Why Communism was so bad...

[yourscaryfriend]

So I've been thinking about Russia, and China and all the little piss-ant countries that had a bad experience with Marxist Communism. It really was an evil thing. But it wasn't the communism that made it evil. I mean what could possibly be evil about empowering the worker and paying people what their labor is worth

Comments

[scaredofbees]

Not meaningless at all. Pope JPII spoke often about capitalism's excesses being just as bad as communism's. I worked with a guy who covered the pope and went to Poland a few years after the Solidarity Movement. The people who weren't Catholics said the oppression was as bad as ever, only from different people.
Anybody who puts all their hopes on any particular system is screwed. Anyone bent on a given ideology is going to ignore the corruption and criminals within that ideology, because they think the ends justify the means. Unfortunately, the totalitarianism we're headed toward seems even more dangerous because the zealots refuse to believe it can happen. The Soviets at least recognized they were giving up one form of totalitarianism for another. They could blind themselves with vodka. What we have requires blinding oneself by giving up reason. And even more unfortunately, the three pillars are really just one: Industry is both church and state now.