Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Communism

Well, I guess it is about time for me to write a new blog, so I figure why not write about something that is bound to really piss people off. I am going to write about communism. I am not going to go into any great detail about communism and how it works (if you don't already know, look it up). I am, however, going to talk about how pissed off I get when people call President Obama a socialist and/or a communist. I am also going to talk about the overall ignorance of the subject of communism as well as why I think, if done properly, a communist society would do very well and prosper.

Let me start with a brief definition of communism:
Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general.

That is about as in depth I am going to go about the definition of communism in this post. When communism was originally thought up, it was not meant to be a bad thing. It was thought up as a way to make peoples lives better. Today's view on it however, is the exact opposite, especially in this country. People now only see communism as a bad thing because of countries such as the USSR and the Peoples Republic of China amongst others. The truth is, these countries have not and are not true communist societies. In order for them to be truly communist, the leaders of these nations would have to set aside their greed. It is that greed that completely topples the foundation of what communism is supposed to be. Communism was started on the principal that everyone works together for the betterment of the overall population of the country, but these so-called communist leaders only work toward the betterment of themselves and not the country as a whole. If the Soviet Union, for example, had obeyed this one principal of communism, they would be the worlds greatest super power today instead of the U.S. Communism is not a bad idea or a bad plan, greed is what is bad and that greed is what transforms the good intent of true communism and mutates it into something really terrible. If truly selfless leaders were put in charge of a communist society, that nation would prosper beyond belief and its people would be happy. I understand that having entirely selfless leaders, especially ones in a position where they can easily succumb to greed, is a daunting task and one that might very well be impossible, but imagine the possibilities if someone was able to pull it off.

Now, I am going to move to how communism is perceived. I have noticed that almost everyone I have had this discussion with has completely disagreed with me and thought I was insane, but I have also noticed that the vast majority of those people don't have a clue what they are talking about. People, especially ones from the baby boomer generation, are not open to communism at all and refuse to admit that if done the way it was originally meant to be, it could work remarkably well. The main argument I hear is, "The Russians tried it and look what happened to them". Yes, the USSR fell, but they fell because of the greed of their leaders. If the leaders had acted for the good of the people like Karl Marx envisioned, they would not have fallen. I just wish more people would take the time to actually research it (like they should with anything) and actually learn about it before they bash it.

Then, there are the people that seem to think President Obama (who I voted for) is either a socialist or a communist and that he is leading us to become a communist society. This is the worst thing I have ever heard. It amazes me that people can actually think this, especially when so many socialists and communists party members have repeatedly disputed these allegations. Wake up people. Obama is the best thing to happen to this country in years and so far I think he is doing a good job, but that is not what this post is about. I will save that for another time. It is obvious that we are not heading in the direction of a communist government, but as stated before, if we found the righter leader, would it really be all that bad?