15 tough facts about communism

Would you like to live in a country where cars and bread are luxuries? I don't think so. If we were taught communism, our first lesson would be that it is a social system completely opposite to the modern relationship between labor and capital. In this system, the objects of production and the means of subsistence are in public ownership, and all people have unlimited access to them. Unfortunately, in practice you will not always eat caviar with champagne.

As tempting and inspiring as the idea of communism was, it has led to disaster in many countries. Absolute power there ended up in the hands of a few people, which inevitably led to the oppression and poverty of the majority of the population. Why the desire for communism in different countries most often led to the establishment of a banal dictatorship in them is a separate question. Apparently, there is a pattern. We will discuss here the reasons why communism is evil, from the forced redistribution of property to the imposition of sexual norms by officials.

Well, let's not waste time. Below are 15 brutal facts proving that communism is by no means heaven on earth.

15. In some communist countries, political opponents are still imprisoned

If you think that communism is already in the past and remains only a terrible page in the history textbook, then you are completely mistaken. The truth is that there are more people living in the 21st century under communist regimes than ever before. Even more worrisome, the harassment and arrest of those who speak out or oppose the government continue.

Currently, there are 51 political prisoners in Cuba, and in North Korea in labor camps, there are from 10 to 12 thousand people. Despite its prosperous present and promising future, China is not far off. As of 2015, there are 6 thousand recorded deaths or escapes of prisoners in this country. And they are not joking in Vietnam - political rebels are still being arrested here.

14. Blacklist of murders committed by communist regimes

In truth, communism by itself did not kill anyone. It is just a harmless economic theory designed to benefit society. However, some people who called themselves communists killed millions. The historical figures are terrifying. The USSR suffered the most losses under Stalin - 20 million civilians were killed during his totalitarian regime. Other communist leaders, however, did not stray far from him. In China, under Mao Zedong, 65 million civilians were killed, in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge - 2 million, in the Eastern Bloc - 1 million and in Vietnam - 1 million. The total losses on the blacklist of victims of communism are between 85 and 100 million.

13. Being homosexual is a crime

Grandpa Marks, in general, rarely spoke out about sexuality. Therefore, we do not know his opinion about gays and lesbians. However, in 1933, Joseph Stalin introduced an article in the criminal code for sodomy, punishing up to 5 years in prison. Similar laws have been passed in many countries of the Eastern Bloc, and the consequences for gay people have been equally harsh. For example, in Bulgaria people who had same-sex sex were punished with 3 years in prison. In Yugoslavia, the communists called homosexuals "enemies of the system." Supporters of same-sex love in the Balkan country were prohibited from joining the party. But the worst situation for homosexuals was in Romania. If you were caught or even suspected of having sex with a person of your gender, then you could face 5 years in prison. Keep in mind that these were not the 30s, but the 70s of the last century!

12. Lack of incentives to work

Yes, communism is a good idea, but it does not work for one fundamental reason: it is contrary to human nature. Let me give you an example. In a communist country, incentives to work are deliberately destroyed. All citizens have an equal share of the wealth created by the hard work of a few people. Because incentives are greatly reduced (the best doctors, architects, and other professionals get as much as everyone else), the more productive and diligent workers ultimately lose motivation. A society of slipshod workers is emerging, harming all walks of life. Moreover, poorly motivated professionals are more likely to rebel against a government that does not recognize their merits. Indeed, communist regimes in many countries collapsed due to the growing discontent of the people with the leadership of the state, unable to provide them with what they thought they deserved.

11. Creativity was discouraged

Unfortunately for the communist elite, not everyone wants to wash floors or work on an assembly line. Now, as before, people are born with rare artistic talents, with the help of which they want to express themselves. However, communism views the work of poets and painters as useless and even bizarre. All that matters is the construction of powerful factories and the formation of a nation of like-minded citizens. To achieve these goals, all attempts at artistic expression must be suppressed. The cultural policy of the communists is uncompromising. The purpose of art is to teach and criticize capitalism. In the Soviet Union, some artists who disagreed with the party line were jailed, killed or starved to death in Siberian camps.

10. Censorship is the main tool of the Iron Curtain

There is no doubt that North Korea is the most censored country in the world. If you want to be on another planet, then you don't have to go far. Just visit North Korea. Here you will find yourself in the deepest information vacuum. Tourists who have visited the capital, Pyongyang, claim that they felt like they were on another planet. There are no independent journalists in the DPRK, and all televisions sold in the country have frequency limits set by the government.

Another striking example from the recent past. For 40 years, until 1991, Albania was cut off from the rest of the world, and human life was completely controlled by the regime of Enver Hoxha. He ruled the country with an iron fist, like in North Korea. Needless to say, during this period Albania was the poorest country in Europe and the third poorest country in the world.

