (a form of communism). These countries are ruled by a single, all-powerful government body, with a single individual as the head of that government. All people of the state are said to be equal, with no one above the other. Yet the ruler, advisors, and military live in better conditions than the commoners, already contradicting the basic ideals of communism. These governments take their hypocrisy one step farther by using the majority of the earnings of the citizens to support lavish lifestyles of the royal families or rulers, as well as the army of the nation...
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...ny things, both good and bad. For pride and greed to be found, one must think of themselves and only themselves. Of course, ants can not do that. One could argue that we, as a species, need our flaws to survive.
The failure of communism rests solely on our flaws as humans with greed and pride being at the forefront. Our inadequacies can be traced across every attempt at communism or form of communism. Until we evolve to the point of perfection, communism will not be able to exist without corruption and inevitable collapse.
Works Cited
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Rich, G.J. “A biochemical approach to the study of personality.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 23.2 (1928): 158-175. Print.
Since the end of World War II until the mid- eighties , most Americans could agree that communism was the enemy. Communism wanted to destroy our way of life and corrupt the freest country in the world. Communism is an economic system in which a person or group of persons who are in control. The main purpose of communism is to make social and economic status of all individuals of the same . Deletes inequalities in property ownership and wealth distributed equally to everyone . The main problem with this is that a person who is rich can be stripped of most of his fortune to someone else can have more material goods and be his equal .
While it is great that citizens live under similar economic terms and are assured of the same paycheck every week, communism is not an environment that will allow businesses or people to flourish. On the opposite side of a Capitalist society, where businesses are able to skyrocket earnings, a Communist society affects businesses ability to grow. If each worker is given the same amount of money, this can affect their motivation to do things and go above and beyond. Everyone who earns the same amount of money for the same amount of work seems like a peaceful agreement and a proletariat paradise, but it does not always turn out that way. Unfortunately, communism can often lead to widespread corruption and sometimes encourages greed.
the downfall of communism, as it were, took so long was the veto power of
Communism is the study of how everyone is at peace and works together. There is no need for competition or armies because no wars are going on. The gap between the rich and the poor is eliminated and everyone has the same wealth to make everything perfect and fair. All human activity goes towards benefiting each other. Private property and all private businesses are eliminated. Instead of working for yourself to make a living for yourself, you are making a living for the country or society that you live in. In document 3: Friedrich Engels says that “ above all, (the government)... will have to take control of industry and all branches of production out of the hands of… competing individuals, and instead institute a system as whole, that is for the common account, according to a common plant, and with the participation of all members of the society. It will… abolish competition...Private property must therefore be abolished.” This creates an equality in the economic system. There are economic equalities now, because equality in the amount of work will get you an equality in pay. This eliminates the amount of money between the rich and poor closing the gap between the two. All of this equality meets the needs of the proletariats. The Proletariats were the working people in the lowest class. The workers worked and then the bourgeoisie took the money from the products and the proletariats got nothing from their
Why did modern communism fail? Is it because it did not fulfill its promises? Well, what exactly was it promising? In this essay, the reasons will be presented. Then we can decipher why communism did fall.
Ironically, Communism has never existed anywhere. There has never been a system implemented in our entire history by which a society has been utterly classless. Communism would be a type of egalitarian society with no state, no privately owned means of production and no social class (Wikipedia). Today there is a selection of “Communist” states that exist in a variety of locations on our globe. Sadly, all of the claimed Communist states including the late Soviet Union were and are despicable and corrupted examples of the idea of Communism. By using Stalin as an example it is quite possible to portray to the reader a simple and effective example of the flip side of attempted Communism. Stalin took control of a weak government and crafted an illusionary Communist state. Ironically, Stalin had set himself up as the dictator of a completely totalitarian society. By using the people of Russia, he was able to harness the government and use it for his own needs. This is quite similar to 1984 with the concept of Big Brother. Although Big Brother is not a person, the inner society that controls “him” creates a Stalinist nation; this was quite purposefully included by Orwell.
