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Why aren't you a communist?
- Thread starter Woberts
- Start date
lukethethird
unknown member
Why aren't you a militant atheist?Alright, it's time for another fringe ideology: communism!
It has had its ups and its downs over the years. (That's a mild way of putting it.)
So, why aren't you a communist?
Aup and I have similar 'religious' views. Do you find atheism in Hinduism confusing?
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
They are the two largest examples that can be used. Another weird thing about communism is that whenever it is enacted, the folks involved never seem to get it right. My guess is that this points to a design flaw wherein the structure also tends to give rise to strong-man personality cults.
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Great governmental control is inherent in a totally communist system.
It's necessary to prevent free economic association. This makes it
highly vulnerable to totalitarianism.
Contrast that with capitalism...less control is needed because anyone who
wants an alternative system is free to embrace it...just not coerce anyone
else to adopt it. Communes? Sure...go ahead. But the survival rate is low.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Blame it to Buddha and Bertrand Russel, also to writers of Hindu scriptures who were not afraid to discuss all things thoroughly. Buddha said check and check thoroughly what the scriptures and teachers say before you accept the view. There have been people in Hinduism who have rejected the possibility of existence of God since the times of RigVeda. Then science, which says that at the time of Big Bang, nothing else existed except a ball of energy. I follow the Hindu philosophy of 'advaita' (non-duality, a valid Hindu stance wherein all things in the universe are appearances but constituted by just one non-God entity). That does not leave any space for Gods and Goddesses, though I consider myself an orthodox and staunch Hindu and belong to a brahmin family . I hope you get an idea of my views through this.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Yeah, I agree. That was a good arrangement.
Alright, it's time for another fringe ideology: communism!
It has had its ups and its downs over the years. (That's a mild way of putting it.
So, why aren't you a communist?
I'd like some combination of working harder and working smarter to be rewarded.
I'd like outside the box thinking and options to be encouraged.
Communism has rarely (ever?) intersected with a free and transparent society.
I'm fine with some socialist principles, but the next step seems truly out of balance.
You need to spend more time at libertarian parties.
Man, did THAT sound like an oxymoron.
Can you consider Mondas a communist state? Or more a hive mind?
I mean, I guess elections run about the same either way.
Because I don't think it's realistic and because Marxism has proven to be a failure. I think it propagates false ideas about human nature, such as blank slate theory. It reduces all of human history down to class and economics, which I think is a false view of things. Communism, socialism and anarchism can only work in small groups that voluntarily agree to such principles. Otherwise force will inherently be involved and it will just be a dictatorship, which isn't what communism aspires to.
Aside from all that, I'm a nationalist, leaning towards tribalism. I agree with Fascism more than communism, but I wouldn't say I'm a Fascist, either. I don't believe people are equal (due to character and so on) and some hierarchy in society is probably natural. I don't believe private property is a bad thing, either. If this was 20,000 BC or whatever and I build a shack in the forest, I think I should have the right to tell others to **** off. I'm not opposed to money, either. But I do have sympathy for leftist economic systems because laissez faire capitalism is such a horror. For example, my little shack in the forest is one thing; but when you have super rich people owning multiple mansions and private islands and hoarding billions of dollars while their fellow citizens are homeless or can't afford the necessities of life, I say that is a crime and they should be punished and justice needs to be enacted. So I say that I'm Third Position (while rejecting the racism that is often associated with the label).
Aside from all that, I'm a nationalist, leaning towards tribalism. I agree with Fascism more than communism, but I wouldn't say I'm a Fascist, either. I don't believe people are equal (due to character and so on) and some hierarchy in society is probably natural. I don't believe private property is a bad thing, either. If this was 20,000 BC or whatever and I build a shack in the forest, I think I should have the right to tell others to **** off. I'm not opposed to money, either. But I do have sympathy for leftist economic systems because laissez faire capitalism is such a horror. For example, my little shack in the forest is one thing; but when you have super rich people owning multiple mansions and private islands and hoarding billions of dollars while their fellow citizens are homeless or can't afford the necessities of life, I say that is a crime and they should be punished and justice needs to be enacted. So I say that I'm Third Position (while rejecting the racism that is often associated with the label).
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Good point, but I suspect the initial revolutionary chaos was used by opportunistic, authoritarian strong men to seize power, then, rather than promoting a country of individual, worker managed co-ops with little central control, abandoned the communal ideal in an arrogant and repressive attempt to consolidate and extend their own power.
Our local party held meetings at a bar.
How am I supposed to go about spreading mildly derogatory stereotypes if you wander in here with your facts?
I think it's fair to say that there is commonly a degree of paternalism involved. After all, there is invariably so much to do to force current reality to meeting the ideological vision that even just determining the movement between private property and placement on state property on anything more than a small scale leads to a level of elitism by definition.
For what it's worth, I find the Russian revolution much more interesting in terms of ideology and the personalities and beliefs within the Politburo than some other revolutionary groups, which seemed more driven by pragmatism.
Will it help if I inform you that our meetings were sober, boring, & feckless?
Holding a dry meeting at a pub sits comfortably with my ignorant assumptions.
I don't like to make assumptions about whether people are feckless. I think I remember feckless men were often used to guard harems back in the day, so clearly they have their uses.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
I think it far more likely that people wanted leaders and those leaders were more than happy to oblige them and that Communism was simply wrong about basic facets of human nature.
The world said much the same thing about enlightenment influenced humanists trying to establish a democracy "of the people" in America 250 years ago. People were not deemed naturally capable of managing their own affairs.
but, come to think of it, perhaps they were right.
well, at the time, the rights being advanced and protected under the Constitution were those of white property-owning males...about 15 percent of the population.