Communism

[S. Hunter]

So, what is your opinion of communism? (Man I'm bored, thought this would stir something up. P.S. It isn't in the politics section because it has nothing to do with politics "2004")

[achilleus]

Well, I hate baseball, and baseball is the ultimate commie sport, so I voted bad.

[Sarah]

Communism is a good idea but it can't work so it's bad. I say let every man fend for himself.

[frenzl]

100% communism is bad. but our gov't (US) has communistic policies such as social security.

[Sarah]

Yeah.. the US is drowning... Anarchy! hehehe...

[mrbiggs]

In theory or practice?

In theory, it's da baum.

In practice, it sux.

Keepin' it real, yo!

:gangsta emoticon:

[electricepeeist]

Ha in my history class we each have to debate a different form of government...my group chose anarchy. We probably would have won had a kid in my group not replied to the question "if you have no government, how will you get currency?" "we can just steal it from China!" Anarchy seems like it would be fun...

[Sarah]

Gold and silver would be used....

[epeefencer74]

Hey where's the option for dead? It's gone to the grave and someone should tell Castro about it. Even China can't be properly labelled as communist anymore. They are Communist in name but emerging capitalist in policy.

[mrbiggs]

"we can just steal it from China!"

China does have currency, but most of it is controlled by the government, and a recent study in the U.S. showed that all the Chinese currency, when added up, is worth about $12.79. So, maybe not such a good idea.

[Sarah]

GOLD AND SILVER!!!! Jeeze.. it's the most reliable substances for currencies.

[mrbiggs]

Who will give you the gold and silver?

[Sarah]

Well, before we hit anarchy, buy it. Simple, simple, simple.

[prototoast]

I think the greatest misconception about communism is that it is good in theory. It's a terrible idea, even if it could be executed perfectly.

[Sarah]

I just think that government as a whole is a bad idea. *sigh* I'm such a hippy.

[mrbiggs]

I think the greatest misconception about communism is that it is good in theory. It's a terrible idea, even if it could be executed perfectly.

What? How so?

[MHS Fencer]

"Each according to his ability, each according to his needs."

It strikes me as if it makes sense that one contribute as best he can and receive as he needs (not wants, because wants are constantly changing) then he will be able to live a good life.

Then again, there's the argument that life is excess, so that limiting it to one's needs would prevent people from truly living.

I actually think there is a lot to be said for making sure that there is a safety net, but I don't believe in utter equality of ends as people who work harder and contribute more to society should be rewarded to encourage the betterment of society as a whole - as long as inequality makes even the worst off better off, then it is absolutely justified (and there may even be a case beyond that).

Now, you don't see my vote yet in this poll because whether or not Communism is good or bad is relative - would the theory of utopian communism be good for the US today? doubtful - we'd lose our place as the dominant innovator in society. Would it have been good in Russia in 1918? Probably, as Russia wasn't even modernized and is not (and hasn't been) the technological leader in anything that it has created on its own (space race was the benefit of captured german scientists and blueprints).

Now, if there were global communism as the theory calls for, then that would be a bad thing because all innovation would be stifled and humanity would never progress. I guess that puts me on the side of "Communism is bad" but at the same time an unregulated capitalist market wouldn't work without, at the very least, some temporary protection of intellectual property (but that's not unregulated/unadultured capitalism, now is it). Such a situation (unregulated) would stifle the demand for innovation as it would cost the innovator a great deal of money to develop products and others could reverse engineer it for much less and launch the same product at a reduced cost (piracy in China anybody?). Again, this would cause the same sort of intellectual stagnancy as a Communist system.

Of course, the ideal lies in some sort of Golden mean, so when compared to that communism is bad, but compared to the ideological equivalent of unregulated capitalism it's neutral.

As is, I'm not sure how bad it is in comparison to what we have today in most of the world, but I would take our flawed government and system here in the states (and in many western democratized systems) over communism (both on ideological and practical bases).

[LordTofuDog-jnr]

I feel that for the good of all of us we should just accept communists as the world's greatest people - unless of course you want angry russian fencers to show up at all your competitions and lay out 0wn4g3 on everybody.

[telkanuru]

Meh. I find communism to be a brilliant and lovely idea, but utterly impossible to bring to fruition. No, what am I saying? Brotherhood of man? Bull****. The only thing people are actually good at is killing one another. Noble savage my left buttcheek.

[Soldier]

Alright, Brat Pack, you want something substantial to cut your teeth on, search for "Charred_Phoenix" and his thread about communism.