Saturday, June 14, 2014

Communism - A lay mans view

          I think communism is the best idea ever conceived by mankind since the discovery of fire and of course alchohol and load of other things I am suddenly reminded of. It was the solution to eliminate social and economic divide. It meant there would be enough resources for every human being and there would be complete equality in its true sense. This is what was envisioned by the founders of this idea of socialism which led to communism. It meant all industry would be nationalized so that  prices of products would be decided by a single body whole sole aim was the welfare of the masses. There would be no profits. All resources would be equally distributed among all the people - irrespective of all classifications of religion, creed and so on. So if socialism happened as a form of governance - there would be no divide of any sort and there would be only happiness and a life of plenty for everyone.

          So what I have stated above is socialism (I interchange between socialism and communism as the idea/concept is the same though the intensity of implementation of the governance varies) at its ideal. And the great stalwarts who propounded this idea too intended it to be ideal - because their intentions were that of social service and the betterment of humankind. But this was not to be. Communism still exists or should I rather say "thrives" in a few countries like China and Cuba. So is there complete equality in these countries? Do all the people of these countries have the Utopian world that the founders of socialism envisioned? The answer stares at you with a conviction really strong - NO!

Some facts about the situation there - In Cuba a qualified doctor earns the same amount of money as street fruit vendor - there's equality for you. In China anything stated against the government will lead to your arrest; its a crime to voice your opinion on the ruling party - there's the promised freedom.

          So where did socialism end and tyranny start? The answer to that is simple - there never was socialism. It was only in the books, the idea of it was like a magic potion for the suppressed masses. It was like the light at the end of the tunnel for the proletariat - the mass of people that did not enjoy wealth like the creamy layer of people.The idea appealed and whosoever struck the first light in that direction usually was accepted as the leader for the socialistic movement. All's well that ends well or is it?

          Men - we will always be corrupted, some by money and almost everyone by power.The desire to wield power over other men. That's the problem. I don't know if all the great men start off with truly pure intentions and then the sudden power intoxicates them into tyranny or if the very intention of starting off the movement itself is with the aim of power in mind. Either ways it ends up with a small band of men that rule the nation and subjects doing the very things they wanted to eliminate through socialism - amassing wealth and controlling everything including industry and army - literally running the country.

          And so with the same point I made at the beginning of this post I end - Communism is one of the best ideas ever, but once outside the mind, it is a dangerous thing. Well isn't democracy equally corrupt one may ask. Yes, it is!. The only difference between the two being, in case of a democracy the masses have the option of choosing their leader time and again without blood shed. A quite significant and important difference if you ask me.











           

2 comments:

  1. A good idea, just like what Gandhi said when asked what he thought about the Western civilization.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mr Matheikal. Thanks for the comment. Seeing your name, for a minute I thought it was going to be a Keralite fuming against my opinion on communism. :)

      Delete