The word comrade

[FidelCastro]

why do we use it? It isn't a term used in Russia all to often. I know it is russian for friend but it is an old word. Don't get me wrong, it is badass and sounds imposing but why is it used by Communists now a days? why don't we just say friend?

[which doctor]

Because only capitalists call people friends! Anywas I use it because It sounds cool. We use it now, like we always have since the 1790's. It gives us a sense of community. Think of it as a substitute for the bourgeois titles of Mr., Mrs, and Miss.


Originally posted by Wikipedia+--> (Wikipedia)The term "comrade" (and its equivalent in other languages) is widely used to mean "a fellow socialist" or "a fellow communist".[/b]


Wikipedia
Comrades are not necessarily the same as friends. New York Times collumnist Chris Hedges has suggested the comradeship is quite opposite from friendship. [1] In a speech lamenting his experience as a war correspondent, Hedges stated:

"The seduction of war is insidious because so much of what we are told about it is true -- it does create a feeling of comradeship which obliterates our alienation and makes us, for perhaps the only time of our life, feel we belong.

We feel in wartime comradeship. We confuse this with friendship, with love. There are those, who will insist that the comradeship of war is love -- the exotic glo w that makes us in war feel as one people, one entity, is real, but this is part of war's intoxication.

As this feeling dissipated in the weeks after the attack, there was a kind of nostalgia for its warm glow and wartime always brings with it this comradeship, which is the opposite of friendship. Friends are predetermined; friendship takes place between men and women who possess an intellectual and emotional affinity for each other. But comradeship -- that ecstatic bliss that comes with belonging to the crowd in wartime -- is within our reach. We can all have comrades.

The danger of the external threat that comes when we have an enemy does not create friendship; it creates comradeship. And those in wartime are deceived about what they are undergoing. And this is why once the threat is over, once war ends, comrades again become strangers to us. This is why after war we fall into despair.

In friendship there is a deepening of our sense of self. We become, through the friend, more aware of who we are and what we are about; we find ourselves in the eyes of the friend. Friends probe and question and challenge each other to make each of us more complete; with comradeship, the kind that comes to us in patriotic fervor, there is a suppression of self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-possession. Comrades lose their identities in wartime for the collective rush of a common cause -- a common purpose. In comradeship there are no demands on the self. This is part of its appeal and one of the reasons we miss it and seek to recreate it. Comradeship allows us to escape the demands on the self that is part of friendship."

[Raisa]

Comrade means your down with the same shit.

You dont got to be friends. But comrades still got each others back because their in the struggle together working towards the same goal.

[ComradeOm]

Originally posted by Fist of [email protected] 20 2005, 03:18 AM
Think of it as a substitute for the bourgeois titles of Mr., Mrs, and Miss.
It also has the advantage that its gender neutral.

[Seeker]

Some of us do say "friend". Even if you do not yet have a close, emotional bond, using that word implies that you would like to develop such a bond. I see it as an expression of goodwill and support. People go far out of their way to help a friend in need, so it also instills a sense of responsibility. "Solidarity" is nothing extrodinary between friends, it is what comes naturally (and in my oppinion, this is the proper outlook).

[The Grey Blur]

Although sounding cool is a good point :lol: I also think comrade is just an excellent word for signifying that we are all in this struggle together, regardless of creed, colour or gender.

I remember my Dad and IRA/Sinn Féin lads using it a lot, probably still do...