A Little History Lesson

During the election and even now I keep hearing people say- great welcome to Socialist Republic of the United States. This partially baffles me. Not only does it baffle me, but last I checked didn't the Cold War end? I remember it happening. I even saw the place in Iceland where Reagan or Gorbachev met to discuss it. I remember the wall coming down and a few months after it did, I went to Berlin with my high school and I got to write on the wall and pick away at it. I walked through a hole in the wall to the Eastern side where the wall was stark white. So I remember all the tension and that fear that was drilled in us.

So why is this all coming back? Has the election brought out the bad in people and they are just trying to place their blame on what we should all expect to happen? Granted things in Russia are a little off (okay more than a little). And if I am not mistaken, didn't the current government take over the investment banks? And to go around yelling Socialism like it's a bad word. But yet again, I know what that word means. I think people are confusing it with Communism. There are still communist countries out there, remember we had our Olympic games in one this past summer. But there are also Socialist countries that are NOT communist. So I thought I would review the differences between the two.


Socialism

Wikipedia says- Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society. Modern socialism originated in the late nineteenth-century working class political movement. Karl Marx posited that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution which represents the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.

Socialists mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly, although there is considerable disagreement among socialists over how, and to what extent this could be achieved.

Now granted, there are different degrees of socialism, which i will not fully go into at this time. Now Marx had written many things about socialism and was buddies with Lenin (who was not all evil in Soviet history, that was Stalin because he was paranoid). Granted they were making an ideology and making a manifesto. Like all good plans, you really need to see it go into action in order to tweak and fine tune.

Socialism is liberal. More people (preferably everyone) have some say in how the economy works. Democracy is liberal. More people (preferably everyone) have some say in how the government works. "Democracy," said Marx, "is the road to socialism." He was wrong about how economics and politics interact, but he did see their similar underpinnings.

In 1951, the Socialist International was re founded by the European social democratic parties. It declared: "Communism has split the International Labour Movement and has set back the realisation of Socialism in many countries for decades... Communism falsely claims a share in the Socialist tradition. In fact it has distorted that tradition beyond recognition. It has built up a rigid theology which is incompatible with the critical spirit of Marxism."

In 1945, the British Labour Party, led by Clement Attlee, was elected to office based upon a radical, socialist program. Socialist and Communist parties dominated the post-war French, Italian, Czechoslovak, Belgian, Norwegian, and other, governments. In Sweden, the Social Democratic Party held power from 1936 to 1976 and then again from 1982 to 1991 and from 1994 to 2006. Labour parties governed Australia and New Zealand. In Germany, the Social Democrats lost in 1949.

So really it's not so scary. It's not a dictatorship and it's just making the playing ground a bit more level. I like the idea that the workers, who help the fat cats get rich, get their share of the pot. And hell, look at Sweden. Bet most of you had no idea it was Socialist. No granted, i am not saying- YEAH! let's all be socialists... but we should know what it is. This of course has it's flaws too.


Communism


Wikipedia states- Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless society based on common ownership of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human society, evolving into a classless, stateless society of "pure communism". Leninists have attempted to produce communist societies by setting up political parties, which in some cases have become governments. These attempts have never produced the "pure" communist societies envisioned by Marx, and have led to totalitarian states.

Communism is usually considered to be a branch of socialism, a broad group of social and political ideologies, which draws on the various political and intellectual movements with origins in the work of theorists of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. Communism attempts to offer an alternative to the problems believed to be inherent with capitalist economies and the legacy of imperialism and nationalism. Communism states that the only way to solve these problems is for the working class, or proletariat, to replace the wealthy bourgeoisie, which is currently the ruling class, in order to establish a peaceful, free society, without classes, or government. The dominant forms of communism, such as Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism and Trotskyism are based on Marxism, but non-Marxist versions of communism (such as Christian communism and anarchist communism) also exist. In the schema of historical materialism, communism is the idea of a free society with no division or alienation, where mankind is free from oppression and scarcity. A communist society would have no governments, countries, or class divisions.

Communism is conservative. Fewer and fewer people (preferably just the Party Secretary) have any say in how the economy works. Republicans are conservative. Fewer and fewer people (preferably just people controlling the Party figurehead) have any say in how the government works. The conservatives in the US are in the same position as the communists in the 30s, and for the same reason: Their revolutions failed spectacularly but they refuse to admit what went wrong.

A common mistake is to confuse Socialism, the economic system, with Communism, the political system. Communists are "socialist" in the same way that Republicans are "compassionate conservatives". That is, they give lip service to ideals they have no intention of practicing.

During the communist reign, they were to remain atheist. No religious icons were allowed. Only images of Lenin or Stalin. The posters showed off the workers and the hammer and sickle. Walking around Moscow two summers ago, I got to see how it has all changed. How the poor were extremely poor while the rich were extremely rich. There were stark differences. They were proud of the workers and showed it off wherever they could. I saw the iconic hammer and sickle on everything and images of wheat. They have taken down a lot of the statues and discarded them as rubbish, but they do still exist everywhere you look. Granted in the Kremlin, there are the churches and the government, along with tombs of past Czar's. At one point they were going to tear down St. Basil's Cathedral because of the opposition to religion.

How I see all this is that Socialism is an ideal way to live. Where we are all one and the little man is helped by the bigger man. Break down the barriers of class. This sounds nice. Utopia. Granted, that ever really happening will never be. That is how i see communism. It was someone that took a great idea, but still felt that need to have power and prove themselves above others. It made socialism bad. Granted, we have these images in our minds of these "evil" people that are in control of these communist countries. But all in all, that is what they are... evil. They have lost their minds and the greed of power has taken them over. Look at Fidel Castro. He wasn't a horrible man... he just wanted to give the country back to the people. The world made him the way he is now.

Now I want all the crazy talk about Obama going into the office and making the country a socialist state. So, with a little history lesson under your belt, just don't end up being this guy Freaking scary.