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The fatal flaw in communism
THE AMERICAN THINKER ^ | 3/16/2005 | Jim Arlandson

Posted on 03/16/2005 7:57:51 PM PST by Archon of the East

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Beware of the regulators!
1 posted on 03/16/2005 7:57:52 PM PST by Archon of the East
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To: Archon of the East

bttt


2 posted on 03/16/2005 8:02:15 PM PST by jdm (Stockhausen, Kagel, Xenakis -- world capitals or avant-garde composers?)
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To: Archon of the East

From Sunny Kalifornia of all places!

Rare gem indeed.


3 posted on 03/16/2005 8:03:05 PM PST by MacDorcha ("You can't reverse engineer something that was not engineered to begin with")
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To: Archon of the East

Thanks for posting this.

Now, if we can only put this into a sound bite. :^)


4 posted on 03/16/2005 8:06:03 PM PST by Balata
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To: Archon of the East
Communism, by its very nature, is impossible and unfair. It has too many problems inherent in it. Actually the only way Communism could work is if it was headed by an absolute dictator, and that the dictator was a deity! A veritable god (and i mean of the cosmic type not some ill-in-the-head-madman). In that he could miraculously supply all the needs and what-nots.

Thus, find me a deity willing to head a communist nation and i will show you how the idea might work.

However in the normal world (and not some Lib fantasy or Marxist wet dream) Communism will always fail 100% of the time. Always.

5 posted on 03/16/2005 8:15:08 PM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear tipped ICBMs: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol.)
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To: Archon of the East
Communism and to a lesser extent socialism are founded on control. And control is exercised by people. And people are flawed.

As David Horowitz has said, the left doesn't believe in the concept of original sin. We are, in their minds, just a system of government away from perfection. It's frightening how such a seemingly childish fantastical view of the world has led to so much death and destruction.

6 posted on 03/16/2005 8:15:49 PM PST by Dolphy
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To: Archon of the East
There is, with respect, quite a bit more to it than that. While the Manifesto is a fine initial statement of Marxist aims, the real meat to the topic is to be found in Capital and elsewhere. Marxism is, or claims to be, a system of thought incorporating historiography, sociology, economics, philosophy, linguistics, and politics, and may be analyzed and refuted in each of those areas.

I won't go into any depth because that is obviously not what the author had in mind here, but he is quite correct that one may see in the Manifesto the flaws that eventually shatter this system of thought. If I might borrow some terminology from systems analysis, Marxism is a wonderful descriptive model, allowing the student insights into some of the workings of society that were not well illuminated prior to the mid-19th century. But as a predictive model it fails. Items clearly stated in the Manifesto such as increasing illiteracy of the proletariat, increasing poverty, increasing "alienation," concentration of wealth away from the bourgeoisie into the hands of the capitalists, etc, etc, simply never came to pass and had to be heavily redacted between the 1848 Communist Manifesto and the time Marx came to write Capital in the 1860's.

As a normative model Marxism is truly disastrous, which is to be expected given its failure as a predictive model. The economic results of every single implementation of this in the real world were uniformly stagnant, unimaginative, and uncompetitive. It is no wonder that they had to build walls to keep people in. The model failed, obviously, spectacularly, and completely.

This goes on through each of the fields mentioned above. Marxist class analysis failed to predict the rise of the proletariat into petit bourgeoisie status, its increasing literacy, and its eventual participation in capitalism as an equal partner - the working man in the U.S., for example, is the number one owner of capital in the form of union retirement funds. One can't even call him a proletarian anymore and never really could. Marxist historiography failed to explain the evolution of government into representative form. Marxist management failed completely - Lenin ended the workers' soviets in 1921. Marxist politics came to rely on bigger and bigger lies until even its own most credulous citizens became cynical and apathetic. Marxist philosophy became bloated, jargon-paralyzed and utterly incomprehensible. It goes on and on.

But I probably shouldn't...

7 posted on 03/16/2005 8:18:52 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Archon of the East
Marx was a bitter, dirt poor, egotistical intellectual loser.

