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Thread: Communism: 100 Years of Failure

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    Communism: 100 Years of Failure

    And yet some still advocate for it, some still, albeit unwittingly, argue for it.

    100 years of horror under communism

    This year marks the hundredth anniversary of one of the worst mistakes ever made: the Communist revolution in Russia.

    Communist regimes went on to kill about 100 million people. Most died in famines after socialist tyrants forced people to practice inefficient collective farming. Millions of others were executed in political purges.

    Yet when the Russian Revolution happened, people both inside and outside Russia were excited. Crowds cheered Lenin. No longer would nobles rule; no longer would capitalists exploit workers. Now the people would prosper together.

    British journalist Theodore Rothstein wrote, “The undivided sway of the Imperialist nightmare is at an end …(there will be) rule of the labouring classes.”

    But you can’t have government plan every aspect of people’s lives and expect things to go well. Instead, you get bureaucratic planning commissions and secret police.

    That won’t stop some Americans from celebrating Communism’s anniversary.

    ...

    Communism at 100: century of bloodshed

    A century ago this week, communism took over the Russian empire, the world’s largest state at the time. Leftist movements of various sorts had been common in European politics long before the revolution of October 25, 1917 (which became November 7 in the reformed Russian calendar), but Vladimir Lenin and his Bolsheviks were different. They were not merely fanatical in their convictions but flexible in their tactics — and fortunate in their opponents.

    Communism entered history as a ferocious yet idealistic condemnation of capitalism, promising a better world. Its adherents, like others on the left, blamed capitalism for the miserable conditions that afflicted peasants and workers alike and for the prevalence of indentured and child labour. Communists saw the slaughter of World War I as a direct result of the rapacious competition among great powers for overseas markets.

    But a century of communism in power — with holdouts even now in Cuba, North Korea and China — has made clear the human cost of a political program bent on overthrowing capitalism. Again and again, the effort to eliminate markets and private property has brought about the deaths of an astounding number of people. Since 1917 — in the Soviet Union, China, Mongolia, Eastern Europe, Indochina, Africa, Afghanistan and parts of Latin America — communism has claimed at least 65 million lives, according to research by demographers.

    Communism’s tools of destruction have included mass deportations, forced labour camps and police-state terror — a model established by Lenin and especially by his successor Joseph Stalin. It has been widely imitated. Though communism has killed huge numbers of people intentionally, even more of its victims have died from starvation as a result of its cruel projects of social engineering.

    ...
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    It's weird but the other day I am reading a far left site and they claimed Communism didn't fail as it never existed. In a sense I agree with them as most isms don't work or are dreamy nonsense. Think libertarianism or Socialism, then look at what the Pauls and Sanders have accomplished. Not a heck of a lot. Capitalism is a failure too if we consider poverty in America or the lack of healthcare or fair wages. But who's counting.



    "'Practical' politics, it is held, calls for policies that appeal to the fortunate. The poor do not vote; the alert politician bids for the comfortable and the rich. This would be politically foolish for the Democratic Party; those whose primary concern is to protect their income, their capital and their business interest will always vote for the party that most strongly affirms its service to their pecuniary well-being. This is and has always been the republicans. The Democrats have no future as a low grade substitute.." John Kenneth Galbraith 'The Good Society'


    "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." John Kenneth Galbraith
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    Quote Originally Posted by midcan5 View Post
    It's weird but the other day I am reading a far left site and they claimed Communism didn't fail as it never existed. In a sense I agree with them as most isms don't work or are dreamy nonsense. Think libertarianism or Socialism, then look at what the Pauls and Sanders have accomplished. Not a heck of a lot. Capitalism is a failure too if we consider poverty in America or the lack of healthcare or fair wages. But who's counting.



    "'Practical' politics, it is held, calls for policies that appeal to the fortunate. The poor do not vote; the alert politician bids for the comfortable and the rich. This would be politically foolish for the Democratic Party; those whose primary concern is to protect their income, their capital and their business interest will always vote for the party that most strongly affirms its service to their pecuniary well-being. This is and has always been the republicans. The Democrats have no future as a low grade substitute.." John Kenneth Galbraith 'The Good Society'


    "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." John Kenneth Galbraith


    ^^The but that wasn't true communism argument.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    And yet some still advocate for it, some still, albeit unwittingly, argue for it.

    100 years of horror under communism




    Communism at 100: century of bloodshed

    I think Communism is somewhat effective at a certain stage in a society's early economic development and then runs it's course and gets replaced with some capitalist/ socalist. hybrid with some communist remnants . Like China and Russia. Now when I say effective I mean economically. From a human rights standpoint communism is even more $#@!ed up and deadly that the rest of the choices are.

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    You'd have to point out an instance where it has been economically successful.

    It might work small scale.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    I understand the mindset of some wanting socialism and it's been proven feasible on some level, but ideal Communism is an impossibility. No one will ever be equal, and there will always be a power structure at the top in such a system.

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Xl View Post
    I understand the mindset of some wanting socialism and it's been proven feasible on some level, but ideal Communism is an impossibility. No one will ever be equal, and there will always be a power structure at the top in such a system.
    No matter what system, the wealthy elite and the banks still end up ruling!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove View Post
    No matter what system, the wealthy elite and the banks still end up ruling!
    Yeah, probably. But if they're ruling, I certainly don't want it under a system preaching "equality." That just means they'll take everything.

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Xl View Post
    I understand the mindset of some wanting socialism and it's been proven feasible on some level, but ideal Communism is an impossibility. No one will ever be equal, and there will always be a power structure at the top in such a system.
    There's a communist town in Spain, Marinaleda. A gaming company, Valve. There are farmer's coops and farmer's markets. On that scale, there's nothing wrong with people pooling resources and cooperating. It's not the idea that's so bad, just the implementation on a larger, state level.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Strangelove View Post
    No matter what system, the wealthy elite and the banks still end up ruling!
    Indeed, they do, in collusion with the government. I like the way A new Cuban revolution and the stark divide between rich and poor: "Stephanie Nolen reports from a country in transition: 'I didn't go to Cuba planning to report on inequality. But it kept coming up, a source of comment and concern. Not many people study inequality in a place where, in theory, the political system has eradicated it'"
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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