CHAPTER 4: Communism vs. Capitalism
“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.” Alexis de Tocqueville
COMMUNISM VS. CAPITALISM
“SOCIALISM, COMMUNISM AND ALL FORMS OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER THE LIVES OF MEN CORRODE THE HUMAN SPIRIT. THE LEAST GOVERNMENT IS ALWAYS THE BEST GOVERNMENT” Robert Firth 1977
Some of the misguided leaders of the Soviet Union may actually have thought they were embroiled in a contest for world domination with a diametrically opposed philosophy they erroneously refereed to as “capitalism.” This silly idea was also espoused by many “fellow travelers” such as the American, French and Italian communist and socialist parties.
Communism, Dialectic Materialism and the other shop-worn catch–words of this now thoroughly debunked, defunct and pathetic system, in the bright light of today, seems awkward and sophomoric- weak echo’s from a distant and dim past. In its early days, and as put forward in the writings of Marx, Lenin, Engles and Trotsky, Communism had indeed, some similarities with what might pass for a philosophy, or even a religion as many have pointed out. After all, to be a “good communist” one had to be selfless, egalitarian and willing to sacrifice everything for the “cause” or, in the case of religion, the belief. The idea of “to all according to their need from all according to their ability” or some such claptrap was patently absurd and proved, in the end, hugely unworkable.
The largely Christian West developed under market driven economies rather than one centrally controlled by government. There is no mystery or philosophy responsible for the incredible success of the European and American economies. Goods and services are created by private interests and directed to those markets that have a need and pay the most. This system is better described as one advanced by natural and logical forces rather than any cohesive and managed plan. Capitalism is simply supply and demand conducted under and within a system of common law, based for the most part on the Christian God’s ten commandants.
In the Soviet state, a man was not allowed, by their absurd laws, to make a chair and sell it. A kid was not allowed to wash his neighbors car (if, indeed, a neighbor even had a car) Private enterprise, of any kind, was prohibited and the penalties, for even minor transgressions, severe. An author was not allowed to profit from publishing his book. All publishing was a function of the state and there were, in fact, no private presses. All forms of profit making activity was outlawed and remained so for 70 odd years. Imagine, while the free world economies prospered and grew, the Soviet system stagnated while the monolithic state crushed every vestige of individual incentive creating a nation of slaves.
Western governments, for fifty years, dealt with communist countries by maintaining a powerful military force and a policy of containment under NATO & SEATO. This was never considered in the west as a contest of Capitalism vs. Communism. It was simply a way to survive the threat of a militaristic dictatorship that was spinning out of control.
The Soviet empire was this xenophobic military colossus that demanded unquestioning obedience by its huge masses of imprisoned slaves. It is only due to the individual competence of the many dedicated Russian professionals that the Soviet system was able to work at all. The decisions of the aged, barbaric and hugely ignorant soviet leadership were almost all, terribly wrong. It is truly a wonder that anything worked at all, so egregiously erroneous were the edicts issued by the Soviet Masters. Billions of pounds of produce, grown by armies of slave laborers, rotted in rail yards waiting vainly for trains and rails hat hadn’t even been built. Electrical power stations were built that sat idle for lack of any way to supply oil or coal to power the generators or distribution lines to carry the power.
Painting of the Soviet world by Ilya Glazunov
Engineers studied for years, earning advanced degrees, only to be ordered to work as common laborers. Those lucky enough to find work in their chosen professions were paid a miserable pittance of what they would have earned in any western economy. Huge and luxurious hotels were built and ordinary Soviet citizens of the “workers paradise” were prohibited from even entering the lobbies. Vast blocks of grey concrete towers served as “homes” for the slaves. These drab and boring towers of misery had no parking- After all, the slaves were never met to have cars, so why waste the space? At times, two or three families shared a single 2 room flat- communal kitchens were the norm.
Meanwhile, the party bosses, the fat cats, stuffed themselves with caviar and luxuries, denying themselves nothing while seeing every day the horrendous misery of their fellow Russians. How they could live with themselves is a mute testament to the triumph of self-service and greed over human compassion. Many Russian artists and writers made films and illustrations subjecting the regime to ridicule. One was the famous Russian artist Ilya Glazunov, whose portrayal of the bloated leadership as sub- human hogs swilling at the public trough, pointedly expresses the artists utter contempt for the murderous power hungry soviet leaders. (see above)
Lenin himself was a rather dull, self-important, insufferable bureaucrat who never physically labored a single day in his miserable life. He was filled with hatred of the so called “Boyar’s” or Russian upper class and was a man born without great imagination and no practical knowledge of everyday life. In a pamphlet entitled What Is to Be Done?(1902), Lenin argued that “only a disciplined party of professional revolutionaries could bring socialism to Russia” In 1903, at a meeting of the Russian Social Democratic Labor party held in London, the party split into two factions, the Bolsheviks, headed by Lenin, and the Mensheviks who, while advocating the over-throw of the Czarist government, were in favor of a more moderate replacement. (Lenin in 1903 sounds a lot like obama in 2009. What have the stupid American voters done to themselves)
Lenin continued to be the chief exponent of Bolshevik thought in the long struggles for supremacy against Plekhanov, Kautsky, and other less radical Marxists. With the outbreak of revolution in 1905, Lenin returned to Russia. His view that the Bolsheviks should take part in the second Duma prevailed in 1907, but he left Russia later that year and subsequently spent his time engaged in complex theoretical disputes which had little basis or relationship to the realities of human life.
Lenin was in Switzerland during the early years of World War I. In his limited and naive view the war was an imperialist struggle since “imperialism,” whatever the hell that means, was, in his words, “the final stage of capitalism,” it was a “historical necessity that the war would offer opportunities for a revolution of the proletariat.” This begs the question of what and who in hell are the Proletariat? Lenin never saw the Proletariat as anything but faceless “masses.” He had no concept of individualism or the value of human life. He was a cold, empty and heartless person, one without depth- a shallow character like his absurd statues, a bas relief, with no dimension. In his ranting and screaming diatribes, he resembled Hitler, spitting and frothing his cruel invectives at people he never knew-consigning thousands to terrible deaths in the name of hideous and hellish social concepts.
Lenin urged the proletariat to oppose the war by an international civil