cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26817410
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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The problem wasn't with communism. It is a great ideal that we can keep in a back pocket comes time to build something new.
I still feel the crux of our problem is human behaviour. I know democracy isn't really working out for us, but it seems to be the hardest system to hack. Of course it's not impossible as seen in the US (and Hungary, for an interesting example), but it's definitely harder to buy up and/or convince a majority.
We definitely have to find something better, but my main problem with (my imagined) communistic ideal is that almost every actor needs to be good faith in it, otherwise it dystopes.
Socialism (and Communism, ie the future post-Socialist global mode of production) are both democratic. Are you using "Democracy" as a stand-in term for Capitalism? What do you believe "Democracy" means? Moreover, why do you think Socialism is "easier to hack?"
Secondly, I genuinely don't know what you mean by Communism requiring everyone to "act in good faith." There's laws and government in Communism, as well as democratic control and civil protections.
I think, more than anything, it would benefit you greatly to take a look at what Communists believe. Up in the parent comment I have a list of reading you can check out, if you'd like. I think you'll find it difficult to understand and talk about Communism if you don't first take a look at what Communists believe in the first place.
What if someone doesn't adhere to 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs'? We can go and imagine a real utopia, but there are very real ways it can go wrong and the system will have trouble handling it.
The main thing I am arguing though, is that communism doesn't really account for imperfect behaviour. At the moment, no one system does.
What do you think a system that has managed to achieve "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs" would look like? Are you just imagining a Utopia and thinking it wouldn't work? Marxists agree, imagining a Utopia and trying to build it is a failure in analysis of reality, hence why Marxism rejected Utopian model building. Read Socialism: Utopian and Scientific if you want to see what Marxists actually believe.
The main thing you are arguing is that your preconceived notion of Communism that you appear to have extrapolated from a single phrase doesn't account for imperfect behavior, but you aren't arguing against what Communists actually want, just what you think they want.
One word away from "human nature". I hope you understand that our behaviour changes with our environment, e.g. our economic system. The behaviour seen right now is under a system that encourages e.g. competition, and one where if a capitalist (the owner of a company) does something that is nice, but lowers profit, a more ruthless one will likely take their place.
I encourage you to read theory, see Cowbees list for recommendations.
The system definitely encourages and rewards explotation, but why do people do it at all? Will this behaviour stop if we penalize it? Or just gently teach the children after the bloody revolution?
How do we get past the notion of power corrupting people? All I'm arguing is that communism is not an outright solution for society.
I promise to read up on dialectic materialism, but the end of link you sent mentions getting a gun. That's just bad advice.