I need help with my turn page paper on the collapse of communism

myself | 4/30 | johnmartineu, author of the NY Times bestseller, "kittens ripped my turn page paper"

[johnmartineu]

Hi! My name is John Martineu. Im 18 and a student of Dover high School in Dover Delaware. I have been assigned a final term project. We are to do a 20 page turn paper on different subjects. I am doing one on the collapse of communism. Since you coservatives know alot about this, I was wondering if you could help me out.

First Id like to know what communism is and how it is different from socialism? Second I would also like to know about why Russia collapsed. Third could you tell me why you refer to certain people such as Ann Goodman and Helen Thomas as Communists? Finally Id like to know the advatages of Captialism.

Every bit of information will help me with typing this up. Its due in a month and I hope to pass with flying colors. I might even post it on Freerepublic when it's done. Thanks alot guys

John

[weegee]

C'mon now. He's obviously not from DUh because he didn't mention President Bush or swear like a sailor.

He's obviously not from IndyMedia because he didn't make a death threat against the President.

Since we all know that he lied and claimed he was doing research, it could be this man:

[RightWhale]

if that was Al Franken getting material for his show

Guess: Phil Hendrie. Life is an RPG. BTW, if any of this shows up plagiarized on the PHS, we should sue for copyright infringement.

[Exton1]

You may also want to study about the Pilgrims. The first year they tried “Socialism” and almost starved to death. The second year they tried “Capitalism” which lead to a bounty of food and the start of our Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were the first experiment in Socialism vs. Capitalism.

[Lee'sGhost]

Bwahahahahaha!

But, I knew that.

[weegee]

Here's a book I would like to recommend our troll to read, it might be more his speed:

[abigailsmybaby]

Interesting keywords.

[LubyGee]

Start with Google and just start reading. I'm not trying to be sarcastic, but I didn't have the internet as a student and I had to do everything by hand. Do some research on your own and come back here with specific questions. I think the trolls have taken a toll on this place lately.

No offense. Please do some ground work on your own and I'm sure there are several knowledgable people here willing to help a true student.

[RightWhale]

I had to clothes my office door

LOL

Knock it off! There are no doors in cubicle land, Les.

[camle]

don't look now, but there's another "help me write my paper" thread appearing on the News/Activism page...

[Tribune7]

look at what he writes. this kid ain't no high schooler.

I don't know. There's a lot of really dumb high schoolers.

It seems counter-productive for a DUmmy to post something that reveals public school student to be quasi-literate. They're the ones who always saying our public schools are so great.

It would be dumb. Of course . . .

Oh, heck, our public schools really are this bad. This kid is for real.

[MEG33]

Ask Jeeves,Google...type in Ukrainian Famine for insight on Stalin's famine caused by "managing the economy".Type in the great leap forward,or the Black Book of Communism.Check out Europe's current GDP and unemployment to see the joys of socialism.

[ZinGirl]

I had to clothes my office door

you mean you put clothes on it....like this? Was your door naked? Isn't that some kind of sexual harassment?

[Sicon]

You missed a few errors. My additional corrections are in brackets []:

Hi! My name is John Martineu. Im [I'm] 18[,] and a student of Dover high School in Dover[,] Delaware. I have been assigned a final term project. We are to do a 20 page turn paper (term paper?) on different subjects. I am doing one on the collapse of communism. Since you coservatives (conservatives) know alot (a lot) about this, I was wondering if you could help me out (delete 'out'). First Id (I'd) like to know what communism is and how it is different from socialism? (replace ? with .) Second[,] I would also like to know about why Russia collapsed. Third[,] could you tell me why you refer to certain people [-] such as Ann Goodman and Helen Thomas [-] as Communists? Finally Id [I'd] like to know the advatages [advantages] of Captialism [capitalism]. Every bit of information will help me with typing this up (completing this assignment). Its (It's) due in a month and I hope to pass with flying colors. I might even post it on Freerepublic when it's done. Thanks alot [a lot] guys (, after a lot). John John: Are you really a high school senior?

[Tribune7]

Maybe Franken figures he has to go back for his diploma with problems at Air America.

[Exton1]

The problem with Socialism/Communism is that when everyone owns everything, no one owns anything. This can lead to a great waste of resources. An example is that of those who put peaches in a box at the farms. Because it was their job to put peaches in a box and they neither had the responsibility nor the authority to discard the rotten or bad peaches, they packed all the peaches together. The result was that the whole box would be ruined. Think about it. Russia has great farm lands, oil, and other natural resources and they were always poor, everything was limited, and many times almost starved. This alone proves that Lennon and the Communist knew nothing about economics or management or resources.

[Rebelbase]

That pic has special meaning to me when I ran across it a couple of years ago.

Many years ago when my oldest son was in middle school he took a paper clip and taped it to his pencil and then taped that to a ruler and then shoved the paper clip into an electrical socket in his classroom at school.

The whole room shorted out just as the teacher was nearing the end of a work period where she was entering homework and quiz scores in the computer. The scores were prompltly lost when the computer rebooted. Needless to say it was monumental moment of stupdidy on his part.

I still laugh about though!

[saveliberty]

Please don't yell. I sent the second message when I realized the first post was not addressed to you.

PS I do not know what kittens you refer to.

Okay here goes - the Cliff notes version.

Socialism is a form of government in which the government controls capital (the means of production) and redistributes such based on need. The important note is that in socialist/communist economic definitions, labor (you and me) is also capital, which we just pointed out is owned by the state. Another key element is the disdain for religions of any kind. These are forms of mind control (they believe) to get those less fortunate to be satisfied with their lot. Keep in mind these came to fruition in 19th century Europe which was a heavily class based society and quite feudal, even though some countries were democracies. By this definition, both Communism and what we now refer to as socialism are joined in purpose.

The fundamental assumption is that no person should have "more" than another and that this will promote peace. The class based society should be replaced (they believed) by a one class society - one in which there is only the working class. (The Proletariat)

The logical consequence of this assumption is that both socialism and communism look to eliminate the middle and upper classes (both have contempt and disdain for the lowest class - the Lumpen Proletariat).

Here's the divergence. Socialism fed "Fabians" (an English organization of the 19th century) who believed that the oneness would be achieved peacefully. If government could be persuaded to redistribute wealth and be the employer of every individual, the Fabians believed that this would create their one class Utopia.

Communism, in contrast, was a perfection of socialism. The difference here is that the Proletariat would rise up in revolution and join forces with whoever would support them and kill the upper and middle classes. In the aftermath, the regime would then kill these "helpers" as they were contaminated by class and could not be trusted to be true to communism.

There are different paths to Communism. We know that in Russia, there was the majority (Trotsky and the Mensheviks) and minority (Lenin and the Bolsheviks). Both took the road of violence, Lenin differed by forcing revolution without regard to swaying majority (weakest link). Socialists today would like to have you believe that Trotsky was a pacifist, which is untrue. He just believed that the revolution would come later upon total or near total persuasion. PS Lenin allegedly had Trotsky killed (big spike in his head).

The resulting Soviet Union killed tens of millions of its own citizens in this form of government.

As the Soviet Union gained in its sphere of influence after WWII, many millions more died.

In Communism, the state has control (check out sources on Cuba or the People's Republic of China) . If those controlling the state fear that someone is a threat, then that person is declared an enemy of the state and summarily arrested or worse.

It is very important that in both Socialism and Communism the political freedom or equality is forfeited as the decision by the governing over the governed is that monetary equality is more important. Ergo, shut up or we'll get you. Sounds a lot like Helen Thomas, doesn't it? We assume Helen doesn't kill people or want to kill them, so we will classify her (tentatively) as a socialist.

The other point is that the redefinition of state ownership and its people as capital has the unanticipated effect of killing the means of production. As capital drains (from the economist cheerfully assuming money will always be produced, regardless if the rewards are taken away), the deprivation level grows, which creates frustration. This threatens legitimacy of the rulers and so more than ever, religious groups are persecuted. Jews in particular as in medieval times, Jews were relegated to handling money as money was dirty. So they became bankers and investors. And they were persecuted.

This perspective actually resides in socialism (including Fabianism). That money is dirty and whoever has it is dirty too. {And they will get you} check out France, Netherlands, Denmark as examples of socialist (government decides everything, but respects certain rights of the governed--not many though).

Communist examples include the old Soviet Union, formerly East Germany, Formerly Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia. Real old time Communist dictators live and rule in China, North Korea and Cuba. Pretend Communist "democracies" (still killing dissenters) include Zimbabwe, and did include Aristide of Haiti.


The last point is that

[atomic conspiracy]

"look at what he writes. this kid ain't no high schooler"

Of course not, he's probably a PhD candidate in poli/sci, anthropology, or womyn's studies.

[Pete]

had to clothes my office door

LOL. I am such an idiot. Actually, I was laughing so hard from responses 145, 156 and 161 that I am amazed I caught as many typos as I did before posting.

[freedomson]

Rebelbase, nobody on this forum has made me laugh as much or as often as you.

You're a true FR treasure!