OK, Who Subscribes to Communism On This Forum

Guest 77

Seeing that this forum is getting into evolution and individual theories, I would like to lengthen the envelope and ask who on this forum is willing to admit that he/she subscribes to communistic ideologies, and why?

Guest 77

Amazing

Communism is not about religion or evolution, but is a political-economic theory that is proven to fail ... given the 75 tear experiment with it by the defunct Soviet Union and many of its allies ... in spite of some claims, communism has nothing to do with anything else ... I personally always hated communism and always will ... yet, if I accept the fact of evolution, that does not make me anything but someone who believes that God initiated the process.

larc

Guest, communism only works in very small groups of idealistic/moral people. In the early 1800's there was such a group in Zoar, Ohio. They were happy, prosperous people for many years. They eventually disolved because their children wanted to be a part of the outside world. On a large scale, communism never works, and socialism barely works with large inefficiencies built into the system.

SixofNine

I believe communism could work, so long as the collective members are all idealist/moral people...you know, like me. My plan would be to systematically kill off everyone who does not measure up to certain fair idealistic and moral test. Then let the livin' begin, baby! Yeah!

Edited by - SixofNine on 15 October 2002 22:30:52

freeman

Communism is by far one of the greatest forms of governments on the face of the earth, NOT!!

Communism has been a dismal failure everywhere it has been implemented. Rather then freeing the majority of its subjects, it has enslaved them. People dont defect from the USA or other free lands to live in the USSR, Communist China, or Cuba, however the reverse has certainly been the case in the not too distant past, has it not?

Evolution on the other hand, which has no connection to communism, is a great success.

So powerful and successful is adaptation via natural selection and mutation that we must use antibiotics and poisons with care so as not to encourage the development of new species of drug resistant germs and poison resistant rodents.

Freeman

LucidSky

I love communism! In theory it should provide equal levels of fairness to all its citizens. So IF human nature was highly altruistic, communism would be ideal. But human nature doesn't work that way. Greed motivates (i.e. capitalism usually outperforms due to higher rewards) and people value ownership (i.e. private property is seen as more valuable than public property).

I agree with larc. But for those who are devoted to a cause greater than the individual -- early Christians were known to have a communist-style society -- communism can work.

Also please note that dumb-ass governments we've seen in China, Russia and elsewhere are basically totolitarian with some communist principles mixed in.

metatron

My subscription to Communism ran out and they told me I would have to
pick them up at the meetings.

metatron

NeonMadman

In theory it should provide equal levels of fairness to all its citizens.

Provided your idea of fairness is that everybody gets the same amount of output, regardless of what they input to society. The hard worker gets the same amount as the couch potato. Granted that if everybody in the world was totally altruistic, it might work, the fact is that such a world is a fantasy, not the one we live in. Any economist will tell you that people act out of enlightened self-interest. and under a communistic system, there is no incentive to be productive, since the outcome will be the same for everyone anyway. As a result, the overall productivity of society as a whole is greatly diminished, and people end up living in a fair, equal amount of abject poverty.

early Christians were known to have a communist-style society --

Not really. There is a text in Acts that says the believers "held all things in common' (or something very close to that, without actually looking it up), but that was a temporary situation while they were all gathered in Jerusalem immediately after the formation of the church; it was not the general arrangement for the church at all times. Right after the church was formed, there was a lot of work of organizing to be done, the Christians had to stay together for a short while at Jerusalem to sort things out. Additionally, persecution arose almost immediately. It was under these conditions that they held all things in common for a short time prior to spreading out all over the known world to proclaim the Gospel. It was no more an example of a successful communistic system than would be a group of people trapped in a cave sharing their resources, hoping that they all could survive until help got there.

Liberty

Hi Guest 77,

I am not sure if you intended to imply a link between evolution and communism but I thought I would respond anyway. Certainly many communists are atheists and they also may believe in evolution. I think there are exceptions but by and large, since Marx was an atheist and a proponent of science in his day, most communists are atheists and do accept evolution. Keep in mind however, that Darwin was not a communist and did not come up with evolution as the communist's answer to Creation. Communism is an economic system while Darwin's evolution concept is primarily related to the biological/natural sciences. I don't think Darwin intended any political or economic application from his work. Marx, on the other hand, wanted his economic philosophy to appear "scientific" so he eagerly attatched himself to any relevant scientific ideas which strengthened his arguments since science was becoming all the rage among the intellectuals of his time. Note also that Social "Darwinism" was invented by right wing totalitarians to exploit Darwin's ideas as well.

I am an atheist, a proponant of evolution, and of the scientific method in general but I am NOT a communist. In fact, I am at the extreme opposite end of the political spectrum as a libertarian who believes that free market capitalism, individualism, scientific method, and liberty have provided humans with the highest and most equatable quality of life the world has ever known. The Age of Reason (which began to push aside religious superstition and its diminishment of the individual) promoted the use of observations from the natural world to formulate explainations and methods by which humans could better their state and more effeciently utilize natural resources enhancing the individual over the communal economic model and freeing us from the totalitarian political models of traditional religions.

Communalism is an ancient economic model and communism is just a modern reincarnation of this concept. Communalism in its many forms has kept the human race in dark ignorance and poverty for the majority of history and its modern application continues the trend as can be seen in non-Western cultures today. Totalitarianism is the dominant political system which goes hand in hand with the communal economic model and is taught by example through religions with God/King dictators who claim the rights to all power and demand of their subjects self sacrifice and humility all for the "greater good" as those in power chose to define it. Because of religion's long hold on history there was/is a complicated series of religious reformations and growing freedoms in the West leading to strange aliances between religions and political philosophies and mixed definitions of right wing and left wing beyond the scope of this simplified explaination.

Joyzabel

I used to live in a communist state---BETHEL.

OK, Who Subscribes to Communism On This Forum

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