How would a communist society respond to natural disasters or existential threats?

[RedHammer]

If a natural disaster struck, wouldn't it damage the productive forces sufficiently that scarcity would lead to a situation where people start competing for resources? Would it lead to a "every man for himself" situation?

How would a communist society respond to existential threats like a killer asteroid on a collision course with the planet? Or a supervolcano eruption?

I'm just curious because I'd like to know how production and distribution will survive in these scenarios.

[Art Vandelay]

I would think collectively.

[cynicles]

Apocalypse scenarios are probably a little out there since any number of situations could arise but taking the asteroid/super volcano scenario it would all depend on how far our energy production had come along. Since they pose similar long term challenges of minimal sunlight availability for long periods of time we would need to have sufficient energy production independent of sunlight to support greenhouse for production on a large scale. It is possible but we would require a socialist economy to establish the necessary infrastructure to meat those challenges. If we were still capitalist the rich would dominated and some type of fascism would be instituted to control the situation. With worker in control a broad base of responsibility would facilitated a more favorable climate for rational resource distribution and necessary rationing. People tend to act more irrationally when they lose control of a situation. Plants and other necessary specimens would be preserved and after several years when the sky began to clear up we could start some form of rebuilding, though what kind would be questionable given the alteration to the environment and climate the disaster would cause. That's the only scenario I can think of.

[robbo203]

At the heart of a communist system of production is a self regulating system of stock control in which each production units or distribution centre is enabled to monitor the flow of outbound stock which automatically triggers orders for fresh inputs or finished goods. Built into this conception of communist production is the key idea of a buffer stock - a reserve of stock which is set aside or constantly replenished to accommodate unexpected fluctuations in supply and demand. If Im not mistaken, Marx mentioned this somewhere in his writings. At any rate, this I suggest is the way in which a communist/socialist society would go about dealing with the propsect of natural disasters - on the basis of expecting the unexpected.

That aside, even under ruthless capitalism, disasters have a habit of bringing people together and bringing out their truly caring and cooperative nature. I would imagine this would be even more true in the case of a communist society which in anthropological terms would be a moral economy par excellance

[RedHammer]

That's true. But that's assuming we have an adequate means of creating the "buffer" and a distribution system in place that can withstand the worst disasters.

I imagine people reverting to a condition of fierce competition if a truly catastrophic disaster hit. Then again, "capitalism" will seem alien as alien to those in a communist society as the slave society seems to us.

[Psy]

That's true. But that's assuming we have an adequate means of creating the "buffer" and a distribution system in place that can withstand the worst disasters.

I imagine people reverting to a condition of fierce competition if a truly catastrophic disaster hit. Then again, "capitalism" will seem alien as alien to those in a communist society as the slave society seems to us.
Industrialization has given humans the means to command productive far beyond our basic needs and our productive capacity continues to grow at a exponential rate. For example if all of the US productive productive might was unleashed towards dealing with the New Orleans flood it would have become a non-event other then armies of workers with heavy equipment keeping back the flood waters through science and industrial might.

[Tim Cornelis]

In feudal Russia, peasant communes known as 'obshchina' or 'mir', exercised mutual aid. If one peasant family had bad harvest the others would compensate. I imagine that in a communist society, such mutual aid networks would be set up to facilitate relief efforts in case of natural disasters.

From wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obshchina):


Peasants in these communities became reliant upon each other in times of need. With the Russian climate being so harsh and unpredictable, it wasn’t uncommon for peasants to suddenly lose all of their crops or livestock. In times of famine, one farmer might lose everything and his adjacent neighbor could lose nothing at all; because of this, the villagers set up a system in which they would support one another in times of need. This system however also set up a sense of “ceiling and floor” within the obshchina. Members of the obshchina who were prospering the most would usually be the ones looked upon to help others in their times of need; creating a form of “ceiling”. When other families were experience rough times, others in the village were forced to step in and help; creating a sense of “floor”, and preventing any one family from falling under in the community.

It's not difficult to take this form of reciprocal insurance and mutual aid and apply it to a region, continental, and possibly global scale.

[human strike]

Well, look at what happens now when disasters strike. It's not capitalist forms of social relations that takeover, but communist forms. If capitalist societies respond to natural disasters with communism, then I imagine communist ones would too.

[ckaihatsu]

That's true. But that's assuming we have an adequate means of creating the "buffer" and a distribution system in place that can withstand the worst disasters.

I imagine people reverting to a condition of fierce competition if a truly catastrophic disaster hit. Then again, "capitalism" will seem alien as alien to those in a communist society as the slave society seems to us.


I, for one, would be most interested in seeing how *preventative* a communist society could be in regards to regular climate catastrophes. If anything could serve as a demonstration of the superior capabilities of a post-commodity social order, that would be it. Perhaps there are existing technologies can could be better-leveraged to finally put an end to earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.