The Essence of Communism

The Essence of Communism – September 2005

1. The end of private property – This does not mean that individuals can’t own anything. It means the means of collective production and distribution must be collectively owned. All land should be collectively owned. This is one point many countries are now moving on, where individuals can only lease the land. You correctly raised the point that under communalism no individual owned the land. However, one will have the ability to own the tools of their craft and the results of the practice of their craft – what we write, what we paint, and the jewelry you make. J. With the advancement of human thinking home ownership and inheritance become non-issues. We, humans, will have advanced such that we see the essence of humanness is to seek a higher order. This is where much of what you posited fits in. We can devote our energy connecting with the origins of life and dedicate our time to improving the state of humankind and nature. With this focus on making the planet and universe a better place, we lose interest in small matters like a bigger house, a second car and of course our own private boat. Since technology has advanced to meet the needs of all the people of earth there is no need to claim or accumulate property to pass on to our children.

2. The withering away of the state – This is perhaps the most complex of the 3 tenets posited. The state does not wither away on its own. Revolutionary efforts transform society resulting in changed men and women that no longer require the restrictive and coercive institutions that make up the state. These are all institutions that are not essential to real production and distribution. We can start with the police and military forces. With nations in true cooperation under communism there is no need for armies, navies and air forces to ‘defend their borders’. Think of all the money saved! With everyone able to work and receive what they need crime as we know it will vanish, therefore we save trillions on police, private security, electronic security systems, door locks, etc. Of course without crime and criminals no need for the court system, judges, lawyers, etc. More money saved! But lets not stop there, do we really need banks, bills, credit cards, bill collectors? All this is part of the financial apparatus of the state that can and will vanish because are needs are met and we will have advanced mentally and most importantly spiritually.

3. The advancement of human thinking to embrace “from each according to their ability to each according to their need.” This is the essential tenet in that the advancement of human thinking is what makes the first two points possible. The practical benefits of the withering away of the state can be expressed in qualitative terms and can even be quantified. Imagine the trillions of dollars that can be redirected to improving society – humankind and nature! One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the logic behind this. Is this advancement in human thinking possible?

Of course! The world is infinite so all is possible! Is it probable? Given the nature of time change is observable. Changes can be improvements or setbacks. Granted change is not linear, we all observe advances and setbacks. There are difference views as to what is an advance and what is a setback, and how significant a given advance and setback is. Given these seemingly chaotic vacillations, we can characterize aggregate chance in three types: cyclical, declining, and advancing. One who believes in a cyclical pattern believes humanity is destined to advance, decline, advance and decline in a repeating pattern. This view presents a bound on human capacity and argues that no matter how hard we try while advancing society, it will eventually return to a declined state. This projection of how society functions is a deterministic view. With rise and decline inevitable why try to make changes? The view that society is declining (or slowly going to hell) provides no incentive to attempt to improve the world. These two views are tenets of various religious and philosophical dogma that support capitalist thinking.

This leaves us with the third possibility – humanity and society is advancing. Given this believe we are convinced of the inevitable advancement of humankind, therefore the inevitability of communism. Given this believe we can accept the responsibility to advance humankind as fast as possible, contribute on a part time basis or attempt to defy societal advancement.

Socialism or more properly ‘scientific socialism’ is the path to communism. Marx refers to it as the early stage of communism. Others view it as the final stage of capitalism or the transition from capitalism to communism. In all cases one should not be satisfied with stopping at socialism for two reasons. First it still maintains methods of coercion. While these methods are directed at controlling the capitalists that have been taken from power, it is none the less coercive. Secondly, socialism maintains much of the economic imbalance inherited from capitalism. This is due to the fact that while with the defeat of capitalism, revolutionary forces seize the means of production and can redirect the profits of production to the needs of the people, the people have not been reeducated to recognize the benefits of “each receiving based on their needs”. This requires the transition phase where “receiving based on contribution” is practiced. What does this mean – it takes time to educate the population on why doctors, college professors and computer scientists shouldn’t get paid a whole lot more than stock boys, garbage collectors and waitresses.