Is Communism a Good Idea? 

In this satirical essay I will try to convince you of why I believe communism is a very bad idea but ultimately will leave you as the reader to make up your own mind. For, make up your own mind you must and by the end of this piece I think you will see why. You’d have to be pretty disenchanted with capitalism I think to embrace communism because as imperfect as capitalism is communism is far far worse. 

  In my opinion, communism is a very bad solution to very real problems. Communism claims to address the very real issues of oppression and poverty but it never addresses these issues. Rather it makes them so much worse. I cannot think of one communist country that has not been crushed under the weight of those very things. 

   Communism promises a better world, a world of equality free from oppression. A world where everyone shares everything and owns nothing and is happy, a world where no one can have more than someone else no matter how hard they work for it. But I cannot think of one communist country that has fulfilled that promise. They may be brainwashed into thinking they’re living in a great communist democratic republic but it is obvious from the outside and in hindsight that they’re living a delusion.     

   Communists say that despotism is necessary for a time to get the revolution going and that later on the state would dwindle away. In my opinion, this shows a blatant ignorance of human nature for when in history do despots give up power and control of their own volition? Men like Cincanatus are rare. Once they have the ring of power it is very very difficult for them to give it up. The state never ever has just dwindled into a free equal communal society and it begs the question: would we even want to live in such a society? Would such a society even last? Or would it degenerate into chaos as humans fight and struggle for supremacy over each other? I believe in equality but think that George Orwell is right when in Animal Farm he says that under Animalism, “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” 

   Ironically, Marxists at the moment are complaining about what they call “white privilege” and “white supremacy”. Well, what would they like to have instead? Black privilege and black supremacy? I can’t see how that would be any different. But I imagine that if BLM gets their way then that’s where we’d end up. (I don’t believe in white privilege and white supremacy by the way, just for the record but that’s a conversation for another day.)

   Communism is not a good idea because it tramples on the rights and freedoms of individuals. Despots don’t care about individuals. They don’t care about how their tactics affect people and ruin their lives. Communism’s promise of safety and security appeal to fearful people but it happens in conformity with the state who rules with the iron rod of terror. But history tells us that even Stalin didn’t feel safe and it led him to paranoia and the doing of dreadful things. A pattern of human nature is when people trade their freedoms for safety because they’re afraid. Communism disregards the individual and is all too happy to sacrifice them for the agenda of the state as they all work together to create this better world, the utopia of the future. Communism eats up our God-given human individuality and replaces it with gray conformity to the system where everyone has to look the same, think the same, believe the same, and behave the same, and where those who refuse to conform are punished. Methods of control like propaganda and secret police are used in communist societies to control every aspect of people’s lives. Mass arrests, show trials, and brutal purges all tend to be part of the process. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think this kind of process is a good idea. There is nothing wrong with creating a better world, I would argue that we ought to leave it better than we found it, but again communism is a very very bad way to do it. 

  Communism is a false religion with its own teachings and ideologies and it’s own prophet Marx and where faith is in the state as supreme and the leader is revered. And it brutally persecutes those of the true faith. If this was the only reason why communism is not a good idea, this in itself would be enough.

   The historical record itself shows that communism is not a good idea. Wherever it has been tried, whether The Soviet Union, or East Germany, or North Korea, communism has not left the world better than it found it. In all countries where it has taken hold whether it still exists there or not, communism is a failed idea. The historical record tells us that communist countries aren’t very pleasant places to live in and are a far cry from the utopia that was promised. Communism fell in Eastern Europe and gave way to democracy and there was much celebration but I would argue that it is still one of the biggest threats to the free west today. As we again see the rise of authoritarian statist systems and moves towards communism in the west we would do well to remember the patterns of history and to ask ourselves, “Is communism a good idea?”

   So in conclusion then, if losing your freedoms, your human rights, your individuality, your peace, and maybe even your life for the sake of a totalitarian system drunk on control and manipulation is okay with you, then yes, communism is a good idea. If you are okay with being spied on as you go about your day and tracked every where you go, with having your friends and family dragged off by the secret police and living in fear that one of these days the knock will be on your door, with gulags and mass murders of innocent people, and with being brainwashed into believing one big gigantic lie, then yes, communism is a good idea. If not, then you’re one of the few who still has some common sense.