Karl Marx,
in his writings in Economical and
Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, describes his ideas on Communism and Capitalism,
and the relationship between the two. Marx believed that Communism is always
the result of a Capitalist society, because of many reasons. In Capitalism, as
the classes separate into the bourgeoisie, the owners of the means of
production, and the proletariat, the working class, the economical and social
divide inevitably grows. The bourgeoisie grow richer and fewer, while the
proletariat become poorer and more populous. Marx illustrates that Capitalism,
by definition, requires the exploitation of the proletariat. Eventually, the
class divide will become so great that the proletariat will revolt against the
bourgeoisie in hopes of achieving living conditions above sustenance level.
As there are flaws in Capitalism,
there are flaws in Communism. Because you receive an amount independent of your
contributions to society, you have no incentive to work hard or contribute.
This brings the Communist society into a downward spiral, making it unable to
thrive. Despite this seemingly obvious aspect of Communism, many countries have
attempted to survive in a world of Capitalism. The Soviet Union was not a prime
example of Marx’s true ideals; in fact, it was a mild perversion of his
mentality. Perhaps this is because Communism is not completely plausible in
real-world society. We can see from the past and present that a Communist society
is very difficult to survive in. Cuba and North Korea, two extremely Communist
countries, are simply overlooked because, by choice, they have isolated
themselves from the thriving world Capitalist economy. In addition, Communist
countries inevitably shed a negative light onto the Marxist ideals, because the
conditions in which their people live are extremely undesirable.
After all of this analysis, one must ask,
can a country rise out of Communism? If so, what comes after Communism? The
Russian Federation, once the Communist Soviet Union, is a semi-presidential
Republic. Because Marxist Communism is implausible in a real-world society,
Communism cannot thrive indefinitely in the world. Only after a coup did was
the country able to begin as a new government. As such, it seems as though
revolt is inevitable; Capitalism leads to separation of classes, which leads to
revolt, while Communism leads to the desperation of its citizens for reasonable
living conditions, also ending in revolt. Perhaps there is an undetectable cycle, one that takes centuries to oscillate, and is unpredictable as revolutions are.
I agree with you Will, there is no perfect way to govern a large body of people, because people are not perfect. What I mean by that is that there is no garuntee that citizens are willing to abide by the rules in which the governing body implements. Thus the possibility of a utopia can be ruled out, and a utopia is necessary in order for Marx's definition of a communist society to exist. Furthermore, in a true communist society there can be no system of checks and balances because that would indicate some system of government, which Communism obviously strays from. Marx believed that if everybody had what they needed, then everyone would be content. This is not possible because of human ambition and greed. There are always going to be those people who attempt to rise to power, because most humans are not content with being equals. If a person sees an opportunity to become the leader or master of the other, he or she is going to take it because that is natural human ambition. That is why Communism has not worked, and that is why Communism will not work. Personally, I just don't believe that it is possible not to have a functioning society for a long period of time without a hierarchal system of government. And if we accept this to be true, then the lesser of two evils would be to have these officials be elected by the people.
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