Hey guys, thought I'd welcome myself back from my rather long posting hiatus with some thoughts on this one...
Really the point I am seeing everyone making is that communism is idealistic and impossible because people simply will not accept a society based solely on equality where some guy who does nothing has as much as some guy who works his whole life. This is a very common criticism of 'why communism doesn't work', but I don't really think it actually applies to the true principles of Marxism. First of all, Marxism is an evolutionary theory, meaning that Marx actually thought that people would eventually become fed up with class struggle and move to the next step in human economic and social progression that is communism. So to say that some American guy would figure, hey look I don't have to work and I still get everything I need, is kind of beside the point.
The Chinese say that China will some day become a true marxist society, they even give an exact time period of 450 years. This is because marxism in truth is more of an evolutionary form, and as I interpret it, even an evolution based on more of what the individual is taught and learns and how his society influences him to feel. If people no longer feel the need for competitiveness because capitalism is not a part of them as it is a part of everyone on here, then communism will generally be accepted.
This whole arguement is still not really applicable, because I feel that the past 150 years has proven the science of Marx to be incorrect. I think Marx probably underestimated the ability for humans to compromise and thus a revolution of the proletariat never occured on a wide- scale. I don't think MArx would have predicted that teh government and the bourgeoise would have actually relinquished some power and given it back to the proletariat as has occured pretty much everywhere on earth.
Back to the idea of people not accepting communism, and as one person even said, people not accepting socialism because of their human nature. I think its pretty obvious that equality is nearly as much a part of each Westerner as sompetitiveness, how else would you explain socialist governments elected in a handful of European countries. Overall people feel a need to protect others of their kind, and so it isn't as if people have actively resisted socialism, they have embraced it in much of the world. Even communism is something that the people are generally willing to accept. The reason communist countries inevitably fail is because of the Communist Party. Even in a place like the Soviet Union, competitiveness and class distinction was alive and well. But instead of owning a factory, the way to advance was through clientelism, rising through the ranks of the Communist Party. The fact that there is a ruling elite will automatically create a new kind of class distinction and the fact that people will naturally join and try to advance in a ruling Communist Party simply brings back competitiveness and destorys the possibility of communism forming in the minds of teh citizens.
In my view, this means there are very limited ways in which a country may actually become communist. First there must be some sort of huge economic or social inequality occuring and the masses of people (Marx's workers OR Mao's peasants, I don't think it matters) must overthrow the government and establish a communist state with a vanguard communist party. The party must then proceed in upholding the cornerstones of Marxism as Lenin and then Stalin did in his first few years. This means abolition of property, centralization of means of production, etc. Then I believe the country must be incredibly stable, even more so maybe than the United States is. Then I think the people would have to make an agreement with the ruling communist party where the party steps down and cooperation and stability are mutually agreed upon. At this point I think the people can actually develop into communists because there is no longer any sort of persuasion or appeal from above. So in a sense, I agree with Marx that communism is a sort of end progression for human society, but I think Marx underestimated how ideal the conditions had to be in order for this evolution to occur.
'There are only two powers in the world...the sword of the oppressor and the spirit of the oppressed. In the long run, the sword is always defeated by the spirit.'
