(Author’s Note: This text is intended to be one or two steps removed from over-simplification. The target audience is an eighth grade class. We will discuss the philosophical idealism vs. the practical and historical application of communism as seen in one or two countries. We will also broach dialectical materialism and historical materialism in very simplified terms.)
It is important to note two things before discussing Marxism/Communism (or even Socialism).
1. Marx was not alone in devising a communist philosophy, nor was he even the first. Communist ideologies had existed in France and other European countries for more than 100 years before Marx. Certainly the root concept of communal living had been around for millennia. Marx’s Communist Manifesto was, however, the most comprehensive document on the subject, replete with the historical and philosophical foundations necessary to be accepted, even grudgingly as it was, by the rest of the world.
2. Marx, like all communists of his time, was responding to what he truly believed to be an evil philosophy – the philosophy of capitalism. Marx lived through the industrial revolution of the mid-1800s, an age filled with every conceivable mistake that could be made in the name of capitalism. Slavery, child labor, predatory monopolies, harmful products and lethal work places are but a few of the crimes against humanity that Marx lived to see. In his mind, Marx truly desired to help humanity, and communism – even as brutal as he knew it would be – seemed a small price to pay to escape capitalism.
Marx’s most famous work on the subject of communism was his Communist Manifesto. In it, he gave reasons why the world should reject of all other governments and economic systems (especially capitalism), and why the entire world should become communist. He also explains how a communist government should be started and maintained.
Marx did not just hate capitalism for all of the evils that can spring from it; he hated the basic philosophy behind capitalism. This is important, because Marx could not accept any form of capitalism, even if all of the criminal externalities (results) could be removed completely.
Capitalism is based on the idea that someone risks his or her money and energy to start a business. Within this business, the owner hires other people to perform labor that earns money (profit) for the company and for the owner. In modern capitalism, labor is seen as something to be rented out to the highest bidder. Workers are free to negotiate wages, change employers or even start their own businesses.
Marx defined capitalism a bit differently because of his particular view of labor. He equated labor with ownership of one’s own body. To accept wages in exchange for labor was to sell oneself into a form of slavery. He also believed profits were stolen money that belonged to the workers who made the products and performed the services for the business. Benefiting from another person’s labor (whether a slave or an employee) was the worst kind of evil, Marx said.
(Take care to note the reason Marx hated capitalism. This same problem is also found in communism. One must wonder if Marx would have hated his own form of government too, if he had lived to see it in practice.)
Marx’s most famous quote is not about his hatred of capitalism, but about his hatred of religion. “Religion is the opiate of the people,” he said, equating religion with the most addictive and deadly drugs of his time. Marx wanted religion abolished, and he made forced atheism a formal part of communism.
Some experts argue that all people have an inherent need for spirituality, and without the option of religion, they may become desperate for a belief in something greater than themselves. Communism has rejected religion, but has still tried to tap into the human need for spirituality. In a way, they have created a new religion called Deification of the State. Infamous communists like Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong used this new kind of religion to make people believe they were virtual gods. The people of their countries were encourage (or forced, in some cases) to worship them. Ironically, by rejecting religion, communism has become a kind of theocracy.
Democracy is a government system, not an economic system; to function completely, democracy has to incorporate an economic system like capitalism or socialism. Unlike democracy, communism is both a government system and an economic system. It exists on the extreme left of both the political and economic spectra.
Where capitalism encourages private (personal) ownership of all property, communism forbids it. In communism, the collective public should own all property together, and government should organize and control all manufacturing and employment.
In his Communist Manifest, Marx said communism would happen in three phases:
1. Bloody Revolution:
In order to create this new society, the believers of communism would have to destroy the existing government. While the term Bloody might seem an unnecessary description, Marx truly believed that a revolution would require a violent destruction of all previous systems in order to set a proper stage for the second phase.
2. Dictatorship of the Proletariat:
One person (a dictator) or a few elite people (an oligarchy) would have to take absolute power to remove or destroy every person that conflicted with communism. Ideas about political and economic freedoms associated with democracy or capitalism had to be destroyed. Marx recommended that this be done with “re-education” of the Proletariat (common people) through propaganda. But Marx went on to say that people who resisted the “re-education” and insisted on religious, democratic or capitalistic freedoms should be imprisoned, tortured or even killed.
