Is Communism A Dictatorship of the Majority?

[RevolutionaryThinker]

Or does it appeal to the individual? This has been on my mind lately.

[RedWorker]

The rights of the individual is the condition for the rights of the whole.
But respecting individuals' rights has nothing to do with allowing their greed to harm millions of people. That would violate other individuals' rights. Your freedom ends where the next person's freedom starts.

[Blake's Baby]

'appeal'?

If capitalism shits on you, not being shat on is appealing. Of course it appeals to individuals.

I think you're looking at this through the wrong end of the telescope - 'individual v collective' isn't a reasonable dichotomy. The fact is that humans have to live in groups, otherwise we die.

The question then isn't 'should we/shouldn't we?', but 'how?'.

[David Warner]

I think you are probably confusing socialism and communism.

The socialist stage is characterized by the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.

By the time we reach the communist stage, classes have ceased to exist.

As Marx said,
Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.

[Comrade #138672]

No, it is the dictatorship of the proletariat, which just happens to be the majority. But the majority in itself is nothing.

And actually, the dictatorship of the proletariat =/= communism, but that is a different issue.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

The transitional period, as has already been pointed out, is a class dictatorship. The proletariat rules; whether it is the majority or a minority (as in Russia) is irrelevant.

In communism, or socialism, anyone who decides to participate in socially-organised economic activity must subordinate themselves to a general social plan. In that regard there is still "dictatorship" and "authority". But any non-economic authority - "the government over men" - is long gone by this period. When it comes to what you call yourself, how you dress, what people you have sex with and how, etc., you are free to develop yourself as you please. "The free development of one is the condition of the free development of all."

[Illegalitarian]

No, there is no "dictatorship" or authority economically or politically in a communist society. No such centralized organization or body would exist to be dictatorial, so this could inherently not exist.




What is a "dictatorship of the majority", anyways? The word dictatorship as it is understood by most people is synonymous with autarchy, so isn't "dictatorship of the majority" kind of an oxymoron?

[Comrade #138672]

No, there is no "dictatorship" or authority economically or politically in a communist society. No such centralized organization or body would exist to be dictatorial, so this could inherently not exist.




What is a "dictatorship of the majority", anyways? The word dictatorship as it is understood by most people is synonymous with autarchy, so isn't "dictatorship of the majority" kind of an oxymoron?Well, in theory, the majority can impose its will on the minority. This would be a form of "dictatorship". But the majority itself is a supra-class construct, which should be rejected.