What is Communism? | Success and Failures of Communism | Dhruv Rathee
Summary
TLDRThis video delves into the ideologies of communism, socialism, and liberalism, exploring their meanings, historical impacts, and implications. It focuses on communism, highlighting its principles of 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,' and its evolution from tribal societies to modern political systems. The video discusses Karl Marx's vision, the Russian Revolution, and the divergence from Marx's ideas under Lenin and Stalin. It also touches on the successful and failed aspects of communism, its influence on modern society, and the challenges of implementing it on a large scale without succumbing to dictatorship.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Communism is an ideology based on the principle 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs', envisioning a society without money, classes, or discrimination.
- 🏭 Karl Marx, considered the father of communism, introduced the concept in his 1848 Communist Manifesto, advocating for a classless society where the means of production are owned collectively.
- 👷♂️ The industrial revolution and its exploitation of workers inspired Marx to propose communism as a solution, aiming to prevent the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few.
- 🏛️ Communism in practice often diverged from its theoretical foundations, leading to the rise of dictatorships and one-party states, as seen in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin.
- 🛑 The Soviet Union's implementation of communism included nationalization of industries, redistribution of land, and the establishment of an 8-hour workday, but also led to a one-party state and suppression of dissent.
- 🔄 The failures of communism are often attributed to the lack of incentive for individual effort and innovation, as well as the tendency to result in dictatorships due to power vacuums.
- 🏡 The idea of a classless society has influenced modern values, promoting equality and the rejection of discrimination based on race, caste, or wealth.
- 💼 Concepts like inheritance tax and workers' rights, which originated from communist thought, have been adopted in various forms by many democratic countries to prevent exploitation and promote fairness.
- 🏥 Successful implementations of communist principles are rare but can be found in small communities that practice shared ownership and collective work, such as Auroville in India.
- 📚 The video series aims to explore not only communism but also capitalism and socialism, providing a comparative understanding of these economic and social systems.
Q & A
What is the basic principle of communism as described in the script?
-The basic principle of communism is 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,' meaning everyone works according to their ability and receives according to their needs in a society without money, class, or state boundaries.
How does the script relate the early human hunter-gatherer lifestyle to communism?
-The script suggests that early humans living in tribes, without the concept of money or private ownership, shared a lifestyle that resembles a primitive form of communism.
Who is considered the father of communism and what did he publish?
-Karl Marx is considered the father of communism, and he published the 'Communist Manifesto' in 1848.
What were the conditions during the era when Karl Marx was living, as mentioned in the script?
-Karl Marx lived during the era of the Industrial Revolution, a time when laborers often worked in poor conditions and were exploited by wealthy factory owners.
What were the key proposals of the Communist Manifesto according to the script?
-The Communist Manifesto proposed the overthrow of existing monarchies and governments, the collective ownership of the means of production by the public, and the establishment of a classless society with free education and healthcare.
How did Lenin's implementation of communism differ from Marx's ideas?
-Lenin's implementation involved nationalizing factories and redistributing land, but it also led to a one-party state with secret police and suppression of dissent, which diverged from Marx's vision of public control and freedom.
What is Soviet Communism and how does it relate to the script's discussion?
-Soviet Communism refers to the political and economic system implemented in the Soviet Union, characterized by a one-party state and government control over production, which the script contrasts with the original communist ideals of public ownership and freedom.
What are some successful ideas from communism that the world has adopted, as per the script?
-The script mentions the successful adoption of ideas like a classless society, opposition to inheritance, worker rights, minimum wage, and concepts of free education and healthcare from communism by various countries.
What are the fundamental problems with communism as discussed in the script?
-The script identifies the lack of incentive for hard work and innovation, the power vacuum leading to dictatorships, and the potential for corruption when a single party or government controls everything as fundamental problems with communism.
Can the script provide examples of successful practical implementations of communism?
-The script suggests that while communism has not been successfully implemented on a large scale without turning into a dictatorship, it has worked in small communities, such as the OSHO ashram in the US and Auroville in India.
What is the script's stance on the feasibility of communism in large societies?
-The script implies that communism has consistently failed when attempted on a large scale, such as in countries, and tends to result in dictatorships rather than the envisioned classless, stateless society.
