When one thinks of the word, communism, they think about the horrible period of history where the USA had to save the world from this epidemic that came from the Soviet Union. This “epidemic” spread to important countries such as Vietnam and Cuba that affected the way their government influenced the people. In general, communism is described mainly as the idea that to maintain balance and peace in the social order, there cannot be any class systems. No one person can reap the benefits of working men. In theory, this provides great strides to defeating the injustice that the poorer families face; however, to actually practice this, it has resulted in quite disastrous results as we can see through previous events in history.
In the United States, communism is seen as a sinful idea that could in the years after World War 1 cause people to be deported based on affiliation. This red scare in America was caused by the thought that Bolshevists are the reason behind almost all things bad in the universe and where the government owns everything. This caused the Palmer Raids, where if one was a part of the raid, they were immediately arrested. It was the beginning of the exclusion of the communists in America, which caused the case of Schenck v. the US. This case was a vital supreme court case that enforced the Espionage Act, deeming anyone who is portrayed as calling a clear and present danger, especially in regards to the government, they are to be arrested. The US was not the only place that communism creates a huge impact.
In places like Russia, Cuba, China, Vietnam, and more, communism was their way of life. They believed that everything was for everyone. This idea was founded by two philosophers, Karl Marx (who Marxism was named after) and Friedrich Engels. These men wrote the book The Communist Manifesto, which illustrated how capitalism is the epitome of inequality in a society, and to change this, there must be a system to create an equal playing field for people. They talk about how the poor should be treated as equals to paying for a stable standard of living with the help of the government. As it appealed to a great sum of common people, this government seemed to be the best option. In addition, when reading this, it does not sound too bad because the poor are being taken care of, they can actually afford things now, and the balance of society is restored. These are all things we would want to achieve as well to be able to feed the poor with the government help. However, something changes when it is actually put into practice.
Once the cycles turn, the people failed to realize that all communism has instilled is a monotonous schedule, no freedom, and no productivity along with food to fulfill their very basic needs. They later find that even though they appreciated the benefits to be able to sustain life, they wanted more. They wanted a capitalistic society. In general, capitalism is described as an “economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods. This allows for one’s private decision regarding investments and partakes in competition in a free market by prices, production, and the distribution of goods.” (Merriam-Webster). Therefore, capitalism basically provides a freedom to grow and aspire new things, to go beyond the basic needs and head to the list of “wants”. It pushes people to compete in the market, which is proven to increase productivity and can allow for more workers in the society as well. This, then, boosts the economy as people have a greater amount of disposable income to spend, and finally, the government has a great amount of revenue. All of this comes from the drive to succeed and to improve one’s self in order to be the best and receive benefits. That is the system that the USA has believed in a while and has enforced, making our country very powerful in the eyes of other countries in the world.
When a mass of people wants something, they are going to find a way, whether it be through illegal means or destructive. This is a great example of why communism lost the support that is had in theory because truly the common people did not want to just live, but they wanted to excel and move forward. They wanted to buy a house that could actually fit their family size. They wanted to work fewer hours in blue collar jobs and actually seek promotion. They wanted to compete in society freely without the government telling them what to do. Therefore, they knew that this system was flawed and the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were not supported by the common people. These former low-income citizens had to partake in manual labor to pay back the government for giving them the same food item twice a day. They did not even receive pay because they are to be equals and do something for the government. Therefore, resorting to other questionable means was the way to go for these people.
They realized that their life before was better even though they did not have anything, all because they were once free. “One would save something like beans from their former, pre-communism life and trade with others for things like cheese or jam, which was illegal.” (News24). This is why black markets started to rise, which was, of course, illegal as well because it was a sign of greed. In the communist system, greed to banned as it causes people to want more and not be slaves to a government. In the capitalistic society, greed is how people succeed. This term, greed, has a quite negative connotation to its meaning. It basically means one can want more than another, hence, one can say that a more positive term for this is competition. Competition is how capitalism thrives and is what communism wants to get rid of, even though their ruler will reap the benefits of it. This is important because black markets are a sign of greed/ competition as it lingers because people want more than what they have, and in a communist society, one did not have much.
In addition along with the need for capitalism in society, another reason for the failure in practice of communism is the dictatorship. In general, dictatorship is described as a “form of government in which one person or a small group possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations” (Britannica). Basically, in a dictatorship, only one person/ small group has the power to do literally whatever they want with anything, using any resource or men at their disposal. In some ways a dictatorship was positive in that it allowed for one person to make the decisions, it was easy to move forward because only his word means anything. However, as we all know, there is plenty of negative aspects of a dictator in society. In history, we find that the premise of dictatorship comes from an ancient concept called fear. This fear can make the people do anything that the ruler wants. This includes even the one-percent of the population who are actually wealthy. Because people are afraid of this government, no one wants to take a risk, no one wants to be bold and be different, no one actually wants to succeed. People at this time simply want to live and remain unnoticed. This also goes for the rich because they simply want to live and remain the same by simply going by what the dictator says, which causes no productivity in this system as well to improve. In communism, the great ruler is who the people work for to pay back for the food and other basic necessities that they have fulfilled. Therefore, in this dictatorship, there is no productivity and incentive to get better, just a way of life to remain stagnant.
The dictatorship system also did not allow for any check of power upon the one dictator. Even those with some influence, more the than the common people, could not voice their opinion to critique the government. This is because it was simply wrong to go against the ruler. People who got by the system while doing nothing did not get punished, and on the flip side, some people were wrongly punished for no real reason. Therefore, this system entails corruption, causing the people to remain afraid and nothing gets done. Moreover, even though this governmental style is corrupt, it does not feed the individual. It does not allow for the people to create and be unique because of the mentality that their ideas may benefit the tyranny and further make the people its slaves. Communism failed because of the lack of care for new ideas that people can offer society, through the means of a dictatorship and the need for a capitalistic system by the people’s eyes.
All in all, we always hear that communism is a bad thing on the internet or even in our education because of what it did in the USSR, China, and other places and how it affected the USA. It caused people to work hard for nothing and were expected to be happy with what they had by the grace of the great ruler/ dictator. However, when one reads the Communist Manifesto, it sounds like it is meant to help set a level field for all people. It sounds as though the world will finally wipe out the extremely poor, and there will be a balance in society. “The world will be for the common people” (Communist Manifesto) or not.