He developed a system that benefits bitter intellectual losers (MSM, college professors).

8 posted on 03/16/2005 8:19:38 PM PST by FreedomSurge
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To: Archon of the East

Good post!


9 posted on 03/16/2005 8:21:37 PM PST by Frank_2001
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To: Archon of the East
What was that guy's name? Wesley Mooch?

Communism was/is doomed to fail simply because it's anathema to human nature.

The explanation to the last statement resides in a book where the first sentence is, "Who is John Galt?"

5.56mm

10 posted on 03/16/2005 8:24:55 PM PST by M Kehoe
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To: Archon of the East

Human History is full of the Rule of the Powerful. Most systems will work for a while--usually while the weapons or the personality of the ruler are powerful. Then they are over-run.

The introduction of an elective process into the economic process "impures" the pure analysis of both Marxism and Capitalism. Those poeple with ballots keep getting in the way.


11 posted on 03/16/2005 8:26:13 PM PST by jolie560
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To: Archon of the East

I live 25% of the year in a Communist country and have visited another Communist country. These daydreamers are right (IMHO) on a theoretical basis, but, in practice, Communism has a proven track record to leading to tyranny and Totalitarianism/Dictatorial regimes. Case closed. The dreamers can dream on but they need to lose their naive attitudes.


12 posted on 03/16/2005 8:27:26 PM PST by Chu Gary (USN Intel guy 1967 - 1970)
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To: Archon of the East
Jims article is wordy and the base of his argument is WRONG...
Communism "IS" Socialism.. Its NOT like Socialism...
Communism is just socialism on crack.. but they are both addicts.. one on crack the other on cocaine..
13 posted on 03/16/2005 8:28:23 PM PST by hosepipe (This Propaganda has been edited to include not a small amount of Hyperbole..)
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To: Archon of the East

Good points, I would also add that when the flawed bourgeoisie are in control, a pile of dead bodies usually materialize.


14 posted on 03/16/2005 8:28:36 PM PST by Brett66 (W1 W1 W1 W1 W1 W1 W1 W1)
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To: Archon of the East
Beware of the regulatorslawyers!
15 posted on 03/16/2005 8:29:56 PM PST by John Lenin (Abortion has created lots of atheists because no one wants to go to hell)
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To: Archon of the East
What we need are two governments operating simultaneously. One with a 'red' president, the other with a 'blue' president, and congresses, and all the rest.

Each person could declare under which they would serve as citizens. I personally don't want to live under a marxist Clinton again.

16 posted on 03/16/2005 8:37:37 PM PST by budwiesest (As California goes, so goes the whole enchilada.)
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To: Archon of the East

Ludwig von Mises pointed out the major problem with communism, (and socialism and other designed economic systems) in the 1920s. (So well, that even Gunnar Myrdal had to agree.) A designed economy cannot calculate the price of anything; under capitalism, the involved parties haggle until a price is reached (or not).


17 posted on 03/16/2005 8:40:03 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Archon of the East

I always have to snort at the dorm-room Marxists who say that the only reason communism failed was that no one has tried the pure form of their opiate yet - as the mountains of corpses and rivers of blood left in its wake are just some sort of clerical error.


18 posted on 03/16/2005 8:45:11 PM PST by Bogolyubski
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To: Chu Gary
These daydreamers are right (IMHO) on a theoretical basis, but, in practice, Communism has a proven track record to leading to tyranny and Totalitarianism/Dictatorial regimes.

I don't agree with that they are right in theory. In order for the theory to hold and one reason why it doesn't is that one would have to conclude that human's by nature are less inclined towards stronger feelings of self than of others. I am aware of no time or place in history that this is the case. you would have to "change" human nature for this to occur, which if you believe in natural law then this is not possible. We are not blank slates to be molded into a good members of society based on the current whims of social science.

19 posted on 03/16/2005 8:50:04 PM PST by Archon of the East (The Constitution is a terrible thing to waste)
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To: Archon of the East
Communism is the Borg.
20 posted on 03/16/2005 8:54:11 PM PST by Apercu ("Rep ipsa loquitor")
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