Outlines
🌟 Introduction to Communism
The video script begins by introducing various ideologies such as Communism, Capitalism, Socialism, and Liberalism, and questions the viewers' understanding of these terms. The narrator expresses the intention to explain these concepts in a simple language. The focus of the first video is on Communism, defined as a society where individuals contribute according to their abilities and receive according to their needs. The script contrasts this with the viewer's potential skepticism about a moneyless, stateless society without private ownership. The historical roots of communism are traced back to primitive human societies, suggesting that early tribes might have practiced a form of communism. The video promises to delve into how such a society would function and references Karl Marx, the Soviet Union, and China as significant elements in the history of communism. The script also mentions the book 'Sapiens' as a recommended read for further understanding.
📜 The Evolution and Implementation of Communism
Paragraph 2 delves into the historical development of communism, starting with Karl Marx's publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848. It discusses the conditions of the industrial revolution that influenced Marx's ideas, including the exploitation of workers by factory owners. The paragraph outlines Marx's vision of a classless, moneyless, and stateless society where the means of production are communally owned. The script then transitions to the Russian Revolution of 1917, where Lenin implemented communist ideas, leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union. It contrasts Lenin's implementation with Marx's original ideas, highlighting the differences and the eventual formation of a one-party state under Lenin. The paragraph also touches on the oppressive measures taken by Lenin's regime, including the suppression of political dissent and the establishment of a secret police. The discussion continues with the evolution of Soviet communism under Stalin and Mao, critiquing the deviation from Marxist principles and the rise of authoritarianism, leading to the failure of communism on a large scale.
🔄 The Impact and Legacy of Communism
Paragraph 3 explores the impact of communism on the world, discussing both its successful ideas and its failures. It acknowledges that communism has contributed to the global understanding of the importance of a classless society, the fight against discrimination, and the establishment of workers' rights. The script mentions the influence of communism on modern concepts like inheritance taxes, minimum wage, and labor unions. However, it also delves into the failures of communism, particularly its implementation leading to dictatorships and the loss of freedom and democracy. The paragraph discusses the philosophical and practical reasons behind these failures, including the lack of incentives for hard work and innovation in a system where everyone receives the same regardless of their contribution. It also touches on the power vacuum that often leads to the rise of dictatorships in communist societies.
🏡 Communism in Practice: Small-Scale Successes and Future Discussions
The final paragraph addresses the question of whether a successful, large-scale implementation of communism has ever existed, suggesting that it has not, but has found success in small communities. It provides examples of such communities, including early human tribes and modern examples like OSHO's ashram and Auroville. The script concludes by hinting at future videos in the series that will discuss capitalism and socialism, encouraging viewers to share their thoughts on the successes and failures of communism. It also invites viewers to support the creator's work for continued educational content.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Communism
💡Capitalism
💡Socialism
💡Liberalism
💡Karl Marx
💡Industrial Revolution
💡Means of Production
💡Dictatorship
💡State Capitalism
💡Auroville
Highlights
Communism is a social structure where there is no money, no countries, and no class discrimination.
Communist ideology is based on the principle 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs'.
The means of production in communism are owned and operated by the common public.
Karl Marx is considered the father of communism, with his Communist Manifesto published in 1848.
The industrial revolution and its exploitation of workers influenced Marx's communist ideology.
Communist Manifesto outlines a classless society with free education and healthcare, and no inherited wealth.
Lenin's implementation of communism in Russia after the 1917 revolution marked a significant practical step.
Lenin introduced an 8-hour workday and 5-day workweek, recognizing labor rights.
Stalin's version of communism deviated from Marxist ideology, leading to state capitalism and millions of deaths.
Mao's extreme and violent interpretation of communism, known as Maoism, advocated for political power through force.
Communist countries often transformed into dictatorships, with power vacuums leading to one-party rule.
Communism's failure is linked to the lack of incentive for hard work and innovation due to equal distribution of resources.
Communist ideology has influenced modern ideas of classless society, worker rights, and opposition to nepotism.
Small communities have seen successful implementations of communism, unlike larger scales like countries.
Auroville in Puducherry, India, is an example of a community practicing communism with shared resources.
The video series will continue with discussions on capitalism and socialism in upcoming videos.
Transcripts
Greetings friends!
Communism! Capitalism! Socialism! Liberalism!
You must have heard these words quite often.
But do you know the real meaning of these ideologies in its true sense?
What has been their impact on our world?
What are their advantages and disadvantages?
Welcome to a new video series
where I will try to explain such concepts, topics and things in a simple language,
about which we talk frequently,
but hardly anyone amongst us has tried to
go in-depth to understand their meaning.
I would like to start this series with today’s video which is on Communism.
What are Communism and Communist ideology?
In one line, communism means,
“From each according to his ability,
To each according to his needs.”
Meaning a society, where every person works according to his ability
If one person is more fit, is muscular and can lift heavyweight,
then he works according to his own ability.
