Okay, okay I admit so far communism doesn’t seem to have worked too well, what with Stalin with his work camps and his unrealistic 5 years plans or Mao with controversial philosophy and catastrophically cultural revolution. However firstly I’d like to argue that the models cited above don’t actually correspond to Marxism in its purest sense, at all. Mao’s theory, in fact has little or nothing to do with Marxism. Mao’s conviction is more about the population’s ability as a whole to achieve anything through hard work and determination has nothing to do with the conventions of communism, and though, he did confiscate the power from Sun yat Sen liberal party… his ideology does gravitate away from traditional Marxism. Likewise Stalinism cannot truly be said to be Marxism. I would therefore argue, that rather than blame communism for the downfall of the Soviet Union or 10 years of social turmoil in China, one must look to weakness of the leaders and their inability to withstand dictatorship. Furthermore, communism wasn’t all bad; it ensured free education for all, as well as a free healthcare and in the URSS employment and housing for everyone. In 1953, Stalin’s death was widely met with grief and tears , generally, although some of his political strategies had been a little radical, they had ensured for the great majority of the population a better quality of life. One would still say that, although communism did achieve some of the goals it set out to, ultimately it failed, hence the fall of the soviet union and Mao’s policies (‘the communist party of china’ is nothing more than a pseudonym). But in anyways has capitalism equally failed? Surely what we have witness over the past few months is a testament to capitalism failure. As, I’m sure most of you are aware the economical model for capitalism , it assumes the constant growth of consumption and as a result the exponential growth of production thus the economy works in a cyclic fashion. However what happens when we’ve reached a maximum consumption (as there is only So much one individual can consume)? Well given projections of capitalism, countries continue to produce regardless of the stagnant consumption, therefore there is a surplus in production and the economy is plunged in a recession. This clearly shows that capitalism itself is deeply flawed not only from an ethical point of view but also from a purely economical one.
I’m not making a judgment; I realize that capitalism is probably the way forward and no better economical system works however, I will say this. Communism is a lovely idea, the concept of equality and unity, that each human being is equal and should have the same right to a good life as the next person is one that can only be greeted with a warm welcome. However, man’s basic, animalistic instinct of the survival of the fittest prohibits it from ever becoming a realistic approach to politics or the economy. The truth is Man is to self, dishonest and impure to truly apply communism as Marx intended. Rousseau believed that man was born ‘good’ and is corrupted by society, he was wrong, and thus Marx who use Rousseau’s philosophy as he basis of his reasoning is equally wrong. Because Marxism demands the good will of the population it is directly vulnerable to dictatorship and corruption.
Does Communism work? No. Does capitalism? No, but better than communism.
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"[Capitalism] is the worst form of [economy], except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
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