A Future I Don't Want: A Rant by Connor

[Hasharin]

And who dictates the "needs" of the people?

Well, people, I guess.

What about individual freedom and liberties?

But did I negate freedom, individual or otherwise? On the contrary, I became a communist because of my love of freedom. Of course under capitalism, we have some peculiar kind of freedom. The same that existed in Athenian or Roman republic (or early American), that is, freedom for the slave owners.
Under socialism/communism, the free development of each individual will be enabled. People, in free association with others, will be under control over conditions of their existence, not subjugated by them. They will also run everyday affairs themselves, with decisions being made by those affected (and government of persons being replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production).

Also, please point to a socialist country in history that didn't have a totalitarian government and where the people were not completely oppressed.

You got me here. I can't, since there were no socialist countries. In fact the question itself is badly phrased, because it implies that socialism can be achieved in one country. It's not true. There can be no socialist/communist island in the sea of capitalism. In the reality of the global market, all countries are dependent on what happens in the others. Workers can take control of the means of production, etc., etc., but if their revolution will not spread across the borders, soon the fact that they can't produce themselves everything what they need will force them to trade with someone outside. So, they will keep commodity production- i.e. production of goods not according to needs but in order to sell them for profit. It implies accumulation of capital. Thus all the muck of the old society gets restored and it's not much of a stretch to talk about capitalism here.

All these "socialist" countries were/are totally opposite of what true socialist/communist stands for. Even more, they were actually extreme expression of the capitalism's tendency towards increased state control over society, militarism and general barbarism. Expropriation of the private owners indeed took place, but capitalist social relations and all basic elements of capitalism remained intact. Workers were still wage laborers, exploited by the state (it doesn't make a diffference whether you work for private or a state owned company) and had no control over production and affairs of the whole society.

Laissez-faire and Stalinism are IMO two opposite extremes of capitalism.

Speaking of Orwell, the society in 1984 can very easily be classified as socialist.

As I have explained, it can't, and actually Orwell himself considered himself to be socialist to the end (and text of the book itself suggests similarity between Oceania and what was before, and was inspired by Jack London's The Iron Heel, a clearly anti-capitalist novel). Though his political views were still shitty and confused.

 

[Carlson]

On the contrary, I became a communist because of my love of freedom.

Oh, this will be lovely.

 

[exball]

Communism really only ever works on paper. Human nature fucks it up.

 

[Hasharin]

Communism really only ever works on paper. Human nature fucks it up.

Homo sapiens has lived in class societes for only a really short period compared to its whole history. They can hardly be an expression of human nature.

 

[Carlson]

Homo sapiens has lived in class societes for only a really short period compared to its whole history. They can hardly be an expression of human nature.

So how, exactly, do you prevent people in a communist society from attempting to profit, or attempting to get more than they already have?

 

[Hasharin]

So how, exactly, do you prevent people in a communist society from attempting to profit, or attempting to get more than they already have?

Why would they want to do that if the commune already provided them with everything for working 20 hours a week? (or even less, who knows)

Also, how would they profit without money?

 

[Linako 2.0]

So how, exactly, do you prevent people in a communist society from attempting to profit, or attempting to get more than they already have?
Heavy regulations and forced sharings of your profit to the bums.
to maintain equality, bring evreyone down to the lowest denominator

 

[BT 075]

Communism and National-Socialism is what you get when you have a few dudes who want to make the world a better place, put them in a pub and have them get drunk. Suddenly they figure out how to fix everything. Such brilliant ideas they have! My father, dear ol' Satan Sr., used to be a businessman. He has been to many countries on business trips. Most of them have been in the German speaking world. One day he told me he visited Munich. He walked by a pub that was frequented by Lenin and his revolutionairy buds in the early 1900s when the man lived there. They spent their days boozing it up, getting pissed and coming up with the solution to all of life's problems. In the early 1920s, young Hitler did the same. He had his failed lil' Beer Putsch revolution there. A pathetically short-lived coup attempt deriving it's very name from the alcohol that inspired the man. He's known to have been a teetotaler but that was only later, when he traded in his fondness for that fine German beer for an addiction to narcotics, or so the locals told my father.

Anyway, long story short: communism, national-socialism and other forms of fascism is what you get when you throw a bunch of drunk idealists devoid of any sense of reality in one room and have them discuss politics. It's shit, but those who believe in it are too high on their own ego and perceived superiority of their system to realise just how shitty it is. And then when they defend it, the defense is always the same: "It's never been tried before", "all those previous communist\socialist\fascist states were doing it wrong". Yeah, thanks but no thanks. It's not a coincidence that all Nazi's I've ever known have been borderline alcoholics and all Communists stoners. One has to be a bit of a retard to still believe these systems are workable after witnessing the events of the 20th century, and not be drunk out of your mind.

Mind you, I'm not defending capitalism here and I do believe the system in which we live right now is deeply and heavily flawed. However I do not believe communism is the solution. If anything, it will make matters worse. It always has in the past and I see no reason why it will be any different in the future. If anyone wants to believe otherwise, do as you please. Be my guest. If ever in the decades to come someone has the retarded idea to once more put into place such a system, history will simply repeat itself and leave that nation in ruins and the rights of it's citizens trampled.

 

[Carlson]

To avoid derailing much further, I made a thread for communism and socialism here.