Why did you become a communist?

[andresG]

What factors determine the ideology a person chooses?

Some reasons people give are:
it benefits a particular social class, it helps others, it defends the rights of others, it would make the world a better place, etc...

But any ideology can be justified this way.

I tend to believe that a person chooses an ideology purely for slefish reasons. In other words, what benefits them.

Let's take communism as an example.
Why choose it?
It benefits a particular social class
-why does that social class deserve to benefit?
It helps others
-why should others be helped?
It defends the rights of others
-well not of all people, as capitalists would be oppresed
It would make the world a better place
-maybe for me, but what aobut capitalists?

So as you can see, I chose communism because I want to free myself from oppression and I think the only way this can be achieved is when my whole economic class is free.

In other words, I chose communism because I want to be free.

Why did you become a communist?

[redstar2000]

I agree with this view. Communism is first and foremost about liberation from wage-slavery.

In fact, I sometimes get impatient with folks who seem to think of communism as some kind of "mega-charity" in which a handful of kind-hearted folk--the "vanguard" of the proletariat-- do "nice things" for the "poor workers".

That's not communism, it's bourgeois liberalism dressed up in scraps of Marxist terminology.

In Marx's words, we must become a class for ourselves.

No one is going to do it "for" us, no matter what they promise.

http://anarchist-action.org/forums/images/smiles/redstar.gif

The RedStar2000 Papers (http://www.anarchist-action.org/marxists/redstar2000/)
A site about communist ideas

[ComradeRobertRiley]

Im a leftist marxist due to hatred of exploitation of mainly africans

[UnionofSovietSocialistRepublics]

Around me i see people working for a pitence, and going nowhere financially, while there are those driving there BMW's and mercedes, and thats in England a 'developed' country, i can only imagine the harsh environment and living conditions for those in 3rd world conditions.

[Hawker]

American injustice to foreign citizens and it's own just for the sake of buisness and money.That's what made me communist.

[Bradyman]

I became a communist because I took a look at the poverty and disparity facts around the world. They're absolutely unacceptable.

[marxstudent]

I'm not a communist but I share many of the same beliefs as them. One, basically like Riley's, is equality. In America, there is no such thing as real equality and it's frustrating to hear people say there is.

[RyeN]

For me communism isnt all about freedom from wage-slavery although that is an interesting point. For me it was the obvious fact that I was being programed into a system of coruption, idleness, oppresion, and lies. Thier are people who are aware of thier actual suroundings and whats happening. People with free minds who cant accept the programing. For me its a logical choice and Im still amased by how much people resist something that is clearly better for them. It boggles my mind how people can just blindly follow something and think that everything is ok. Communism is the on of the choices intelegent people make.

[apathy maybe]

In my case it is purly a selfish reason (mind you everyone does everything for selfish reasons), I wanted no one to be able to exploit me. No one to have power over me. As a side effect, it just so happens that I would have no power over anyone else. I think that this is a good thing.

[Ian]

Initially I was a bit of an anti-american poseur (what's changed?!) and found my way to this site as a person looking to learn about Che Guevara, but after subsequent reading I thought that Marxism was definately worth exploring and its been what 2 years? Prior to that I was left-leaning teen who had participated on communist chat rooms which were pretty damn good (remember #marxchat Joao? Exploited Class? Dhul? MJM? I loved that place :)).

Erm what more can I say? I can't exactly put my finger on one defining moment in which I can say, yep that's the point in time that led me to revolutionary politics, but December 2001/January 2002 was I guess my equivalent of Marx's August 1844 :)

If you have read this far I must have told a good story... but it sounds boring to me so I must apologise for subjecting you to it, although I was asked! I think...

[ComradeRobertRiley]

Theres some good people on here, reading these posts.......makes me wanna cry.....lol

[commie kg]

I agree with this view. Communism is first and foremost about liberation from wage-slavery.

I'm all in agreement.

It sounds a bit selfish... But I am a communist because I want to be free from wage-slavery. The fact that everyone else gets to be free is an added bonus.

[Hate Is Art]

im not a commie or even a socialist im and anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist, i think every country should have the right to govern itself by democracy and no one should invade or exploit other countrys/territorys

[apathy maybe]

OK so I lied a little.
I want a system where if I was around noone would have power over me.
Also I think a system where the enviroment is first ('cause with out it we are dead).

[postmarkxmyxcompass]

I read the communist manifesto in eight grade and I didn't quite understand all of what Marx was saying, but it seemed like such a passionate argument, so that initially sparked my interest. I always said I was a communist because I liked the shock value for awhile (it's like telling someone I eat babies). My dad, a registered republican :angry: introduced me to Che because he felt like he was a good person to know the background of. As I got older, the more I learned about the system and about the struggles and the less pleased with modern politics I became, communism seemed like the only fair and just way to put an end to oppression.

[SonofRage]

I'm not a Communist :D

[Al Creed]

After Grade Eight, I REALLY began to dislike the rich.

