The Fable of Communism

Recently, I was listening to a liberal commentator talk about the Republican demonization of communism. Earlier this May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill officially designating November 7 as "Victims of Communism Day." It also requires the state Board of Education to include lessons about the perniciousness of communism. The point the commentator was making, was how Republicans still use communism as the poltergeist; justifying the absence of affordable healthcare by ostensibly running away from Karl Marx and his fiendish ideology. Then, he said we didn't need this imperial edict from DeSantis, given we already teach about communism in school. We already teach about the Soviet Union in history class, about Vietnam and Castro. Then he turned to the potential communists in his audience and said: "But let's be real here for a moment, communism, no matter how much you might like it in theory, it has actually never worked in practice. Okay, that's just a reality." Now, this is not coming from a conservative in disguise, this is a real lefty, like me. But this sadly is a common occurrence; a lot of liberal, progressive orators don't understand what communism is. I don't consider myself a communist—a position I'll explain later—first, let me give you a crash course on the political philosophy we're discussing. Maybe you've heard these defining characteristics listed before; a classless, stateless, currency-less society where the means of production are in workers' control. From the starting line, we can assess the legitimacy of the alleged communist regimes. Classless? Chairman Mao? The President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, or Castro, the President of Cuba? Juxtapose their living conditions with their population, and I think we can safely give them an F grade for classless. How about stateless? No, they had very powerful states with enormous government control, and power concentrated in the ruling class. Okay, another fail, moneyless then? Soviet ruble, Vietnamese dong, Chinese Yuan, say no. Why then do these countries call themselves communist? After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Lenin disbanded the constituent assembly, destroyed the factory councils and popular movements, and moved to what he privately called state capitalism. He claimed it was a holding action until the real socialist revolution began in Germany. His understanding, or validity of his self- proclaimed dedication to Marx, can be questioned, but the absence of communism can't. The predominant doctrine of these nations is authoritarianism; they called themselves socialists for the same reason they called themselves democracies, to ride the positive reputation to political victory. Back then, socialism had a lot of popular appeal, it was considered virtuous and moral. For that same reason, western propaganda sang the same song; they pointed to authoritarian regimes, and excitedly parrotted the same proclamations, whilst laughing at their obviously absurd claim of being democrats. The global commentariat should thank their lucky stars that communism can't sue for defamation. The argument I hear from both ends of the political spectrum, about communist or socialist policies never having worked, should be countered with a single rhetorical question: When has it ever been tried? Because communism is a fairytale, an egalitarian society without money or inequality. Amusingly, the closest examples of this fabled utopia I've seen are in some of Disney's animated movies. When it comes to real life though, there isn't one state that ever gave it an honest and serious attempt. So... Hail communism? I don't think we should, aforementioned I'm not a communist. To me, creating a blueprint of society, before implementing it, is the wrong way around. It shouldn't be delivered from above, it should grow from below. I suggest, we advise people on a course of action—such as fairer economic policies, universal healthcare, and broader civil liberties—and let society develop naturally towards a system in which positive human qualities and morals lead our way forward. The systems of oppression will slowly rust away if we are successful in making our ethics guide our system, rather than conversely. And who knows... maybe future generations will live in that fairytale.