The Definition of Communism[1] In its simplest form, the definition of communism is a formal economic system in which property, particularly capital property (e.g. factories, machines, tools, etc.), is commonly owned and scarce resources are allocated through planning as opposed to price signals in a free market. [2] Communism is not a modern idea. Over 2000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato perfectly described its ideal: You'll find the ideal society and state, and the best code of laws, where the old saying "friends' property is genuinely shared" is put into practice as widely as possible throughout the entire state. Now I don't know whether in fact this situation—community of wives, children and all property—exists anywhere today, or will ever exist, but at any rate in such a state the notion of "private property" will have been by hook or by crook completely eliminated from life. Everything possible will have been done to throw into a sort of common pool even what is by nature "my own," like eyes and ears and hands, in the sense that to judge by appearances they all see and hear and act in concert. Everybody feels pleasure and pain at the same things, so that they all praise and blame with complete unanimity. To sum up, the laws in force impose the greatest possible unity on the state.1 [3] Communism, then, is not merely an economic theory; in fact, it hardly has anything to do with economics given that resource scarcity is not meaningfully addressed. Communism is the tyranny of all over one, of society over the individual. Communism does not merely seek to abolish property; it seeks to abolish the family, nationality, culture, religion, and every flourish of individuality. Its aim and end is to make the individual and society one and the same. [4] In the modern age, communism is often equated with Marxism. Strictly speaking, Marxism is a theory of communism and the two terms are not necessarily synonymous. This brief introduction to communism will cover communism from the Marxist perspective. Scarcity and Marxism
[5] A discussion of relativism is crucial to any definition of communism, for Marx ingeniously used his relativistic theory of historical materialism to escape from the constraints of scarcity.[6] Put simply, Marx was a "technological determinist": He believed that technology shapes the form of society that we live in and that society in turn conditions our consciousness. Thus, he declares that "the hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist."2 In The German Ideology, he notes that "my relation to my surroundings is my consciousness."3 [7] For Marx, technology and the property forms it produces constitute a "mode of production." For the purposes of simplification, the mode of production can be thought of as the way in which a society is organized around its production. Hence, the mode of production is a "mode of life."4 [8] The mode of production forms the economic base of society. On top of this base rests a political and philosophical superstructure, which is a conditioned form of consciousness: The mode of production of material life determines the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their character.5 [9] But what does any of this have to do with scarcity? Well, if our political and economic ideas are not our own, if they are merely societal biases that have been imposed upon us, then scarcity is not a fundamental truth like the law of gravity, but a transitory illusion. Resource scarcity may seem like a significant problem, but that is only because our consciousness has been conditioned by the capitalistic mode of production and we cannot see things as they really are. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat[10] Marx believed that history is a succession of necessary modes of production, beginning with hunter-gatherer societies and ending with capitalistic production. He thought that with the end of capitalism, history would begin anew and a communist paradise, unconstrained by scarcity, would emerge. The new society would be one founded on the principle, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."6[11] An alternative definition of communism might be "a quest for perfect equality." In a communist society, inequality would cease to exist because labor would no longer be specialized. Everyone would practice many tasks and everyone would live a fulfilled and self-realized life. For example, there would no longer be doctors, merely people who, among other things, practiced medicine. [12] But given the pervasive nature of the bias that Marx describes, how is a communist society to be realized? For Marx, the answer lay in tyranny. He thought that a temporary, transitional stage of tyranny was necessary in order to move from a capitalistic mode of production to a communist utopia. He called this tyranny the "dictatorship of the proletariat": Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.7 [13] The purpose of the dictatorship is to centrally plan the economy until such time as a new, communist consciousness emerges and the state spontaneously "falls away."8 Che Guevara said that "society as a whole must become a gigantic school."9 The dictatorship, then, exists as a ruthless headmaster to ensure that society's students unlearn the distinction between society's interest and their own. Communism and Totalitarianism[14] Communism necessarily takes the form of totalitarianism, or the tyranny of all over one. In practice, a totalitarian society looks much the same as a fascist society, which is the tyranny of one over all.[15] The dictatorship of the proletariat is sometimes euphemized by Marxists as a "workers' democracy." To call the dictatorship a tyranny, they argue, is to misunderstand the definition of communism entirely. But the dictatorship is decidedly not a democracy in the sense that minority views are protected or personal freedoms guaranteed. If a new communist consciousness is to emerge, the rights and freedoms which spread "false consciousness" throughout society must be restricted. [16] Historically, communist societies have been characterized by the absolute rule of a revolutionary party leader, beneath whom everyone is equally subservient. Just as perfect freedom culminates in the unchallenged will of a single despot, so perfect equality is manifest in the shared slavery of a society subservient to a single will. 2008
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