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
Dictionay.com. n. p. Web. 20 Sept 2010.
Conover, Adele. “To Fathom a Colony’s Talk and Toil, Studying Insects One by One.” The New York Times. 27 April 2009. n. pag. Web. 21 Sept. 2010.
Rich, G.J. “A biochemical approach to the study of personality.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 23.2 (1928): 158-175. Print.
Communism today has no copyright laws, no private property laws, and the government owns the economy in its entirety. Communism stresses the ending of both religion and the entire morality established upon religion. Communism theoretically tries to improve respect within society, but instead it abolishes all concepts of entire morality (Communism and Amorality). The structure of communism encourages the establishment of classless and stateless society based on the common title of the means of production (Structure of Communism).It tries to offer an alternative to the problems assumed to be inherent with capitalist economies and the heritage of imperialism and nationalism. Communism states that the only way to resolve these difficulties would be for the working class to replace the ruling class in order to create a diplomatic, free society without a government (Structure of Communism). Communism prevents anything to overcome another establishment. It allows everything to be intact and it allows everything to be equal. Communism in its most influential days was ...
revolution in which there is a break up and elimination of the state and no
animals are made equal and work toward the same goal of building their farm. Unfortunately, human nature and competition sink in, as the intelligent pigs become the all-knowing leaders. This is not so much to say that competition is a negative aspect of the economy; on the contrary, it has been very much an overall positive influence. Communism also does not take into account that human nature has a tendency to create competition. People strive to do their best, for when they do they are most often rewarded. Communism does no such thing, and provides for one of the main flaws that attributes to its failure.
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.
Karl Marx never saw his ideals and beliefs, as the founding father of communist thought, implemented in the world and society because he died in 1883.1 The communist ideology did not rise to power until the beginning of the 20th century. Then it would be implemented and put into practice in the largest country in the world producing a concept that would control half of the world’s population in less than 50 years. The Manifesto of the Communist Party, written by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels, searched for a perfect society living in equality and united in freedom. According to Marx this could only be accomplished in an anti-capitalist society.2 When their ideals where implemented in the 20th century, their message became warped and disfigured by the leadership of the worlds’ communist powers. Communism became in some ways more and in others less than Marx had first envisioned so many years before in 1848. Marx’s sought a social “Utopia,” while modern communist thought became a view of world domination.3 Many of the centralized governments of modern communism have fallen apart toward the end of the 20th century, confronted with concepts of self-government and revolution. Therefore, it is vital to document the rise and fall of modern communism throughout the world, and review the modern communist thought as it contrasted with that of Marx and Engels over 150 years ago.
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.
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...
The rise of communism in the Soviet Union and China in the 20th century had both gains and costs in each country. Some of these gains benefited society as a whole in terms of economic improvement and rapid industrialization. However, with these gains came many costs that affected millions of people all around the world, not just in the Soviet Union and China. While the main ideas of communism were about spreading equality and making society an equal place to live, most citizens of these countries found the idea of communism to be unfair, serving no benefits to society, such as the taking and redistributing of land so that all peasants could have their own land to produce goods on. Even though the effects of communism in China and the Soviet
However, when communism is adopted so is collectivism. In history collectivism hasn’t been very beneficial; The Soviets tried to use it in 1928. “The state’s requisition of crops, livestock, and farmland was paid for by the farmers and by the lower class in general, some ten million of whom starved to death in five years. ” China also tried this approach in 1958 but it only lasted for three years. In those few years, almost 33 million people died from starvation (Communism Sucks). Furthermore, Anthem went too far by never using the word “I.” “We have broken laws...We are alone here...We strive to be like all our brother men”(Anthem 17&19). All about “we” communism
Communism places value on the amount of human labor it takes to create a product, this helps to protect workers from the exploitation that ran rampant during the industrial revolution. While I do not think this is as relevant today in many parts of the world as it was in the age of
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 .
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.
Marx and Engels had a specific vision for what they wanted their communist government to be. If communism had remained unchanged in its original form, the corruption of the party may not have occurred, and the rest of the world could have learned valuable lessons from the communists. If communism had continued to be what Marx and Engels intended it to be, then communist governments may have been successful. Unfortunately, what they neglected to take into consideration was the greediness that would overcome society. When people become hungry for power, they can easily take advantage of a communist government and corrupt it, transforming it into a totalitarian government. In theory, communism works out well. But as shown in East Germany’s history, communism’s promise of full equality is unlikely, unless government corruption can be prevented.
The fall of communism can be linked to several reasons. Some of these reasons were internal while other were the results of outside influence. For a form of any type of government to work the people must support it, true a government can use force to make their populace submit to the will of the government as with China in Tiananmem Square. In that case, the government use armed military force to put down student demonstrator demanding for democracy reform. Meanwhile over in Eastern Europe the people are able to force a change of government. When communism first took hold in Russia, Lenin predicted that their system would produce a new socialist man, completely loyal to communism. However, the young folks that had spent their whole life under communist control that hated this form of government and were trying to escape to the west. This maybe credit to fact that folks behind the Iron Wall were able to see the advantages the people of the west had. Other internal problems facing the communist governments of Eastern Europe was the collapse of their economy. The arms race the Soviet Union had been involved in with NATO had bankrupted their economy. This in turn effect the people, when the economy started to collapse, the people started to lose their jobs, were not able to get the basic necessities from the local stores. In most cases when one form of government can not provide the basic needs for their people, than the people will look for a form of government that can provide for them. Than there is one aspect of human nature that Communist Party in the Soviet Union was not able to control and the desire of the people of Eastern Europe to be free of Soviet control. Before World War II, the countries that made up Eastern Europe had been independent countries able to decide their own fate. When the Soviet Union pushed out the forces of Nazi Germany, they install puppet governments that were loyal to the Soviet Union. Inspite of 40 plus years of control, the communist party was never able to kill the dream of the people to govern themselves and chose their own destiny. The other major cause for the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe was NATO.
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.