What is Communism? Well for those of you who do not know, Communism is a political theory, derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. In the preamble of The Communist Manifesto, it is clear that the writers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were fed up with the current perspective on Communism. They were sick and tired of trying to explain that Communism did not mean “evil” or “naive” but that it meant a historical stage that was important for the embellishment of the human race. But before I dive any deeper, let’s look into the background and upbringing of one of the idealists behind Communism, Karl Marx. Despite common misconceptions that Communism is a negative governing system, Communism is best understood as a plan to create a flourishing, yet equal society.
Karl Marx (born Karl Heinrich Marx) was born in Trier, Rhine Province, Prussia on May 5, 1818 and died on March 14, 1883. While he was the oldest of nine, his father was a very successful lawyer and his mother was a stay at home housewife. Both of his parents were of Jewish descent and disembarked from a long line of rabbis. At the age of six, Karl was baptised in the same church as his father, the Evangelical Established Church. In Marx’ teenage years, he went to high school in his home city of Trier from 1830 to 1835. Following his desire for higher education, Marx then went on to attend the University of Bonn in what is now Bonn, Germany. During the short duration of time Marx spent at the University of Bonn, his studies mainly focused on the humanities such as, Greek and Roman mythology and the history of art. Marx however did not spend all of his time in Bonn, he in fact enrolled in Berlin University in 1836 to focus on the study of law and philosophy. His time here was crucial in terms of expanding his knowledge on Hegel Philosophy. According to David T. McLellan, “Karl was influenced less by religion than by the average citizen, sometimes radical social policies of the Enlightenment, his Jewish background exposed him to prejudice and discrimination that may have led him to question the role of religion in society and contributed to his desire for social change.”
One major advantage of Communism would be that an economy planned centrally, can effectively mobilize economic resources on a very large scale. This, allows the country to successfully execute large scale projects and gain massive industrial power. How it achieves this however is through bypassing individuals self-interest, and looking at the big picture and the ultimate end goal as a community. Command economies are very effective when molding societies to fit these goals. For those unfamiliar with what a command economy is, it is an economy in which production, investment, prices, and incomes are determined centrally by a government, which is essentially, modern day Communism. Prior attempts of this kind of economy include: Russia under Joseph Stalin, Cuba under Fidel Castro, and China under Mao Zedong. In a pure Communist country, decisions are made by the community. However, in today’s Communist countries, the decisions are made by the government (command economy). Which ultimately is a step in the right direction. The leaders of these countries create plans and goals that meet and outline the needs of the community as a whole. The goal of these said plans are to provide to everyone according to their individual needs. Most Communist countries provide their citizens with free healthcare, education, and other essential services.
Another plus side of Communism is that it lowers the unemployment rate. Since everyone in the community is able to work, naturally there will be a decrease in unemployment. There would also be a positive correlation with crime. As the unemployment rate goes down, the rate of crime will go down as well. No citizen will be compelled to commit an illegal act such as robbing a bank or convenience store to make sure they can pay his or her bills on time. Instead, they would have the intelligence and reassurance that there will always be more job opportunities to pursue if they become unemployed. And finally for those of lower economic status, they will no longer have to fear living below the poverty line as long as they are willing to get up and go to work every day.
Communist nations are also a major proponent of no unnecessary spending. Some examples of unnecessary spending in the United States include overspending on medicare, where we spend 20 to 30 billion dollars a year annually on practices and medicines. A prime illustration of no unnecessary spending would be the The Soviet Union from 1917 to 1981. For all of that time, the USSR was for the most part, completely independent. The state was able to function and prosper for so long due to the country being independent from other Communist nations. Their independence led them to become one of the largest and fastest growing states that has ever existed. One of the main reasons the USSR fell was due to the fact that they started to work with other countries. They began to spend unnecessarily large amounts of money assisting countries such as Vietnam, Cuba, and Mongolia. In this case, the fall of the USSR came down to faulty leading and decision making, not the system of Communism itself. A successful and obvious way to reduce unnecessary spending would be to farm. Under Joseph Stalin, The Soviet Union’s economy grew over twenty percent in just seven years. They accomplished this by doing two very important things. One being that they learned to grow more than one crop. For example they grew sugar, tobacco, and tea. Secondly, they exported more than they imported which in turn stemmed to instant growth.
A common misconception and fear in today’s society is that American Communism would mirror what the USSR and Chinese did in the past. According to Jesse Myerson, “Communism is an aspiration, not an immediately achievable state. It, like democracy and libertarianism, it is utopian in that it constantly strives toward an ideal, in its case the non-ownership of everything and the treatment of everything – including culture, people's time, the very act of caring, and so forth – as dignified and inherently valuable rather than as commodities that can be priced for exchange.” This relates to the fear that if the United States were to become a Communist nation, that the change would be instant. Given that the United States is much more technologically advanced now than the Chinese and the USSR were at the time, we could expect a vastly different approach. Myerson then goes on to state “we could expect an approach to communism beginning here and now to be far more open, humane, democratic, participatory and egalitarian than the Russian and Chinese attempts managed.”
In conclusion, I believe that today’s society has the wrong idea about Communism. The fear that the United States would replicate the mistakes made by other Communist nations in the past is understandable. However, it should be noted that there were many successes that came with the failures of the prior communist nations. People tend to overlook these successes due to the stage in world history in which they were achieved. Also we must take into consideration the time period and technological advances that have since taken place. The overall goal of Communism is one that all societies should strive for. And if never given a chance, we may never know what the system or our country’s true potential really is.