Grade eight was the worst time of my life. The rich, uptight, snooty children of priveledge treated me as if I was some kind of walking joke. I came from a rural area. I didn't dress in high fashion (because, frankly, I really didnt care). I didnt have cable television to have my brain turned into sludge. Mom and Dad weren't stinking rich. When assignments were to be done, I would always make them relate to the real world somehow, a concept these kids had no clue of. I, essentially, did not conform. and they tried to punish me for it.

I was harrassed for being me, as if it was to crush my spirit. They failed.

I saw what money and greed does to a person, an I hated it.

I guess thats when I started my journey down the Honest path of Leftism

[Alejandro C]

Originally posted by andres[email protected] 26 2003, 12:18 AM
I tend to believe that a person chooses an ideology purely for slefish reasons. In other words, what benefits them.

Let's take communism as an example.
Why choose it?
It benefits a particular social class
-why does that social class deserve to benefit?
It helps others
-why should others be helped?
It defends the rights of others
-well not of all people, as capitalists would be oppresed
It would make the world a better place
-maybe for me, but what aobut capitalists?

So as you can see, I chose communism because I want to free myself from oppression and I think the only way this can be achieved is when my whole economic class is free.

In other words, I chose communism because I want to be free.

Why did you become a communist?
in my life i haven't seen many (real) leftist who were among the poor classes. i don't know anyone who is a communist/socialist simply because of the fact that they are poor and feel mistreated. nearly all the poor i know are apolitical.

i certainly didn't become a socialist to benifit myself. i grew up in the upper middle class, always had everything. hell i go to a 25,000 dollar a year private school.

my political beliefs were shaped through my morals. my grandpa was my first hero and he was a missionary. he taught me a lot about the poor and the inequities in the world. this would shape my political growth into a hatred for capitalism as an inherintly immoral system.

certainly i as i learned about the radicals in the sixties the only group of 'poor' socialists were the panthers. i was really surprised at how many affluent white teens moved so far to the left.

also Fidel and Che came from a similar situation. fidel's family was very wealthy and he also married into an extremely wealthy family. while che's family was not as wealthy but were definately upper class/snobbish types. i have to think that politics is shaped through morals, not through self-serving interests.

[Hawker]

I became a communist because I was tired of seeing wars erupt and people die just for what,for money...I can honestly say that the love of 1 million people is worth more than 1 million dollars.

[KickMcCann]

I'm in college right now, and I've been posting here awhile it seems. I wasn't a communist or socialist when I first started posting, just an individual disgusted by the crimes against humanity that are so rampant in this world. I thought the free market was a symbol of human nature an individualism, and I still think it does, but we in the so-called "first world" don't live in isolated little villages where we can trade amoungst each other, we live in a world that is incredibly small and inter-connected, the internet, and big government and corporations influencing everything. You can no longer be an individual, you can no longer run off into the unknown and do your own thing, from the time we are just starting to think, we are indoctrinated into a system that influences and controls every aspect of our lives, what a would call "hyper-civilization". For the original individual rights to exist, there most be a world where people can be individuals. Unfortunately this world doesn't exist anymore. If we are to make the best of our situation, a big system, then we should adjust the system to fairly give people their rights.
Again, I'm in college right now. University-level education is not free in the US. I have a job at the school as a telemarketer where I make bear-minimum wage. For the job, I call alumni and ask thm to donate money to the school. The usual response I get from those who graduated is that they are $80,000 to $100,000 dollars in debt from school, with spouse and children, a house with mortgages, and out of work because the economy. Even people who joined the military after school, where they are supposed to have everything provided for, are dirt poor.
So I just realized what my future holds. When I graduate, I'll be $80,000-$100,000 dollars in debt, with this perpetual war ethic and corrupt elections-Bush promises to keep the economy oppressed through the next 4 years and maybe longer, so no job, and if I do get a job, I'll be stuck in a pointless full-time job for the rest of my life to pay for a degree that gives me permission to work for the rest of my life at a white collar-job.

I just realized that Socialism is the only viable cure to this hopeless future. If college were free, if health care and insurance were free, then it would free my mind, and the minds of the nation from the drudgery of capitalism. We would be free to dream and learn, to make the world a better place. I hate how some students here can drive around in Ferraris and Porches while I can barely afford to eat every week. I look in disgust at their Bently's and Hummers and realize just one of those cars could pay for my entire college, so why shouldn't they? People should be free to buy and own what they want, but because a college diploma is a neccessity for a successful life, it should be provided. So if everyone, rich and poor, chipped in what they could, then everyone could go to college, rich and poor. If you want me to live in your society, to make and buy your products, then you should give me the tools to live in your society, free of charge. Otherwise, we should just destroy modern-capitalist society and return to a village life-style. But seeing as stability is a must, we should be constructive, not destructive.

