This is extreme. This is wrong on multiple levels. This is sad. This is, however, a common thing yelled by various teammates of mine (and perhaps me) while enduring the hell that is football practice. Having been a linebacker/safety since I was a wee little 3rd grader, I have been in situations at practice where simple and barbaric motivation is needed to get the defense a little animated. And what always seems to work? Making fun of communists. Throw in a Russian accent and next thing you know, my fellow defensemen are throwing their bodies around as human missiles yelling "FOR THE MOTHERLAND!" and the like. Upon studying and reading up on what communism really is, from the eyes of Karl, the communist Santa (come on, look at him), Marx himself, I am wondering just how wrong could this experiment have gone to wind up being the butt of various and, I'll admit it, quite immature jokes. After some self reflection, however, the cause of such comic relief is simple; it is capitalism's fault.
First off, I do not dislike Russians. I have nothing wrong with anyone of Russian heritage whatsoever. I may even have some Russian in my bloodline; I know there is a heavy dose of Slovakian in there as it is. With communism, however, there seems to be this weird and immediately hostile feeling towards it. Just the word 'communism' looks wrong. Why? Maybe it's too much Call of Duty and their run-of-the-mill Russian villians. Maybe it's growing up in the free-market America where, to the capitalist, communism is like screaming F@#! at a daycare center. Maybe it's high-quality propaganda films like so:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWeZ5SKXvj8
And the cause of all these maybes is the bane to Marx himself, capitalism. To Marx, capitalism infringes upon the worker and oppresses them, because capitalism worries about profit instead of the people generating it. Marx wants a place, much like an Israeli Kibbutz, where there is no state identification, workers 'rule,' and private property gets the boot. But, instead of being centralized and a fraction of society like a Kibbutz is, Marx wants this to be a global thing. None of these things really correlate with capitalism much at all. Capitalism is about profit, gain, and competition. So, sorry Marx, capitalism is quite the barrier to your utopia. This barrier only seems to be growing, too.
Marx basically says, in his famous Manifesto, that all of society needs to be retaught their morals, culture, and ideals before they can agree to his utopian form of communism. Essentially, society needs to start over. When I look at this idea, though, I see many complications. If we have to start over with clean slates, this would be like how humanity originally started. Sure, we may have some communist teachers to do the reteaching, but I can't fathom a big enough lecture hall to teach all of society at once. We, as humans currently, originally started with this clean slate. We, as humans currently, have developed capitalism from the years of learning after this clean slate. Why won't it just happen again? Capitalism, even with its negatives, is working. America may be in a hole right now, but we still are a highly respected and feared nation. China, with its capitalistic workforce and outlook, is becoming an ultra power. Non-capitalistic nations? I give you the current state of Europe's economy. Yes, I know there is the kibbutzes, but don't these look a little scary to some?
Sha-Kibbutz... Too perfect? http://www.techdoom.de/wp-content/uploads/Sha-Kibbutz-Israel.jpg
People who were born into these report being happy from these places, but where's the change, the diversity? I dislike the notion of people told what to have as occupations, no private property, and total equality. It sounds awful of me to say it, but I like outdoing others. I love competition. I (sound like an ass) like to win! And if I do these things, I want to make more money and buy nicer crap than others. Call me what you wish, I blame the Call of Duty (or being raised in America).
My final point is simple: I never see Marx's communism working. Its attempts, although not good examples to Marx, have fallen very hard on their faces. The kibbutzes are very, very small when compared to the size of the world. And capitalism is still reigning supreme! Let the markets do their thing, survival of the fittest (help out those who need it, though), all those kind of things. So, in whatever accent you choose, HAIL YEAH CAPITALISM!
I agree with your assertion that the only reason the Israeli Kibbutz works is because they are relatively small, and they consist of people who chose to give up everything they knew to live in a somewhat "peaceful" and "cooperative" community. While the idea of living together in a utopia where there is no privately controlled property and everyone is 100% equal might seem like a good thing, and something the human race should strive for, it will never be achieved because of greed. It is human nature to want more than what one needs, even going so far as to compromise his or her moral beliefs to get what he or she wants. I also believe that communism can never be achieved because people will never be equal. There are smart people, dumb people, fast people, slow people, and the only way to make them truly equal in a sense is to "handicap" them in such ways as to make sure that everyone is equal to the lowest common denominator (read Harrison Bergeron if you ever get a chance)
I agree with your assertion that the only reason the Israeli Kibbutz works is because they are relatively small, and they consist of people who chose to give up everything they knew to live in a somewhat "peaceful" and "cooperative" community. While the idea of living together in a utopia where there is no privately controlled property and everyone is 100% equal might seem like a good thing, and something the human race should strive for, it will never be achieved because of greed. It is human nature to want more than what one needs, even going so far as to compromise his or her moral beliefs to get what he or she wants. I also believe that communism can never be achieved because people will never be equal. There are smart people, dumb people, fast people, slow people, and the only way to make them truly equal in a sense is to "handicap" them in such ways as to make sure that everyone is equal to the lowest common denominator (read Harrison Bergeron if you ever get a chance)
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