wayward1981
25th June 2011, 02:26
Hi there, i've decided to join revleft for some lively discussion and to learn more about socialism and communism. I tend to approach things at full-mast so i've got a few ideas and questions i'd like to get out straight away.
First my perspective is that Marx posed an excellent critique of the industrial economy and capitalism, but having familiarised myself with the history of the soviet union (particularly lenin, trotsky and stalin but also Yeltsin, Gorbachev and briefly studying other communist countries i do not feel that there is a model of working communism that has been effectively established to achieve its aims.
I'm interested in your opinion over whether a communist microcosm could be established within a capitalist environment and if it was better than capitalism would it not flourish and indeed be 'more profitable'.
In other words, if a bunch of people pooled their resources, bought some land and worked collaboratively for their mutual betterment- would not their society over time naturally grow and their quality of life be better than that of people outside the community causing this way of life to be taken up by others? If you think so- i'd be very interested in hearing how mechanically this society would work- would it have to be agrarian? would the community sell its surplus or skills or would it have to be isolationist to work properly? If you think this idea would not/never work i'd love to hear why.
Does communism have to be established as a top down model as it always seems to be and how i suppose Marx describes it- that is a party in a developed capitalist environment (generally autocratic but with democratic mechanisms) establishing the principle as a function of wider government. Because it seems to me that i can't find one example of this happening without widespread human rights abuses, civil war and immense famine and poverty- making the revolution seem like nasty business indeed and the ultimate goal of living communally to be essentially unnattractive for the immediate lives of the proletariat.
I highly value the input of clever people- so go on, school me.
First my perspective is that Marx posed an excellent critique of the industrial economy and capitalism, but having familiarised myself with the history of the soviet union (particularly lenin, trotsky and stalin but also Yeltsin, Gorbachev and briefly studying other communist countries i do not feel that there is a model of working communism that has been effectively established to achieve its aims.
I'm interested in your opinion over whether a communist microcosm could be established within a capitalist environment and if it was better than capitalism would it not flourish and indeed be 'more profitable'.
In other words, if a bunch of people pooled their resources, bought some land and worked collaboratively for their mutual betterment- would not their society over time naturally grow and their quality of life be better than that of people outside the community causing this way of life to be taken up by others? If you think so- i'd be very interested in hearing how mechanically this society would work- would it have to be agrarian? would the community sell its surplus or skills or would it have to be isolationist to work properly? If you think this idea would not/never work i'd love to hear why.
Does communism have to be established as a top down model as it always seems to be and how i suppose Marx describes it- that is a party in a developed capitalist environment (generally autocratic but with democratic mechanisms) establishing the principle as a function of wider government. Because it seems to me that i can't find one example of this happening without widespread human rights abuses, civil war and immense famine and poverty- making the revolution seem like nasty business indeed and the ultimate goal of living communally to be essentially unnattractive for the immediate lives of the proletariat.
I highly value the input of clever people- so go on, school me.