So like it was said earlier, people choose ideologies first and foremost out of there own personal best interests. Socialism would free me from a life of "slave-waging". But in turn, it would free everyone else from the same fate. Seeing how others beside myself would benefit from a socialized economy just makes the arguement that much stronger. So now you can count me in the ranks of Socialists, I've converted. But be warned, anyone who advocates social doctoring, dictatorship, authoritarianism, and violence against civilians is still on my "hit list"

All the best

[commieboy]

The one thing that REALLY made me a commie was the fact that in America, if you dont have money, you die....you cannot get a home, or healthcare....

So it snowballed, and then i found Che...and here i am

[toastedmonkey]

Originally posted by apathy [email protected] 28 2003, 10:07 AM
(mind you everyone does everything for selfish reasons)
I must disagree, i have a friend with the same view point and he refuses to back down from it, here is an example i showed him and asked him to tell me where the selfishness in this was... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_83376...u=news.quirkies (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_833762.html?menu=news.quirkies)

I can understand why people choose ideoligies, but i dont think i chose, i already had belifs and i joined this board to try and help me understand where they lie.

[RebeldePorLaPAZ]

I agree with communism in many ways but I do not find myself calling myself a communist. I've came to respect socialism more but still hold the respect for anybody who follows communism. I desided to be one when i found out good from wrong. It's a system for everbody and therefore it is a system for me. :)

[Tiki Man]

Early years in grades 3 and 4 brought me into the world of gaming. Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Great game, it has a great plot too. Einstein erases Hitler from history, and the effects are the Soviets fighting the Allies instead of WWII. I may have been influenced then.

I can relate to RavenFan in ways.

Grades 7 and 8 were pretty terrible for me. It seems at times I was the only one in each of my classes who had any respect. I got thinking, and I did strive for equality. It hurt me to see the misbalance between rich and poor. People often growing hungry, and others stuffed like pigs.
Have you seen the little piggies, living piggy lives? You can see them out for dinner, with their piggy wives. Clutching forks and knives, to eat their bacon! Some people have their small televisions with basic cable, and now others have plasma TVs with loaded sattellite. It upsets me to see children raised with extra opportunities, and other children lacking. I beleive children should have to provide more for themselves, without using masses of their parents' money. I don't know where I sit in the politics tree, but I can guess. I am not towards the right side of the tree for sure.

I have not read many writings, but I hope to.

[Saint-Just]

Its like the Matrix, some people just reject capitalist society.

[andresG]

Originally posted by Chairman [email protected] 8 2003, 03:46 PM
Its like the Matrix, some people just reject capitalist society.
Yes, but I want to know why.

[Tiki Man]

...Would YOU want to be a human battery???

It just...is why. The simple fact of the following.

http://niagarabuzz.com/uploads/tucker_001.jpg Selfish + http://hazel.forest.net/skjold/New_Folder7/Images4x6Jpg2/SocialIssues/SocialIssuesVol2/C1165-21.JPG Starving = http://static0.arttoday.com/thm/thm6/CL/freeze_006a/6_business_001/bigness.thm.gif Capitalism

Those people suffer usually because they have not been given opportunity. The hunger is direct result of US actions, and the US (over 1 billion dollars per day on military) sits here and racks in the cash.

A good fact sheet on US military spendings is at http://www.posttypography.com/factsheets/f...arySpending.pdf (http://www.posttypography.com/factsheets/facts-MilitarySpending.pdf).

[apathy maybe]

Originally posted by toastedmonkey+Nov 8 2003, 05:06 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (toastedmonkey @ Nov 8 2003, 05:06 AM)
apathy [email protected] 28 2003, 10:07 AM
(mind you everyone does everything for selfish reasons)
I must disagree, i have a friend with the same view point and he refuses to back down from it, here is an example i showed him and asked him to tell me where the selfishness in this was... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_83376...u=news.quirkies (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_833762.html?menu=news.quirkies)

I can understand why people choose ideoligies, but i dont think i chose, i already had belifs and i joined this board to try and help me understand where they lie. [/b]
All right, it was tounge in cheek. I din&#39;t really mean it.

[andresG]

also Fidel and Che came from a similar situation. fidel&#39;s family was very wealthy and he also married into an extremely wealthy family. while che&#39;s family was not as wealthy but were definately upper class/snobbish types. i have to think that politics is shaped through morals, not through self-serving interests.

These were just two people out of the whole revolutionary movement. How about the class background of the majority of those who made up the revolution?



I must disagree, i have a friend with the same view point and he refuses to back down from it, here is an example i showed him and asked him to tell me where the selfishness in this was... http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_83376...u=news.quirkies

I can understand why people choose ideoligies, but i dont think i chose, i already had belifs and i joined this board to try and help me understand where they lie.

I am not going to deny that charity does exist and people sometimes do things out of selfless reasons. But I am generalizing here. What is the reason most people choose an idealogy? I think it is a reaction to the person&#39;s situation.

Besides, if the majority of people are workers, it makes sense that the majority of communists are workers.

Another question:
What motivation does a member of the ruling class have to be a communist?