BF2S Forums Alright, I'll say it - Marx had a good point.

Great idea in theory, doomed to fail in the real world.  There are no utopia's and it is not possible to create one.  Welcome to reality Karl.

Sadly I agree with all these points.  Whats the fun in that?  ;-)  It is an excellent concept but impossible in application.

puckmercury wrote:

Sadly I agree with all these points.  Whats the fun in that?  ;-)  It is an excellent concept but impossible in application.

It could only apply if some freak sci-fi thing happened, like our genes changing to make us uncompetitive,not greedy, etc. (which would kill the species). So, this further proves that its a really good theory, but in execution it fails.

Note: there are small communities i have heard of (not positive though) that have implemented communism and it worked--- but note these were, like, village-sized, not nation-sized.

Do you even understand communism? communism is a SUBFORM of socialism. Communism supports a socialist economic system with a totalitarian goverment

If you'd have tried to make this point 50 years ago, you'd probably go on trial as a spy or something :-D

IT is a great concept and would be amazing if it worked.  But like many have said...it has never fully worked, never been 100% communist country, and greed is a our downfall. But should it ever work fully then i would be impressed.

Karl Marxx had a gr8 idea that will never work in todays world worked fine in the stone age all 4 one but true communism wont work who would study to b a doctor if u get the same cash to work in a supermarket????
{quote}I have never been or will ever be a communist {Karl marxx}

spastic bullet wrote:

"Communism" and "capitalism" are both rooted in a time completely different from ours.  The words themselves don't even mean the same thing these days as when originally coined/created by Marx and Smith.  Neither can work as an unmodified system, but they're not without their merits.

I voted null, btw.  I almost always do. 

Almost missed this wtf u talking bout capitalim is the worlds main system.. todays version of functionalism fulled bye consumerism.....

Kendoson wrote:

spastic bullet wrote:

"Communism" and "capitalism" are both rooted in a time completely different from ours.  The words themselves don't even mean the same thing these days as when originally coined/created by Marx and Smith.  Neither can work as an unmodified system, but they're not without their merits.

I voted null, btw.  I almost always do. 

Almost missed this wtf u talking bout capitalim is the worlds main system.. todays version of functionalism fulled bye consumerism.....

Just pointing out that a lot has happened in the world since these ideas first appeared.  What they represent in people's minds today is quite different from how they are represented in the writings of Karl Marx and Adam Smith, because the world is quite different.

Although Adam Smith didn't use the word capitalism, he is probably the most widely cited and recognized names in the history of capitalist economic theory.  Read The Wealth of Nations and tell me the current global system doesn't more closely resemble what he called mercantilism, which he despised.  It's more complicated than this, but you get the idea...

Similarly, Marx envisioned communism as "inevitably" following the "collapse of capitalism".  In other words, for a country to even be a candidate for communism, it would first have to be capitalist (i.e. industrialized), and then "inevitably collapse".  He was thinking of Britain or Germany, specifically.

Russia and China were both overwhelmingly agrarian societies when they went communist, so they had to be industrialized after the fact to "meet" Marx's criteria.  That's not how it works, though, and as a result, we could probably power several small countries from the raw wattage generated by Marx's turbine-like corpse, but I digress...

The point is, they are both philosophies from another era.  It's polemically useful to hang on to words that arouse a lot of emotion, but they often don't retain their original meaning for very long, and certainly not over the space of two to three hundred years.  See Democracy, for another example of this. 

Last edited by spastic bullet (2006-06-20 02:33:02)

The problem is Capitalism and Communism cannot coexist in the same global marketplace. If the cold war had not begun and Communism had spread across the entire world, who knows were it could have led us. Perhaps it would have been a Utopian society or perhaps it would have been akin to Animal Farm. Its hard to know. Personally I think Communism would have worked but would have taken years and generations of suffering and massive upheaval. What is our alternative? The world keeps eating itself to drive this capitalistic society. Everyone trying to out do and out compete each other at the expense of the poor and the worlds resources. I think Communism would fix the problems in Africa much quicker that the current system of suppression and exploitation to stop Africa becoming the next China. Maybe is it was Communist like china it would have been allowed after some years of isolation to flourish. I don't think we will know. I predict an upsurging of Communism within the next 50 years when the shit starts to hit the fan in regards to oil gas and resources.

Socialism > Communism

Marx idea of communism is the best. communism only works in countries that are industrialized. communism is not evil, its totalitarian. most communist govs become towards more totalitarian than communism.