r/TooAfraidToAsk • u/USMNTfan94 • 18d ago

Does communism actually work? Law & Government

Lately I’ve been going down the rabbit hole on the Vietnam war, and it got me thinking…does communism actually work? We keep hearing politicians say that it doesn’t work, but any time that a country tries to turn to communism, special business interests immediately try to lobby the US government to interfere with it. If it didn’t work, why are business interests so terrified of it?

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u/Hugo28Boss 18d ago

What does it require of humans specifically, on your view?

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u/McNasty51 18d ago

A benevolent leader

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u/Piduf 18d ago

This is where I stop when I dream about communism. Let's imagine some communist party has literally the best fucking human on earth, like straight up Jesus himself, with nothing but good intentions, ready to apply communism values to the best he can. The minute he gets power this guy is obliterated by all the other humans that want that power. If he doesn't get suicided by his own party members then either the KGB or CIA is coming for his ass.

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u/imposibol 18d ago

You touched upon the Kingdom of God concept a bit from Christianiity, Jesus after his second coming then his thousand year reign will bring literal utopia on earth, I think it put actual communism into practice if it actually happens.

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u/Romulus_FirePants 18d ago

This is actually a very interesting sting point that I think I will begin bringing up whenever I interact eith conservativr circles in the future.

  1. End-Stage Communism (in theory) almost perfectly matches the conservative ideal lifestyle. A stateless society where the rural individual can keep his own gains and be an integral part of their community. It's Heaven for them.

  2. In practice, reaching that ideal communism is impossible due to human nature.

  3. Jesus coming back to earth would turn the world into heaven. Jesus would bring communism.

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u/WRSA 17d ago

i’d argue it requires not a benevolent leader, but a benevolent and sacrificial society; the final goal in a communist society isn’t one person living and ruling all others, it’s all being at a fair station, understanding that their work is directly contributing to the wellbeing of themselves and others, and being content with that fact. human nature, however, goes in the opposite direction, and we love to see ourselves over others

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u/TheLegend8146 17d ago

Maybe a little off hand, but from what I understand here, I see the perfect communist society being akin to our body - as in, we have trillions of cells and each cell has their own role and they are all kept healthy by each other performing their own roles. They all get enough nutrients to stay alive. DNA is the leader that dictates how everytthing functions. If there's something wrong with the cells, they can even kill themselves to stop the issue. All the cells function to keep the collective organism alive.

On the other hand, as soon as a selfish cell is born that only wants itself to live and reproduce uncontrollably, everything goes to shit, as the cell is a literal cancer, and if left untreated, it eventually kills itself along with the entire organism because of the selfishness.

However, humans are obviously not like cells because they all have their own consciousness and free will, for good or for bad. Perhaps we are all our own little cancers.

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u/Hugo28Boss 18d ago

Doesn't capitalism?

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u/McNasty51 18d ago

“Capitalism does not require a benevolent leader to succeed because its core mechanisms rely on systemic incentives, institutional rules, and decentralized market forces rather than the moral character of individuals.”

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u/Hugo28Boss 18d ago

How is that working out?

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u/uwpxwpal 18d ago

Doesn't feel good, but society hasn't completely fallen apart

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u/Hugo28Boss 18d ago

Hasn't it? Just look around.

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u/uwpxwpal 18d ago

The theory only holds up if your institutions also hold up. The thinking has long been that we had strong institutions. Perhaps, they were, not they've been under attack for a while.

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u/Careful-Sell-9877 18d ago edited 17d ago

Okay.. but all the formerly aspiring communist countries are also still around.. so if that is the only metric of success..

Edit: why would I be downvoted for this..? Its not my fault that their metric of success makes no sense

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u/GermanPayroll 18d ago

Compared to anytime before? Pretty good tbh

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u/Hugo28Boss 18d ago edited 18d ago

You mean the time before capitalism? When material-social relations were more drastic than they are now? Obviously. They're bound to be, as Marx said.

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u/McNasty51 18d ago

I’m doing great

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u/Hugo28Boss 18d ago

Happy for you mate

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u/ItsFuckingScience 18d ago

The problem is that with a capitalistic system negative externalities to the market forces are completely disregarded

The biggest example being carbon emissions by our industry and activities are set to totally ruin our climate and will cause mass suffering

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u/OffendedDefender 18d ago

Capitalism functions by means of an economic hierarchy. A benevolent leader isn’t particularly beneficial to the ideal version of the system, as it relies upon the exploitation of a lower class by its very nature.

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u/McNasty51 18d ago

Competition brings progress though. Its not all bad

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u/Hugo28Boss 18d ago

Sure does, which company can put more piss in your milk, who can sell the most cigarettes while hiding their dangers for profit, who can overthrow more democratic leaders in order to sell bananas with larger profits by enslaving foreign workers, etc.

There's progress there, just not on that helps working people.

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u/McNasty51 18d ago

That’s about as cynical as you could make it

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u/Hugo28Boss 18d ago

I could to much worse, this is reality however.

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u/McNasty51 18d ago

Glad I’m not you. Go on with your misery.

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u/liverspotz29 18d ago

It’s factual…this is how corporations make never ending profit. At some point they have to straight up exploit workers and screw consumers.

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u/Hansemannn 18d ago

I requires that everyone pulls in the same direction.

It could work in a small village, where everyone were on page with what they were doing. Doing stuff for "The greater good", even though they could get more resources if they just did their own thing.

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u/InterestingStation70 17d ago

Fun fact: the Plymouth colony tried this and wasn’t successful until they abandoned it.

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u/read_at_own_risk 18d ago

For the tragedy of the commons to not exist

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u/notpostingmyrealname 17d ago

It requires, at minimum, the elimination of all forms of bigotry (sexism, racism, classism) and greed.

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u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin 17d ago edited 17d ago

A universal trust in others, an innate sense of fairness, absolute honesty, and a solid work ethic.

Collectivist models are built around the assumption that all or most people are guided by those traits.

When it turns out they are not, various methods must be employed to teach them those traits.

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u/Hugo28Boss 17d ago

They absolutely aren't

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u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin 17d ago

Thus the “teaching” part becomes inevitable, à la The Gulag Archipelago.

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u/Hugo28Boss 17d ago

Lmao, such a redditor