Sinergy
Posts: 9383
Joined: 4/26/2004
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Level
When I hear the term "marxist", I get ideas, or to put it another way, I draw upon what little I've read or heard about it, which generally leads into marxism and the redistrubution of wealth, and the giving of power into the hands of the people moreso than in the hands of leaders and corporations.
Karl Marx wrote a number of books and presented a number of theories based around an idea that all political strivings are economically determined. His theories stated that one class of people would amass capital and keep it away from the other classes, and that social upheaval was inevitable because of this.
Communism is a political system wherein the capital in a country is wrested away from the ones who hold it, and redistributed among all the citizens of the country.
The four examples I gave about Communist countries were:
Russia: Went through several "communist" changes based initially on the theories of Karl Marx as interpreted by Lenin. This worked fine to take away the capital from the hands of those who controlled it, but was not redistributed because... Stalin took over, shot everybody who didnt agree with him, and clamped down on the power system in his country and consolidated the capital. I tend to think that the book 1984 tended to be modelled after Stalin's version of communism. Kruschev spent most of his time consolidating his power base, hanging on to centralized control of their capital, and playing "King of the Hill" with the West.
China: Chairman Mao consolidated all the power in the country, and then set up a ruling elite to manage it. This worked fine until he died, and the Chinese went back to doing what they enjoy most; amassing personal capital.
North Vietnam: Referred to themselves as "Communist" because they wanted some measure of support from China, and because Ho Chi Minh believed that Vietnam and all of it's capital should be for the Vietnamese, not the Japanese, French, or United States. When the United States left, Vietnam put a government into place which allowed for the development of a capitalist-style economy. To my knowledge, they probably still call themselves communist.
"Sticking feathers in your butt does not make you a chicken."
Tyler Durden, Fight Club.
Kampuchea: Pol Pot killed everybody (mostly) with a 2nd grade education or higher, and put those still alive to work in the fields. All this while amassing the countries capital under his government.
These are all examples of the first couple of phases of Communism, not Marxism, but the step where the wealth goes back out into the "proletariat," which would be where Communism and Marxism meet up, never happened.
To summarize, none of these 4 countries were Communist, even if they called themselves Communist.
So my question to you would be "what is it about the theories of Karl Marx that you find so offensive?" He stated a political / economic theory. Are you upset with Einstein because he developed theories which allowed other people to develop nuclear weapons?
Sinergy
_____________________________
"There is a fine line between clever and stupid"
David St. Hubbins "This Is Spinal Tap"
"Every so often you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You cant do that, it is gone, gone forever." J. Danforth Quayle
|
RE: Truth Hurts - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread