Communism in Principle and in Practice- an ocean of difference
Most of us know what Communism stands for right? It stands for equality of status, zero private property, revolutionary spirit , a class struggle to accelerate the removal of the class system, etc....
It's principles were truly appealing to me as they gave the appearance of a truly fair and free society, free of most faults. Earlier, this system made great sense to me and greatly appealed to me as well.
Based on the thoughts of one of the greatest thinkers of all time Karl Marx and
However, my first knowledge of practical communism was the U S S R. In the beginning all I had in mind was that this was one of the greatest exponents of communism in the world. However , I soon had my expectations brought down to the earth in a resounding crash! Communism was Dictatorial, violated all human rights it possibly could, preached equality only in name and not in practice which brought me immense grief.
Stalin's violent and brutal rule over Russia which derived its power only by Terror profoundly shook me . It was painful to think of the many innocents who had been slaughtered , tortured or purged just in order to keep their ruler in power. Stalin's usage of mass purges as a political tool to eliminate foes killed most of my optimism in Communism.
Recently I read a book on Mao in which many terrible truths about his rule from various sources. Sad to say, Mao's book only made it even more apparent that political killings were the essence of ruling a communist country. Mao's regime killed over seventy million people a fact which tore me utterly apart. Although communism is excellent in ideology, it gets nowhere in practice. In essence , they become authoritarians themselves unwilling to tolerate any amount of dissent or differences. They simply want to be the only political power in the state that they control. This sadly has been the fate of Communists worldwide and includes India as well.
They simply refuse to forgo the belief that they alone can be the true authoritarian master of the country in what will effectively be a single party state . Even today Communists in many areas around the world simply refuse to budge from that belief and in effect refuse to accept the democratic system of power. This has caused them to stay away from power and coalitions as they refused to share power.
This last point for me is the most damning of all , as this has alleviated the leftist influence from the people although it was truly necessary. Also this has led to to the loss of relevance of the left , which can only be termed as a tragedy. Unless the Communists change their ways in order to work with interests of the people in a majority setup and not dreaming of a single state power they might well disappear completely... In order to survive they have to become moderates as well as renounce revolutionary methods which lead to much suffering.
They also need to give up their continuous praise of past Communist leaders of various countries in spite of their obvious crimes and heinous acts .
If these measures are carried out , I am sure the Left will come back into relevance, if not it will fade away into an old relic of the past which has no relevance today.
It's principles were truly appealing to me as they gave the appearance of a truly fair and free society, free of most faults. Earlier, this system made great sense to me and greatly appealed to me as well.
Based on the thoughts of one of the greatest thinkers of all time Karl Marx and
However, my first knowledge of practical communism was the U S S R. In the beginning all I had in mind was that this was one of the greatest exponents of communism in the world. However , I soon had my expectations brought down to the earth in a resounding crash! Communism was Dictatorial, violated all human rights it possibly could, preached equality only in name and not in practice which brought me immense grief.
Stalin's violent and brutal rule over Russia which derived its power only by Terror profoundly shook me . It was painful to think of the many innocents who had been slaughtered , tortured or purged just in order to keep their ruler in power. Stalin's usage of mass purges as a political tool to eliminate foes killed most of my optimism in Communism.
Recently I read a book on Mao in which many terrible truths about his rule from various sources. Sad to say, Mao's book only made it even more apparent that political killings were the essence of ruling a communist country. Mao's regime killed over seventy million people a fact which tore me utterly apart. Although communism is excellent in ideology, it gets nowhere in practice. In essence , they become authoritarians themselves unwilling to tolerate any amount of dissent or differences. They simply want to be the only political power in the state that they control. This sadly has been the fate of Communists worldwide and includes India as well.
They simply refuse to forgo the belief that they alone can be the true authoritarian master of the country in what will effectively be a single party state . Even today Communists in many areas around the world simply refuse to budge from that belief and in effect refuse to accept the democratic system of power. This has caused them to stay away from power and coalitions as they refused to share power.
This last point for me is the most damning of all , as this has alleviated the leftist influence from the people although it was truly necessary. Also this has led to to the loss of relevance of the left , which can only be termed as a tragedy. Unless the Communists change their ways in order to work with interests of the people in a majority setup and not dreaming of a single state power they might well disappear completely... In order to survive they have to become moderates as well as renounce revolutionary methods which lead to much suffering.
They also need to give up their continuous praise of past Communist leaders of various countries in spite of their obvious crimes and heinous acts .
If these measures are carried out , I am sure the Left will come back into relevance, if not it will fade away into an old relic of the past which has no relevance today.
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