9. The worst despots positioned themselves as "cool guys"

Only in a communist country is it possible for a ruler who killed 45 million of his own citizens to be a universal favorite or even a national hero and martyr. Many totalitarian dictators, especially in the Eastern Bloc, established their own personality cults after World War II. Stalin, Enver Hoxha, Nicolae Ceausescu, Josip Broz Tito, and others were praised as irreproachable and godlike beings. Their portraits adorned all government buildings and residential buildings. The highest duty of the country's artists was to work to exalt the leader. In fact, the term "personality cult" was coined by Karl Marx, a Prussian philosopher and revolutionary socialist who is regarded as the ideological father of communism and socialism. He spoke of the "superstitious admiration for authorities", which he himself deliberately created around his person at the end of the 19th century.

8. Forced collectivization

In a country where everything belonged to everyone and, at the same time, to nobody, this phenomenon took on a particularly ugly character. The aim of the land reform carried out in the Soviet Union and its satellites was the maximum use of agricultural production for the industrial needs of the city. The industrial upsurge was just beginning, and a huge amount of food was required to meet the needs of the workers. In the USSR, between 1928 and 1933, many peasants refused to join collective farms and share their property and land. This led to an incredible act of atrocity. Many peasants were executed, and their families were doomed to starvation. The same thing happened 20 years later in communist China, where 33 million people died of malnutrition due to the expropriation of family farms and crops.

7. Belief in God is a punishable crime

This is the strangest and most offensive restriction that communism imposes on its citizens. All red leaders and ideologues, including Marx and Lenin, viewed religion as a negative phenomenon for human development. The truth is that communist regimes saw it as a threat to the established totalitarian order. Religion has the ability to organize people. Thus, all countries that followed the Marxist-Leninist dogma were atheistic by default, and anyone who thought otherwise became an object of persecution. Although Catholic Cuba has never banned religion, you would not be able to join the party if you are an open believer. Vietnam's constitution allows for freedom of religion. But this is not the case with organized religion. In other words, there is no place for God in all his forms in a communist temple.

6. The failure of gender equality policies

During the glorious days of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, there were a large number of posters depicting tough-looking girls standing on scaffolding with hammers in their hands or reaping grain with a sickle. Communist propaganda strenuously created the image of an economically and socially active woman who was obliged to sacrifice herself for the common good and the "bright future" of the system. Formally, there was gender equality. But in fact, there was a significant income gap between men and women. The inspirational portrayal of a communist, masculine worker girl turned out to be a failure. Women served the priorities of the totalitarian state to the detriment of their own self-realization. Simply put, in those years, girls were not at all cool.

5. The rich get richer, the poor stay poor

Remember the postulate that under a communist regime, goods are distributed equally among all members of society? It may be true on paper, but reality is more reminiscent of George Orwell's Animal Farm, where "some animals are more equal than others." In the second half of the twentieth century, the poverty of the people in the Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe debunked the myth of a prosperous working class. In the twenty-first century, the PRC is in fact the largest exploiter of workers. Moreover, China ranks second in the number of billionaires, behind only the United States. This can be explained by the fact that China, Vietnam and other countries are no longer economically communist. Since the 1980s. most of the socialist countries created state capitalism, which allowed them to integrate into the world economy, while maintaining a one-party political system.

4. Marxist economics was flushed down the toilet

Here it will be more difficult for us. But you don't need to be a top economist or university professor to realize that Karl Marx was wrong. Despite his amazing intelligence and vast philosophical thinking, his entire analysis was based on conceptual error. He believed that value is a property of the object as such. But nothing in the world has an intrinsic value. Value exists only in human minds. Let's look at the 7 billion people living today. Some of them value diamonds the most, others - drinking water. In short, communism was doomed to failure because Marx tried to analyze what was not - true value.

3. The paradox of the absent middle class

Well, this is how modern society functions (if you haven't noticed it yourself). There are three classes: upper, middle and lower. Those at the top are the richest. In the lower class are those who make ends meet. The middle stratum acts as a peacemaker between the first two. And if he is absent or his number is critically small, blood is shed. Although communist propagandists loudly proclaim that the class struggle has been eradicated, in fact it continues. This is understandable, because any group of people in power does not want to part with their position. After the communists came to power, society was divided into two parts - the party elite and the rest of the population, which formed the lower class.

2. Destruction of the environment

Since everything in the economy of a communist country is not as brilliant as we would like, the leaders of these states are trying in every possible way to compensate for the inefficiency of the production sector. The word EVERYTHING means at any cost. In the USSR since the 1960s. the withdrawal of water from the Amu Darya and Syrdarya rivers for irrigation purposes has led to the fact that the Aral Sea, the fourth largest lake in the world, has decreased 10 times.

Just 10 years ago, China became the world's largest source of carbon emissions. Every day we use hundreds of cheap items made in PRC. We may not care about the conditions in which they are created, but China's desire to increase production in any way leads to environmental pollution within countries and beyond.

1. You have no civil rights

Most of the facts described above are based on the violation by the communist regime to one degree or another of basic human freedoms. This item is devoted to gross violation of civil rights. We need to start by saying that the idea of individual freedom is incompatible with communist ideology. Freedom of speech, like the right to open access to information and the right to protest, are rejected by the ruling class. Moreover, residents have no choice but to vote for the Communist Party. The paradox here is that they are forced to imitate voluntary voting, and this, it should be admitted, creates problems for the fight against violation of civil rights.