Why so many People Despise Communism?
By: Andrei Tapalaga
Tags: Communism, History, Politics, Government, Capitalism

Why so many People Despise Communism?

There are so many different views on political communism as most cultures and nations see it from different viewpoints based on how they have been indoctrinated. Capitalism has had and still has a deep repugnance for communism even if many do believe that this is mainly caused by the cold war. An interesting fact is that more and more American young adults are taking a high interest in communism from a positive interest.

Many get communism very wrong by saying that it is all the same no matter if we are talking about communism in the Soviet Union compared to the communistic system present in North Korea. The culture within the country can have a major impact on the type of communistic system embedded within the nation. Many argue that North Korea presents itself as a hard communistic country when in reality they present themselves more like a feudal society.

A bit of background

I come from Eastern Europe and despite the fact that I have not lived in the times of communism I can see the after-effects as well as wise stories of how the lifestyle was actually better but, we must keep in mind that we are talking about a whole different generation that was and still is seeing life from a different perspective. It has been brought to my attention so many times by elder people that I should not talk about it as I have not lived through it but with that kind of mentality than why do, we even have historians? It is just as saying that just because you did not fight in the Second World War you should not talk about it. This is the type of mindset that is keeping us back from really understanding the “why?” and “how” in most complications.

It is easy to compare a generation that is 10 years apart so let’s not even mention the distant different of a generation that has lived through full-blown communism. Based on this it is important to mention that at the moment of writing this article I am 21 years of age but despite my age, I have a very mature mindset and appreciative of the elder generation. The main reason why I think communism is good, to say the least, is that it is fair. In order to discuss this, you must understand how most people tend to see fairness.

It is very important to understand that I believe that communism can be favourable but to the right type of people.

Fairness from a social point of view

A good example would be you and the two neighbours you have living beside you. You all work at the same factory, doing the same job, have been to the same school and most importantly all work the same amount of hours. You come home and you all have the same living conditions, quality of life and opportunities. The part of communism which is not so fair in all honesty is where one of you tends to get a bit more and the government just comes and takes it away from you as you should all be equal. For a person who has lived an unfair life and always had two work twice as hard just to get close to the life quality of their neighbours' communism sounds great.

If we were to take a look at the Fairness theory (Folger,R & Cropanzano, R. 2001) which in a way can be applied in this context, we would look at two of the 3 elements presented in the theory. Those are Procedural justice and Retributive justice.

· Procedural justice represents the way that resources of a country or nation are distributive among the society in a fair way so that everyone receives not one gram extra or less of rice.

· Retributive justice gives a better understanding of the communistic justice system when someone is punished for the cause of negative actions towards a victim the punishment that is offered may seem too harsh for some but not harsh enough to satisfy the victim.

So I do think that most people would see the communistic system to be fair, it is mostly the matter of capitalism showing up with all the neglect.

The capitalist ideology of communism

The many arguments that have brought up by capitalism is that it is making all the people work intensive labour just as “slaves” just to receive two meals a day and other basic necessities and the leaders to live in wealth. Yes the nation requires intensive labour so that everyone can get their fair share of food and other necessities. This is the point where we can turn to the idea of capitalism always interfering and still having this sort of ongoing political conflict since the cold war. It is true that capitalism creates wealth but in order to create wealth, you must first put thousands in poverty. Such statements should make it more clear as to why communism is such oppression to capitalism.

I am not saying that capitalism indoctrinates people with greed but, in most cases, it turns out that people who gain more keep wanting more as some sort of illness. Many do not understand that there are people in this world that find happiness through other means that do not require much financial support and that they are actually very happy with having their basic necessities covered.

As mentioned before, communism can be favourable to the right type of people, not ignorant people who do not care about the other half of the world which has been, is and will be in poverty as capitalism does not care, but it is true that there are other factors that influence this cause. It is not only about the poverty in 3rd world developing countries but also the poverty that is going on in major countries and most people who have their basic necessities oversee these poor.

Capitalism goes very much around the ideology of the “American Dream” as well as examples of Silicone Valley start-ups. Yes, there are many more opportunities to a better career and overall a better life quality but, does capitalism ever talk about what happens under the counter in order to make those opportunities available? I would like to end this section with a quote by Susan B. Cogan “Poverty is not inevitable or natural, it is a byproduct of capitalism”.

Traditional vs Contemporary communism

The image of communism has remained the same since it has last been seen in major nations such as the Soviet Union. The world has evolved and so would communism if it were to be used today. Would trade unions still be in power and if so how much would those affect the multinational corporations that are presumed to control the world.

The number of working-class citizens has lowered since the age of hard communism to the point where In 2019 the upper class tends to see the working class as a primitive aspect to the world of work, but many do forget even with the age of digitization there are many jobs that cannot be accomplished by a robot or machine, therefore there is a requirement for middle-class workers and there will always be.

Traditional communism would be the example presented above with the two neighbours but in contemporary communism, we could see a more laissez-faire approach where the working class is able to gain wealth based on how hard they work and not necessarily the type of industry as well give more opportunities to the citizens.

I think that the best example of real-life events representing traditional and contemporary communism would be the start of communism made by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (better known as the alias Lenin) who has represented the idea of socialism in 1917 which has been evolved into communism. Many people make the mistake of associating a similarity between socialism and communism but there are quite a few major differences.

Contemporary communism would be best represented by Mikhail Gorbachev (USSR leader during the cold war) around the cold war era and the man who has almost perfected communism Nicolae Ceausescu (Romanian President during the late communistic era) but has been shot down in 1989. As mentioned before, the culture present in the country can have a huge impact on the efficiency as well as the liking of citizens towards communism itself as well as how well do the leaders use communism in the favour of the nation.

I believe that the subject of communism, in general, is not looked into enough from an academic point of view and there is much more research required. The low interest, as well as the negative perspective that most people have towards communism, maybe the main reason.