Communism: the social system that should work perfectly and lead to a perfect Utopian society. Yet communism has only ever lead to complete failure every time it has been attempted. Why is this? Why has this system, which looks so perfect on paper, failed so miserably every time it has been implemented?
In order to answer this question, we must first look at the history of Communism, where it has been implemented, and why it has failed.
Karl Marx. This is the name that almost everyone knows as the creator of communism. However, the fundamental ideal of communism, that being the elimination of private property, isn't a new idea, fresh from the brain of Karl Marx. In fact, it is much earlier in the 17th century where we first see the idea of shared land and property that is fundamental to the policies of socialism and communism. This very first inkling of socialism and communism occurs in England, partly thanks to the politics of the Commonwealth and the influence they had on many dreamers, such as Gerrard Winstanley; however, their dreams of shared land never came to fruition. This idea of rejection of personal property has even been a foundation belief of many world religions. Then, in the early 19th century, the first stepping stone in the path to communism, socialism, begins to find a practical form.
In 1800, Robert Owen is given charge of a cotton mill at New Lanark. This cotton mill is a rather modern factory and is already run very well by the standards of the time. However, according to HistoryWorld, this is not good enough for Mr. Owen, “seeing ignorance, crime and drunkenness in the community, he blames it not on the workers but on their environment. And he considers the environment at New Lanark, or in any other factory, to be the direct result of the mill owners' overriding concern to make money.” It is then here that we see socialism forming as a direct opponent to capitalism. Robert Owen soon goes about making a great number of changes in the community around the cotton mill where some 2000 people live and work. According to HistoryWorld, “visitors admire the high standards in housing and the conditions in the factory. They note that goods are sold in the village shop at almost cost price. They see the care shown for the health of the families and the education of their children”. It is here that we see this early form of socialism seeming to work marvelously; however, this nearly Utopian city, along with four others founded between 1825 and 1839 fail due to a combination of bankruptcy and and quarreling among the citizens.
Here we see our first example of something like communism failing. But why did it fail? Was it due to the system itself? No. The system worked wonderfully for a few years. It only began to fail when the citizens of the community became greedy. They are the reason for this instance of communism failing.
Then, in 1844, Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, create what we know today as communism. Together they manage to create the Communist Manifesto and print the first copy in Paris, 1848.
The communist ideals created by Marx and Engels spread far and wide, even while being met with heavy oppression by the ruling class of almost every country. But honestly, that had to be expected. The tenets of communism expressly state that a new social order, first of socialism, then followed by the ideal, communism, will be brought about by a series of violent and bloody revolutions.
Eventually two new names emerge, and, like Karl Marx, are to be remembered for all of history. These men are Lenin and Trotsky. With the help of even more revolutions throughout Russia, Lenin and Trotsky are able to establish their party, the Bolshevik party, as the the only national government party. It is not soon after this that the USSR is created and soon accepted by much of the world. At first there are some large problems, as Lenin attempts to seize all of the agricultural produce of the people to be redistributed. This causes major turmoil among the peasants causing them to slaughter their own animals or even attempt to revolt again. However these revolutions are quickly smashed by Lenin. He also creates new policies that stop the seizure of food, only allowing for a tax on the food instead. It is then that Lenin has a series of three strokes, getting worse every time.
It is now that we see Stalin rise to power in Russia. He quickly manages to maneuver his way to the top, and lets be honest, we all know how that ends.
This failure of our second example of an attempt to implement communism shares at least one factor with the failure of the first: People.
Now, I’m not saying that we need to get rid of people to make this system work, I’m not even saying that it is people specifically that causes communism to fail. Specifically, it is the greed and laziness within people that leads communism to its eventual failure. In our first example, it was the greed and general fighting among the people that caused the communities to fail. In our second example, there were many more reasons that it failed, but the fault that we are discussing is in the greed of its leadership and the general laziness of many of the communal farm workers.
When it comes to communism, the facts are rather simple and lead to a simple answer to our question. The system of communism has failed over and over again, not because it is a bad system, but because the people that attempt to implement it or who are a part of it. Their faults of greed and laziness seems to be the driving factor behind the failure of this system. For this perfect system to work, we need perfect people.
Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with your concept of why communism fails. I believe communism fails because it restricts people from reaching their full potential. Communism also has failed in the past because the leaders become greedy and keep a lot of wealth for themselves. This concept is portrayed perfectly in the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. In this book, the animals prosper with the idea of communism at first by sharing all the food with all the other animals. The pigs, who step up as the animals leaders, eventually start acting more and more like humans, which all the animals did not like. The pigs then start going against their own principles and become corrupt, leaving the other animals with less and less food. This is why communism has failed in the past, and will continue to fail in the future. It is not the people that become lazy and corrupt, it is their dictators.
I agree with you in the fact that communism does seem like a great social system. We may share the same viewpoint; it’s just that I’m not sure if we need perfect people. Communism is something that will never work due to human nature. Humans are innately creatures that want to keep striving for more and excelling. Implementing communism would hinder the abilities of individuals and not allow them to achieve their dreams and goals. An individual may be required to stay with the norm, when he has much higher ambitions for himself.
ReplyDeleteYou’re blog could have used some descriptions of how communism exactly works. For example like how the wealth is distributed and what the citizens would do on a daily basis or in general.
On paper, communism is the ideal that some people wish to strive for. Who can say that they don't wish for a society in which all men will be equal and only have enough for his needs. Like you said though, the problem doesn't lie in the system of communism itself; the problem lies in those who are trying to implement it, human beings. It's a sober reality that even though a system like communism might make everyone equal on paper, the greed and envy of man still manages to muck everything up. I thought in your post you did a pretty good job of explaining the history behind communism and how the idea arose. I thought you could have went into a little more detail on how the systems have been implemented, like in the USSR and China. However it was a concise write up of this system and why its doomed to fail.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good paper. I liked the examples of different times when communism was used. I thought you could have gone into a little more detail about communism itself namely what exactly Karl Max idea of communism was because it was my understand that the way communism has be implanted was not exactly what he intended it to be. I thought you could have use some example of when communism like systems have worked out. I also thought you could have gone into in a little more detail about why communism doesn't work. Overall I thought this was a well written paper.
ReplyDeleteNobody is perfect, and that is exactly what is wrong with communism. I agree that in theory the idea of communism is great. It creates that utopia where everything is just perfect. And just like all lab reports that ask me what could have given me incorrect results, I reply “human error.” Sadly, greediness and laziness is built into every person so much that an idea like communism cannot work. Because communism has been implemented multiple times and always ending up in failure, it is a good idea to trash it. Until people become what they can’t, communism should, and will stay dead. I really liked your title and your overall idea, good job.
ReplyDeleteThis essay did a very good just on covering the history concerning the origins of communism and how its key ideas and principles arose but I personally think that more could have been done as how the communist government system worked in the USSR and what eventually led to its down fall. I also understand that communist might seem like an ideal system in government but i personally feel the its to idealistic to believe that people could live peacefully in system that makes them all equal in possessions and individually with basic rights because deep down its fair to say that people are driven to and extent by greed and seek out to better improve themselves then others and with communism it doesn't allow that to be possible.
ReplyDeleteI think your post needed some background information on Communism to define it and describe what you are talking about because alot of people do not understand what it is. Also I think that Communism does not work because of people. Yes it can never work but it is specifically the people who cause it to fail. People are naturally ambitious and want to do more and go farther. These ambitions are not welcome in a society like this.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that Communism has failed everywhere it was implemented because of greed. That's why I believe that to make a communist type economy, you have to play to that greed. A meritocratic communism would go a long way to dealing with the greed factor. If you make tangible acts the only way to political power and enshrine that as an irrevocable law, then those who are power hungry will be compelled to work within the system and thus benefit the community as a whole. Though I'm sure there would be people who subvert or outright lie about their deeds (and how to quantify good works into an empirical standard is another issue) I feel like it'd give communism a better shot than past variants have.
ReplyDeleteGreat paper fellow Commie ;). Honestly though, you structured this blog really well, and gave some solid arguments. I did notice that you changed a couple of times from present tense, to past tense, and back. Make sure that you're consistent there. I would also say that maybe a reason why the cotton mill "communism" worked much better than the Soviet Union was because this was a smaller community. These people knew each other and were willing to give up some things to help their neighbors. The problem with governmental Communism is that people are so far removed from each other that it's more difficult for them to feel empathy for their "neighbors" and therefore be more willing to give up things for the benefit of the whole group.
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