Not only in the U.S., but also worldwide we see this economic philosophy losing its appeal. This can be attributed to technological advancement, which has created an average level of affluence unknown to any previous time. The strength and aid of the non-Communist countries has persuaded developing nations to form capitalist, constitutional governments similar to those in place. Furthermore, in societies where Communism was attempted, there was a large degree of scarcity and inequality, not to mention the coercive nature of the governments attempting Communism. Finally, in all societies where Communism was attempted the preconditions that Marx set forth were not met. For example, Russia was not a largely industrial and capitalist society prior to the attempt at Communism; nor were they a highly intellectual or accomplished society. Rather, the society prior to the attempt was a feudalist government comprised of a Czar, much like a king, and nobility, not a capitalist upper class.
Communism was the ideology followed by the Soviet Union. Originally founded by Karl Marx, it said that everything should be owned by the government and then divided up equally among the people who would then all work for it. For the communist party in Russia, their political system was always in danger. From the start of the Russian Revolution there have been dangers to communism. Before World War II most of the western nations ignored Russia simply because it was a communist state and the western nations actually supported Hitler because they believed that Germany would provided a buffer against Communism. The permanent threat against Russia gave the incentive to expand and spread communist influence as much as possible to keep their way of life intact, it was very much Russia against the world. However not only was the Soviet Union communist, they were totalitarian, meaning all the power was with the rulers. While this was effective for keeping the standard average of living the same for everyone and preventing poverty, it also led to a poor work ethic among the working population...
Viramontes, Helena. "The Moths." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. 1239- 1242.
revolution in which there is a break up and elimination of the state and no
to assume the role of dictator. This was a phenomenon which was to become a
The Soviet Union, which was once a world superpower in the 19th century saw itself in chaos going into the 20th century. These chaoses were marked by the new ideas brought in by the new leaders who had emerged eventually into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union was crumbling at this period both politically and socially, as well as the economy. There were underlying reasons for the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eventually Eastern Europe. The economy is the most significant aspect of every government. The soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1. fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government needs a strong economy to maintain its power and influence, but in this case the economic planning of the Soviet Union was just not working, which had an influence in other communist nations in Eastern Europe as they declined to collapse.
Communism is defined as a political and economical doctrine, the aim which is to abolish private ownership of property and for-profit enterprise and to replace these with public ownership and control of industry, agriculture, and resources (“Communism”). The product of this government is supposed to be a society free of class ranking based on wealth, property, and political power. The Soviet Union was the first country to test these governmental strategies and it did not take long for the regime to collapse. The inevitable collapse of communism led to the fall of the Berlin Wall; this started the domino effect of freedom that ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
There were many events that lead up to the Bolshevik Revolution. First off, in 1848, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels published a thought-provoking book. The Communist Manifesto expressed their support of a world in which there was no difference in class. A world in which the workers and commoners ran the show and there was no high and supreme ruler. Many intellectual Russians began to become aware of this pamphlet as well as the advanced state of the world compared to Russia. Other countries were going through an industrial revolution, while the Czars had made it clear that no industrial surge was about to happen in Russia. The popularity of the Czars further went down hill as Nicolas II’s poor military and political decisions caused mass losses in World War I. Eventually, the citizens could take no more and began a riot in St. Petersburg that led to the first Russian Revolution of 1917.
There is a long-running debate about whether communism or capitalism is preferable and shows more of beneficial aspects. Capitalism is defined as an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations. While communism is a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by the state. The principle of capitalism is if one is successful and hardworking will keep improve and progress in life. While the principle of communism is to keep all the people the same, a lot of people may say that this is a good thing but when talking about real life this would add laziness and demotivation because hardworking people would gain the same credit as lazy people. Capitalism and communism are the two main economic systems that are used by governments nowadays. Obviously capitalism is a much better economic system to be used by a state; practical uses and statistical facts qualify capitalism as much more successful. Also, capitalism is more beneficial to the state, common citizens, and business owners. It would be very useful to test the two systems according to practical uses of the two systems on states and monitor which states succeeded and which states failed.