Legrande Matinbois wrote on Tue, 01 April 2008 12:20 |
Jay Kadis wrote on Mon, 31 March 2008 15:23 | ...No one has yet implemented true communism.
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Yeah. Because first thing ya know, some free-thinking dissenter doesn't feel like subordinating himself to the incontestable authority, and then, dad-gummit, the exalted keeper of the Utopian vision must deploy the all-powerful enforcers of the vision to kill him... For the "common good", of course.
Legrande
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I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. You're right, Legrande, to point out that, while it's true that communism has never been implemented exactly as it was proposed, it has had enough chances to be judged on the various ways it HAS been implemented. No political or economic system has ever been perfectly applied; there are too many damn humans involved.
Even admitting that, though, it's a stretch to describe the Khmer Rouge as "the true face of communism." That's akin to describing the Pullman Strike, the Bopal explosion, or the Iraq War as the "true face of capitalism." (I recognize that communism and capitalism are not analogous as one is political the other economic) It's also important to remember that it was the actions of the U.S. (and French) in SE Asia that created the environment that allowed Pol Pot to come to power.
Communism has clearly failed as a governing strategy. The Chinese system can be better described as totalitarian hyper-capitalism than anything Marx would recognize. Communism's real danger today is its enduring power as a rhetorical device. Virtually any government action can be dismissed by equating that action to socialism and then equating socialism to communism.
Neither capitalism nor communism are successful in pure forms and it is imperative that we recognize that there are lessons and policies to be taken from many systems. For instance, the worker-owner model has been tremendously successful inside a capitalist framework; UPS and The Lusty Lady are perfect examples. The Green Bay Packers have stretched the definition of worker but the spirit and result are similar.
This political question should not distract from the work of Dith Pran. Anyone who is not familiar with it should read or watch "The Killing Fields." It's unbelievably upsetting and inspiring.
Eric