Hey everyone! Cassiodorus asked me to host this week, and I was more than happy to do so. I apologize for my extreme latenss, but my computer died several times and, in doing so, lost everything about communism I had compiled last night.
Let this be a lesson to each and everyone of you to back-up your work! :)
In any case, I've always been intrigued by the idea of communism. Ya know, everybody working together towards a common goal and shit, individual needs be damned. I guess I'm fascinated by it because, quite frankly, I'm just not that selfless. I mean, hell, if I'm a farmer in Russia, I'm not going to give you my goat if it means that me and mine have no milk or meat for tomorrow. Seems kinda stupid to me.
According to Wikipedia, here's the definition:
Communism is a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classless society structured upon communal ownership of the means of production and the end of wage labour and private property. The exact definition of communism varies and it is commonly used interchangeably with socialism, however, communist theory contends that socialism is just a transitional stage on the way to communism.
I often wonder why people confuse communism with socialism. (I'm not talking about teabaggers, either. Those people can't even tie their own fucking shoelaces.) I identify as a Democratic Socialist, with more emphasis on the socialist than on the democratic. I've long considered that socialism takes care of each individual in a society, so that the society itself can thusly thrive and prosper. I consider communism to be the opposite: the individual gives up his/her rights to land and personal needs in order for the whole of society to somehow become "better". And I can't figure out how the hell you would give up personal needs in that equation because, let's face it, humans are humans. We have needs, man.
Again with the Wiki:
Socialism is an economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources.
As an economic system, socialism is a system of production based on the direct production of use-values by allocating economic inputs (the means of production) and investments through planning to directly satisfy economic demand. Economic calculation is based on either calculation-in-kind or a direct measure of labour time, output for individual consumption is distributed through markets, and distribution of income is based on individual merit or individual contribution.
There are many facets here that I would like to explore here and talk about but, unfortunately, I'm an hour late in publishing this sucker, so I'll just pose this question: any honest-to-goodness communists out there? I'd like to hear from you, and why you choose communist society over the variety of other economic and political theories to choose from.
If it's OK with everyone, I'd like to do a more in-depth study on communism next week. :)
(And remember: save your work! LOL.)