Communism and freedom of choice?

[Freedom4all]

Hello, I'm new to this website, and I'm trying to understand and grasp my mind around the concepts of Communism...

I come from a Capitalist/Republican political mindset, and I'm trying to understand how freedom works within a Communist society.

I know this is probably a basic question...but I'm very interested to hear the answer.




Thanks!
:D

[dubaba]

My understanding is that you are free to do as you please as long as you work and dont infringe on others rights.

[Freedom4all]

My understanding is that you are free to do as you please as long as you work and dont infringe on others rights.


Thanks man, just trying to connect the dots and get my mind around the concepts

[Invincible Summer]

It's funny that you have to "get your mind around" the concept of freedom. Ahhh capitalist brainwashing the wonders you do!

[Spawn of Stalin]

Communism is basically the definition of freedom for the individual, capitalism promotes freedom but in reality the only people with absolute freedom are employers and government officials, everyone else is a slave to their boss and their government, the general idea is that you are a voluntary slave since you are not obliged to work and therefore free to do as you please, of course this isn't true at all since in most cases if you don't work you're just going to keel over and die.

[Unregistered]

Hello, I'm new to this website, and I'm trying to understand and grasp my mind around the concepts of Communism...

I come from a Capitalist/Republican political mindset, and I'm trying to understand how freedom works within a Communist society.

I know this is probably a basic question...but I'm very interested to hear the answer.




Thanks!
:D
Excuse me that I don't have a quote at hand, you should really read the manifesto because you'll likely to bump into equally uninformed people on the net. the basic insight of karl marx in regards to freedom of choice or will or other such ideals is that it's meanings are purely arbitrary whims of the dominant class.
while for landowner like john locke freedom might mean some metaphysical substance that makes his wage slave also be able to chose to starve, a peon forced to work 16 hours a day on Locke's fields will have a different understanding of the same concepts. to be free he will believe, he'll have to have an access to culture, to education, to healthcare, housing, food and fresh water, he will have to have a limited workday and 3 weeks holidays on the sea.
however the peon has nothing to say in a parliamentary democracy. the press, the poets, the parliamentarians and teachers must inevitably serve the capital owning class. that's pure self-interest acknowledged by all your bourgeois philosophers.
all concessions made to the oppressed classes are superficial. they only give the impression they serve the interest of the peon without changing much in his position, certainy without conceding any power.
karl marx's solution would be to democratize the means of production, to take away the tools to accumulate capital from the gentry and bourgeoisie give them to the worker's councils much in the same fashion the feudal throne was given to the bourgeois parliament after your american revolution. that marxists often referred to as liberation. the silenced person exploited as a worker by the capitalist class attains freedom only by taking over the tools of exploitation.

that is a very rough and in many ways wrong reiteration. make sure you'll read the manifesto.

[Tatarin]

I come from a Capitalist/Republican political mindset, and I'm trying to understand how freedom works within a Communist society.

What freedoms are you thinking about? One persons' freedom is another one's misery, as we can see with the current system.

[revolution inaction]

that is a very rough and in many ways wrong reiteration. make sure you'll read the manifesto.

you don't have to read the communist manifesto to be a communist, i never have. its not agreed on by all communists its just really famous.

[NecroCommie]

Freedom in it's modern usage is just an empty word. It is a subjective concept that needs to have either a positive or a negative target to mean anything at all. To put it bluntly: one cannot be "just free". You need to elaborate, free from what, or free to what? Free from jail? Free to own labour? Freedom from labour?

Before any tangible and real answer can be given, you need to specify. Freedom to choose... what exactly? Communists rarely believe in absolutes, so even if we do give you an answer, it is only to that particular case. I know I don't like to make that kind of general statements at all, but rather take every moral dilemma as an individual case with it's own concepts and values.

[Unregistered]

you don't have to read the communist manifesto to be a communist, i never have. its not agreed on by all communists its just really famous.
yet it helps to "grasp my mind around the concepts of Communism...". Too many young people take their own rough and wrong ideas for communism and anarchism. That's their own vulgar punk rock anarchism: they can't read a line from Bakunin or Kropotkin, save a history book, because they have no gods and no masters.

[Rjevan]

yet it helps to "grasp my mind around the concepts of Communism...". Too many young people take their own rough and wrong ideas for communism and anarchism. That's their own vulgar punk rock anarchism: they can't read a line from Bakunin or Kropotkin, save a history book, because they have no gods and no masters.
Very true, I have met quite a few people who claimed to be in favour of "communism" but after taking a closer look it turned out that they have absolutely no idea what this really means and are either some Red Army fetishists or a strange liberal-social democrat-pacifist mix. They read about Marx/the USSR in a history book and then built up their individual view of communism based on what policies they like and what they think it should/would be like... if they are told about real communist views they are flabbergasted, often disappointed and finally dismiss communism.

Of course nobody has to read the Manifesto to be a communist and it is no alternative bible which must not be questioned but it really helps very much, it's short, catchy and not hard to read and it clears a lot of questions beginners ask, so if you haven't read it yet, give it a try. ;)

[#FF0000]

Freedom is a pretty broad concept. I think it'd be helpful if you were a little more specific about what you mean with this question.

[Misanthrope]

Before answering this question, I think we should hear your definition of 'freedom'.