I'm new here

[Anfernio]

hi hi hi there brothers.

I don't know for certain why I became so interested in this subject. I guess I'm tired because we have two ultra right wing parties in control of this country and there are no other options. I voted for Nader last time and was yelled at by everyone, apparently Gore lost the election because of ME.

I'm very interested in socialism and communism. I hope someone can point me in a direction for some good reading so I can get a better understanding of the two subjects. I've gone to marxist.org a few times and there are lots of articles there.

People seem pretty nice around here, I hope I don't get yelled at for asking repeat questions. I've only been browsing the board for about 2 days now, and it's huge.

What do you think of a non-currency communist system? I think having a currency places a limit on labor and production. It would also mean practically an unlimited supply of resources, since there would be no cost to valuable resources and everything could be recycled at no cost except for labor.

Here's a strange question. I keep running across this whole objective view on life, it almost seems like communists are fans of Ayn Rand. What is your opinion about life on other planets? Not long ago anybody would be ridiculed for mentioning something like that, but recently it is becoming more popular since they discovered that Mars once had water and now there is methane in the atmosphere.

Well I'm gonna be around for a few minutes, but soon I have to go to the dentist. They better gas me up real good, I hate having cavities.

[Guest1]

No, we're not fans of Ayn Rand in any way. Being "objective" and believing in "objectivism" are two different things. "Objectivism" is actually not very objective at all, it makes a religion and a spirituality out of science. It's very strange, and it also believes that the most noble thing for one to do is to be selfish.

It has moral judgements which it deems "objective", hypocracy!

Anyways, as for reading, you should read the stickies at the top of this forum, the ones about One Big Union, etc... They have some good primers into different styles and theories of Socialism and Communism.

As for marketless, currencyless society, Communism is supposed to be like that :) So all the Communists here agree with you.

If you want to read more about how that works, you should look up "gift economies".

Anyways, welcome to the site.

[Anfernio]

I feel a little woozy. Nitrus is my new best friend.

I guess that makes sense, no currency. How else could we all be equal? But doesn't Cuba have a currency? I thought Russia did too.

I don't understand the whole objectivism thing. I was actually part of the objectivist club in my community college. The president pretty much worshipped Ayn Rand. I've never even read any of her books, I just know that she is somehow related to objectivism. I've only read a bunch of paphlets and essays, and listened to the president give us speeches.

[Guest1]

I see, well, you should probably sit down for this one.

Objectivism is Ayn Rand's political theory, more like a religion to me. Furthermore, Ayn Rand is very right-wing. She believes that not only is it right for some people to ge rich off people's work, but altruism (going out of your way to help people) is morally wrong!

She's a psycho.

As for Cuba and Russia, neither were Communist. You could say they were Socialist to an extent, but they never became truely Communist.

Communism requires the elimination of currency, classes and the state. Basically, factories and workplaces should all be run democratically and by vote without bosses. Same goes for society in general, without government. And the economy is a gift economy.

What that basically means is you get everything you need for free so long as you work and give your labour to everyone else for free.

[Leninist thug]

Voting for Nader is a good thing. He is a very decent man no matter what Dean may say about him.

[T_SP]

Yes, but Nader is not a Socialist! Provided the lefties can push him enough he could be good! Although I don't agree with his right wing connections.