I'm understanding basics of capitilism and how it exsists only to perpetuate itself... at the expensive of the working class. but how do i respond when my friends bring up the lack of freedom in the Soviet Union? Why did it not work? How did they get stuck w/ an even more oppresive regime? Are there any books or sites you can recomend?
quick history lesson. Stalin got power when Lenin started losing power over his lost promises of peace, land, and bread... Lenin broke his promise when he accepted a pact sent to him by the united states offering the starving ussr money if they would go to war... when lenin did this he went back on his promise of peace, and stalin was chosen to succeed him. Stalin was a crazy ass mofo, he killed a lot of people and tried forcing tons of shit on people. He totally ignored the communist ideal, and marxist principles talked about in the communist manifesto. Now russia exists even poorer than it did when it was communist, after breaking its economy and becoming capitalist. China also is a capitalist country although many still view it as a communist country. The truth is though, that china has capitalism in its major cities, which makes it very far away from anything a communist would call communism. True communism doesnt tend to exist much... it existed more in indian tribes across the world... Because basically... if you are going to run a country, you are going to have an empire... that means, there will be the select who run the countries own agenda... but once these people acquire the amount of greed and power they have they become hungry for more... (which totally makes no sense in a real communist government, which i think would be more compulsory democracy on small issues with an existing passion for INTELLIGENCE and finding ones own political stances so they may vote INTELLIGENTLY on the issues that directly effect them) - Mui
I think that has to do with the size and climate. Half the country is almost uninhabitable, and with so many ethnic minorities it's hard to make everyone happy and productive.
My Marxist buddy always raves that the Soviet Union lost its way when Trotsky got booted out... he's still a big Trotskyite. But that also was one of the reasons why Russia was plump for a revolution - its backwards economy meant it had a particularly large, downtrodden, and increasingly restless proletariat population, and a huge rich-poor gap, even for those times. Most communist countries have become market economies by now... only ones I can think of that are still pretty hardcore communist are North Korea (never a good example of communism anyway) and Cuba.
Back to my original question. Any sources you would recomend about communist apologetics (probably should have been more specific). I'm trying to build up my defense of marxism. what are some good ways to rebutt negative examples such as USSR, China, Cuba, ect?
Well, the USSR had free daycare......... and Cuba has some nice beaches......... and China still makes good food...........
It's easy to rebute negative examples. All you have to do is find examples where communism has worked, such as... ummmmm, uhhh, hmmm, maybe communism doesnt work after all. Ya know I sure cant think of an example`where communism has worked properly on mass populations.
Dont forget the USSR has a cool sounding language (in my opinion) but besides that i think those are the only good things to come out of communism.
hmmmm, I'm thinking this is where the flaw in your logic may be. One of the biggest flaws with communism is that people DIDN'T carry out their jobs.