this post is in response to the responses I found in the post: people say:…‘stoopid communists.’
ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/vi … p?t=158983
I would like to deal with communism as an economic system first.
some people prosper adhering to capitalism, while some people do not. Some people prosper adhering to communism, while some people do not.
which one is ‘better’ changes from vantage point. o.k.
in a ‘civilized’ or ‘modern’ society the element of physical strength really no longer applies to survival.
i.e. Bill Gates does not appear to be physically fit, however he is surviving, reproduced, and will most likely be able to raise his offspring to an age that the will be able to reproduce.
with laws, police, and the justice system in modern societies, people have evolved to a point where physical strength (once an important characteristic in terms of survival) no longer plays an important role. Those that have not evolved accordingly, i.e. when caught battering some, go to prison.
This demonstrates that humans are separating themselves, or taming, their primitive characteristics, while adopting new, civil, survival characteristics.
Greed is an important characteristic in terms of survival. The more one has, i.e. food, shelter, clothing, land, ect., the more likely they will survive and reproduce.
Greed is the basis of capitalism. One wants their own (private ownership), and one continues to work to acquire more and more for one’s self.
Thus, capitalism is a system fueled by the primitive survival characteristic greed.
For communism to flourish, the mass of the population would have to separate themselves, or tame, their primitive survival characteristic of greed. and the few that could not adapt, when caught being greedy, i.e. taking more than one needs to survive and reproduce, go to prison.
Why not shed this primitive characteristic of greed, like humans have shed the primitive characteristic of physical strength?
Please do not claim communism will not work because people are lazy. Those lazy people will still have to work enough to produce what they need to survive. If they don’t, just like in a capitalist system, they will not survive.
Now, to Communism as a political system, which many portray as: rule by dictatorship, tyrant, ect. On a philosophy site one would imagine the choice would be for a philosopher king to run the show.
However, the end game of communism is to have no govenment. But this will never happen because, for the most part, humans can not tame, or shed, all of our primitive instincts and continue to behave like the beasts we are.
feel free to disagree.