If another person is a little weak, is disabled and cannot work extensively,
then he too works according to his ability and contributes towards society.
And such a society where every person gets things according to his need.
You will say here, “Bro, this is a strange kind of society.
I being a fit and healthy individual will work hard
and in return, I will only get some money that fulfils my need!”
Exactly, how will this work?
I will explain this in the video moving forward.
But Communism is basically a society
or you can say that it is a way of structuring people
where there is no money.
It is a moneyless society.
It is a stateless society.
There are no countries.
No borders have been drawn between countries.
It is a classless society
with no discrimination between the rich and the poor.
Such a society where the means of production,
such as land, farms, industries, factories, all of them
are operated and owned by the labourers, by the common public.
Whenever we hear the word communism,
Karl Marx, the Soviet Union and countries like China come to our mind.
But in reality, if you go through the basic definition of communism,
the foundational ideas of communism are actually thousands of years old.
Throughout human history, you will get to see these examples.
Think about 10, 000 years ago. How did humans live?
Humans lived in a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, in tribes.
Many anthropologists believe that it was the primitive form of communism.
When you live in jungles in tribes
then there is no concept of money, country.
No country exists.
Many tribes might have had class or hierarchy,
but some tribes might not have even that.
All people existed together.
There would be no private ownership.
It isn’t that one individual from the tribe can say
that this thing is mine and JUST mine.
In these tribes, when you searched for some food
or hunted then you shared with everyone.
The shelters were also shared with everyone.
Most of the things were shared by everyone.
Everyone lived like a closed community.
If you want to know more about it
then I would definitely recommend reading the book 'Sapiens'.
I have put the link in the description below.
It tells us everything about human history.
But these are old tales.
If we talk about today then,
Karl Marx is called the father of Communism.
Karl Marx was a German philosopher
who published the Communist Manifesto is 1848.
What was written in this Communist Manifesto?
Before we understand this, we need to understand
the era Karl Marx was living in ?
What were the conditions around him?
Karl Marx grew up in an era when the industrial revolution had just begun.
Industrial Revolution brought about big machines and factories.
The labourers working in these factories quite often
worked in a very bad condition.
The owners of these factories were often rich people who exploited their workers.
The owners of these factories made their workers work for the maximum hours
while giving them the least amount of payment.
The profit coming out of these factories,
most of it was basically taken away by these factory owners
So basically according to Karl Marx, there were two classes here;
one: the class of rich factory owners who took away most of the profits
The second class is of the workers/labourers
who work in the factories for hours but get nothing in return.
As a solution to the problems, Karl Marx imagined such a society
where there are no differences between the rich and the poor,.
In a way, he imagined a utopia.
Utopia is a perfect society that doesn’t exist in reality.
And he named this utopia Communism.
In his communist manifesto,
he revealed the details as to how communism can be achieved.
He said that workers together can overthrow the monarchy that exists,
whoever is the king or whichever government exists.
Such a society will be built where the means of production
i.e the factories or the farms
will not be owned by a single owner but rather the entire public.
According to this communist manifesto,
the communist society, there won’t be any class or discrimination
between rich and poor or on the basis of race, religion.
Free education and healthcare would be provided.
There would be no inherited wealth.
If someone is rich then that doesn’t mean that all his future generations too,
would be rich.
No concept of Inherited Wealth
There will be no concept of private ownership.
No person can say that this farm is mine or this land is mine.
Everyone will own all the land and all the factories.
There will be an even distribution of wealth.
There won’t be rich or poor. There will be equality.
And everyone will be the owners of everything.
Everyone owns everything!
So, these things are quite idealistic but at the end of the day,
everything is quite theoretical.
You will ask how these things can be practically implemented.
It is nice to say but how can it be done in reality.
At the end of the day, Karl Marx was a philosopher.
He did not see the practical implementation of communism.
Practical implementation in reality in the true sense
was majorly seen after the Russian revolution of 1917.
In Russia, communist workers together overthrew the Russian monarch
who used to be called the Czar at that time.
And their leader Lenin for the first time
implemented communist ideas on a big scale.
Lenin took some revolutionary steps for his time.
The human rights of the labourers were recognized.
The working week was limited to 8 hours per day and 5 days a week.
Prior to this, workers worked for 12, 13, 14 hours in the factories.
But Lenin first introduced the 8hours and 5 days
which is quite common in the world today.
Everyone works Monday to Friday for 8 hours per day.
Women were introduced to education.
For farming, the land was taken away from rich landowners
and redistributed amongst the farmers.
