Beautifully written and thought provoking! This discourse is necessary for our survival - we cannot outright declare a tool evil, and deny the hand that holds it.
I'm only going to give you pushback on communism. Communism, at its core, is the removal of private property, across the board. This means that you do not own your labor anymore, it is all in service to the group. You become a slave.
Further, there is no limiting principle to communism. Communism is not satisfied with holding itseld within a small commune. If it were, it wouldn't be communism. Communism envies that which it doesn't have, so seeks to break down all borders until everything serves the collective.
Ultimately, communism isn't a thing. It's an ideology. And ideologies can be evil.
Nothing wrong with that. I expect many would. I don't necessarily disagree with your conclusions as they are the same ones that I have reached. That's why I gave the only example where I think it works and that is rarely ever seen. I would only disagree in the sense that I would argue that communism itself is only a system. A system that is often used by men with evil ideologies because it is the perfect system for hiding their true intentions. So I would contend that while communism is a system and therefore not evil. It is strongly based on an ideology that I would agree with you that is evil. And that is collectivism. That would be the distinction I would make. Or, in summary, communism is the tool used by collectivists to push their evil agendas. And even then, they never actually act like collectivists because that too is a farce. In reality they are tyrants praying on the naivety of the people that prop them up in the name of a collectivist utopia that will never be realized. So I think, in principle, we agree. I'm just being a bit pedantic.
Being pedantic is one of the best ways to test thoughts against each other, especially when lines of thinking are similar. It forces us to be precise with language.
You're 100% correct. After your comment I gave it more thought and realized that the main reason why I thought it was important to have the distinction was because that the ideology of collectivism isn't limited to the system of communism. We saw it before in the pagan systems of old, i.e. the Aztecs sacrificing children for the greater good of the tribe. We see it now in many of our safety nets of the country as well as the systems of China and North Korea. So, thank you for your comment. It allowed me to understand my reasoning even greater.
What would Terran Morale Officers say?
Probably not much. They would let their swords do the talking
Beautifully written and thought provoking! This discourse is necessary for our survival - we cannot outright declare a tool evil, and deny the hand that holds it.
Thank you Snow.
I'm only going to give you pushback on communism. Communism, at its core, is the removal of private property, across the board. This means that you do not own your labor anymore, it is all in service to the group. You become a slave.
Further, there is no limiting principle to communism. Communism is not satisfied with holding itseld within a small commune. If it were, it wouldn't be communism. Communism envies that which it doesn't have, so seeks to break down all borders until everything serves the collective.
Ultimately, communism isn't a thing. It's an ideology. And ideologies can be evil.
Nothing wrong with that. I expect many would. I don't necessarily disagree with your conclusions as they are the same ones that I have reached. That's why I gave the only example where I think it works and that is rarely ever seen. I would only disagree in the sense that I would argue that communism itself is only a system. A system that is often used by men with evil ideologies because it is the perfect system for hiding their true intentions. So I would contend that while communism is a system and therefore not evil. It is strongly based on an ideology that I would agree with you that is evil. And that is collectivism. That would be the distinction I would make. Or, in summary, communism is the tool used by collectivists to push their evil agendas. And even then, they never actually act like collectivists because that too is a farce. In reality they are tyrants praying on the naivety of the people that prop them up in the name of a collectivist utopia that will never be realized. So I think, in principle, we agree. I'm just being a bit pedantic.
Being pedantic is one of the best ways to test thoughts against each other, especially when lines of thinking are similar. It forces us to be precise with language.
You're 100% correct. After your comment I gave it more thought and realized that the main reason why I thought it was important to have the distinction was because that the ideology of collectivism isn't limited to the system of communism. We saw it before in the pagan systems of old, i.e. the Aztecs sacrificing children for the greater good of the tribe. We see it now in many of our safety nets of the country as well as the systems of China and North Korea. So, thank you for your comment. It allowed me to understand my reasoning even greater.