Under phase two of communist systems, all of the freedoms that many western countries take for granted are non-existent. Communist governments control every aspect of life, including what jobs people have, what level of education they receive, where they live, what items they can purchase, who they can marry, how many children they can have, and even whether they live or die.
For reasons explained in phase three, no communist nation has ever moved beyond phase two (or what we call ‘practical’ communism). People in communist systems, then, live in a constant state of oppression and tyranny, always fearful about saying the wrong thing or angering a government official. Approximately 100 million people have been murdered under communist oppression, in many cases for no crime other than saying a few words.
3. Egalitarian Utopia:
Marx said that when all of the non-communists were destroyed or removed, the government could release its power, allowing every person to be completely equal, both politically and economically. The word egalitarian refers to this perfect equality. Utopia, of course, refers to Plato’s idea of a political paradise. Marx hoped the world would become a perfect (ideal) communist paradise, filled with people who were completely equal and who would not be able to abuse others or be abused by others.
This has never happened in any of the dozens of countries that have gone to communist systems. According to philosopher George Orwell, it will never happen for the simple reason that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Orwell pointed out that once a person has all the power humanly possible – and has even in some cases been called a god – that person can never give up the power and agree to a position among the common people, working as they work, and living as they live in relative poverty. (Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm, uses an allegory of Russia’s history to examine this idea further.)
There are other problems with this perfect society, also. Even if the leaders could release their power, how would the world stop others from trying to grab that power? How can we trust an entire world of people to live peacefully without law or a justice system? How can we show people the value of education or hard work if there are no benefits tied to them? How can we organize our world to be sure food and supplies go where they are needed? As the world currently exists, we would not be able to do any of these; without some kind of government, there is only anarchy.
What Marx has accidentally created would seem to be his worst nightmare. Everything he most hated about capitalism is also a part of practical communism. When Marx criticized capitalism, he especially liked to point out that capitalism was supposed put an end to the elite classes and abuses of the previous system (feudalism), and yet it had created a new elite class and allowed the same abuses to continue. Marx called this an Internal Conflict. Marx did not live to see this term applied to his own system of government, but it most definitely does apply:
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Marx hated capitalism because it… · Falsely promised an end to abuses of the previous system (Feudalism) · Created an elite class of people (wealthy individuals) · Turned the working classes into virtual slaves · Allowed the elite to be greedy and abuse their power · Ignored its Internal Conflict · Did not care that people were dying from unsafe products and work-places |
Communism has… · Falsely promised an end to the abuses of the previous system (Capitalism) · Created an elite class of people (government officials) · Turned the working classes into virtual slaves · Allowed the elite to be greedy and abuse their power · Ignored its Internal Conflict · Deliberately killed millions of people for believing in religious, political or economic freedom |
Capitalism and communism are both obviously flawed systems. Somehow, we need to take the best parts of both systems and careful avoid the worst parts. Many countries, including the USA, have decided that we can find a compromise between the systems. We can have the freedom of democracy and capitalism, but we give the government a little more power to keep people safe and make businesses act fairly. This compromise between democracy/capitalism and communism is called socialism.
Socialism can be difficult to explain, because many kinds of socialism exist.
Communist countries, like China, often call themselves socialist countries. True enough, China has added a tiny bit of capitalism to its communist system, so it is considered an “extreme” form of socialism. The only people who can start businesses in China, however, have to receive special permission from the government. This means that people who are good friends with government officials, or who know the right person to bribe, are able to start businesses, but the average person cannot. The government of China can also choose to nationalize a business (take it away from the owner) at any time, for any reason.
The USA has a form of socialism that is mostly capitalistic and democratic. Government control is limited by the Constitution, so America is considered to have a very “mild” form of socialism. In America, anyone can get a business license and start a business. The government insists that businesses pay taxes, pay workers a minimum wage, and maintain safe products and work-places, but few other restrictions exist. The government cannot take the business away from the owner unless it has an extreme reason to do so, and even then it must prove in court that it has acted constitutionally.
In an imperfect world, there can never be a perfect government of any type, not even a perfect balance of socialism. Corporations and businesses often find new ways to abuse the freedoms in this country, and yet we have to find ways to fix these problems without sacrificing too much of our freedom. Our solutions need to be careful and limited, so that our government does not become even more abusive than our corporations.