The factories were nationalised
they were taken under the control of the government.
But if you remember, the original ideas, written in the communist manifesto,
it wasn’t written that the government will control everything
rather it said that the public will control everything.
So, you can say that the communism implemented by Lenin
was a little different from ideas thought out by Marx.
Now think about it friends, if such big steps will be taken
in such a big country such as the Soviet Union
it isn’t possible that every person living there would agree to it.
Some people will say that what the government is doing, we disagree with it.
Or disagree with the way of doing it.
But Lenin believed that what he was doing was an absolute right.
He did not have the ability to take criticism.
For this reason, he banned the rest of all political parties
and established a one-party state.
In fact, a state where it was not allowed to criticise the party.
Secret police used to spy on the people
and if anyone criticised the government, he was put in jail.
Any person opposing communism or suspected to have spoken against
used to be jailed, deported, or executed.
So, this Marxist-Leninist political structure is called Soviet Communism.
Today, most people associate Communism with this Soviet Communism.
But obviously, every Communist did not agree with this Leninism.
There was a very famous Polish communist Rosa Luxembourg
who was strictly against Leninism.
She used to Libertarian Marxism.
Such a Marxism philosophy where people are given freedom of speech.
They are given their freedom.
But anyway, Lenin died in 1924.
After him, came Stalin who implemented his own ideas of communism
which were worse than Lenin.
Stalin’s communist ideology went farther away from the Marxist ideology.
Stalin tried to increase the output of the factories.
For that, he tried to make the labourers work more
and the workers started working in the same conditions
that Marx had initially mentioned.
The only difference was that this time,
the factory owners were not any rich business owners
but rather the government.
Soviet Union government kept their workers in the same bad conditions
and the economic conditions were so bad that millions of people
died due to famine and hunger.
Because of this, many people call Stalin’s ideology, State Capitalism.
It doesn’t have much to do with communism
rather it was a structure of capitalism that was state-controlled.
After this, came Mao.
His communist ideology was much more extreme and all the more violent.
There is a very famous dialogue of his,
“All political power comes from the barrel of the gun.”
In some way or the other, he advocates for violence.
His ideology is called Maoism and the word Maoist comes from here only.
The Naxal-Maoists who have picked up weapons in India
believe in his ideology.
It isn’t surprising that they are so violent.
Inspired by the Soviet Union,
many countries around the world tried to implement communism.
In all these countries, their own ideas of communism were implemented.
How should communism work according to them and practically how it worked?
But one thing was common in all these countries.
All these countries had dictatorships.
Most of communist countries transformed into dictatorships.
Why did this happen?
I will talk about this later when I will talk about the failures of communism.
But millions of people died because of this.
On one hand, dictators like Stalin and Mao killed people
because they thought that they were against communism.
On the other hand, were Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy,
Franco in Spain, killed people in their own countries
on the doubt of them being a communist.
In fact, it is said about Hitler and Mussolini that
one technique they used to come to power scared people of communism.
was to scare people into believing that
they were the only ones to protect them from the evils of communism.
This is how these people came to power and became dictators.
So, by now, you must have understood one thing friends.
It is not a black/white thing to be or not to be a communist.
Consider it a spectrum. You can make a graph in fact.
One hand is communism, capitalism and on another
are dictatorship and supporting freedom and democracy.
So some dictators such as Stalin are communists but also dictators
but some dictators such as Hitler are on the side of capitalism but are still dictators.
And some other such people who believe in capitalism
and support democracy will come under this section.
What were the reasons behind communism failing so badly?
We will talk about this later in the video.
But first I would like to talk about what were the successful ideas that
the world has borrowed from communism.
You can say such ideas that turned out to be successful in communism
and the rest of the world has implemented it today.
The first idea is of a classless society, one where there is no class difference.
There is no discrimination between upper caste and lower caste
or the rich and poor.
Today everyone generally accepts that racism, casteism, sexism are bad.
It is a bad thing to discriminate between people.
It is a good thing to give equal opportunity to every person.
Although, I would definitely say that some communist countries
have taken this idea to the very extreme.
They took "no discrimination between people" to mean
that there should be no difference between people.
Every person will be given the same house, same car and same standard of living.
There should be no difference in beliefs among people.
No one should believe in a certain religion or ideology.
This is the reason why communist dictatorships came into being.
In fact, if you focus on the architecture in communist countries,
then you would see such buildings
which are styled quite like a boring dystopia.
There is no creativity and people are not given a chance to express their beliefs
The second idea is of no inheritance.
Each one of us raises our voice against nepotism, dynasty politics.
It is quite something similar to Karl Marx thoughts.
Karl Marx had said that there should be no inheritance.
And if we look at the implementation in reality, then
in many democratic countries in Europe,
there exists an inheritance tax.
If you are wealthy, and you are gifting that wealth to your children
and letting them inherit it then that wealth would be taxed.
The third idea is worker rights.
The exploitation Karl Marx talked about; we get to see that in many places.
For this reason, in most democratic countries
we get to see workers unions and labour unions.
For example, the farmers protest going on has many farmer unions participating.
What are these farm unions?
All the workers come together and raise their voices together.
Whenever they feel that they are being exploited
then all these unions stand together to amplify the voice
of the workers or the farmers.
Karl Marx had also said that most factory owners exploit their workers.
They make them work the maximum hours and give them the minimum payment.
To avoid this, the concept of minimum wage exists in most countries
A lesser salary than this would not be given to any worker.
Similarly, there are ideas of free education and free healthcare
that have been successfully implemented in many developed countries.
Now, let’s come to the failures of communism.
What was the reason that whenever it was tried to implement communism,
it always kept failing.
What are the fundamental problems of this communist ideology?
The biggest problem of communism in my opinions lies in its basic definition.
Every person will work according to their ability
but will get things according to his need.
Now think about it yourself.
If I am a fit and healthy person and
I am working really hard according to my ability but what do I get in return?
I get the same thing whatever everyone else is getting?
What is then my incentive to do more hard work?
If I work less then I would get the same payment.
Work even lesser, I'd still get the same.
No reason exists to improve my work.
What will I get If I am more efficient and innovative?
I will get nothing. I will get what I have been getting since always.
Now think about it, if every person living in society starts thinking like this,
no competition in the society.
There would be no development in technology or in any other field.
This is quite a philosophical reason behind the failure of communism.
The practical reason is that when you try to make a classless society
in a reality where everyone is the owner of everything,
This society has a power vacuum.
The space at the top is empty and there is no one to lead.
Due to this power vacuum, there will always be space for a dictatorship.
One person who will tell direct the way of work.
And he will then become a dictator.
Through this very dictatorship, one-party rule is established.
People’s freedom is snatched away.
There is no democracy.
And if anyone speaks against the party then they are either arrested or killed.
On top of it, when this dictatorship is established,
the government will control all factories, lands, all distribution processes.
The things which are to be distributed amongst the people
will be under the control of the government
When one person or party will control everything then what will happen?
Corruption.!
The people in power will keep getting corrupt
because they have so much control in that
they can decide everything about the public.
What kind of houses will people live in?
How much land will they get?
How many factories will they get?
In reality whenever there have been efforts to implement communism
practically, it ceases to be communism.
Some party comes up and dictates how things will work.
Which is quite different from the original definition.
What is the principal definition of communism?
The original definition is that every person is the owner of everything.
But if one party, one government tries to control everything
then it ceases to be communism.
It will now be called socialism
What is socialism?
I will explain it in detail in the next video of this series.
After hearing all this, one question will come to your mind.
Does a successful practical example of communism exist?
where communism has been implemented in the true sense?
where it did not turn into a dictatorship?
The answer to this question is yes but only in small communities.
Whenever the scale gets bigger up to the level of a country
then communism is always seen to be failing.
Communism has thrived in small communities in some places.
The biggest example of this like I told you at the beginning of the video
were early humans who lived in tribes, worked together
when there was no concept of money.
In today's modern world too,
there are few examples of it as well where it has worked in small communities.
For example, OSHO’s ashram in the US
on which a Netflix documentary series has been made as well.
People lived in a small commune together.
Everyone worked with each other. There was no concept of money.
It was called Rajnishpuram.
You can call it a successful implementation of communism.
But it is not right to call it successful even.
Because if you look at what actually happened to it in the end
you will know it turned to be a big failure as well.
But in India, there is still one example of it.
There is a community in Puducherry named Auroville.
2000 people live in a community where
there is no concept of private ownership of land, housing and business.
All the people living there work for everyone
and take care of the entire community
Everyone has been assigned their work
and there is not much concept of money either.
How does the community of Auroville works?
I think I can make a separate video on this itself.
It will be quite nice to make a ground report by visiting the place.
After this, the next videos of the series will be on capitalism and socialism.
So that if you did not understand something in this video,
you will understand them in those videos.
comment below about your opinion.
What are the successful ideas of communism and what are its failures?
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so that I keep making such educational, informational videos for you in the future.
See you in the next video.
Thank you so much.
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