Communism

I agree for the most part. There are a lot of horrible examples of "Communist" countries in history that have caused a lot of pain. But I have to say that you are painting with a very wide brush, which is dangerous. It is exactly those types of generalizations that lead people to misconceptions, prejudice, hate... and if a Republican is in the White House, eventually to war.

My point, which the response above seems to ignore, is that "Communist" Russia and "Communist" China and all the others were not really Communism in action. I wasn't just saying they were not pure. Communism assumes a shared interest in the well-being of all the people, when in fact each of those historic countries were tightly ruled by their charismatic leader and/or a very small inner circle of privileged few. It is my personal belief that, if you look past the self-selected title of "Communism", those countries were really Totalitarian dictatorships that used the guise of Communism to avert attention from their true intentions. And that, I think, is the greatest "fault" of Communism... it is too easily perverted. The people at the top have too much power and too few checks. And that is why I am not a Communist... I also don't believe it is possible to maintain it on a national scale. Likewise, there have been many dictators who call their countries "Democracies" and hold BS elections where they are the only candidate. Should we now condemn all Democracies?

I am only writing this response, not to argue, but because I feel strongly that it is very dangerous to gloss over the realities of what happened in WWI and WWII and to openly condemn the "concept" of Communism and all those who call themselves Communist. Yes, the concept of Communism is egalitarian and touchy-feely, and not practical and I am not here to promote it. But why so much hate? I don't want to be inflammatory, but generalizing people based on their beliefs seems like the last thing a bunch of atheists should be doing. I try myself, and try to challenge others, to look past the "popular" opinions (and self-selected titles) to see the truth behind all the hyperbole.

The truth, I believe, is that people have been mislead by their leaders, driven to bloodshed and guilty of horrible atrocities... within every type of governmental structure invented so far. The U.S. isn't doing so hot ourselves at the moment.

I would add my perspective that, just as the use of the label "Athiest" by totalitarian Communist regimes has obscured the true concepts of Athiesm... I think the fact that those dictatorships called themselves "Communist" actually hurt the concept of Communism.

Communism itself, in its purest form, good or bad, has nothing in common with Totalitarianism nor Atheism, but is just a pure form of self-rule by the people. See the "Early Communism" section of the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.o...

Unfortunately, the average American has been taught to have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the term "Communist", although it is heavily misused and misunderstood. I would hope that someone who is sensitive to the misconceptions of the term "atheism" would be equally sensitive to misuse of the term "communism." It's just not accurate to think all communists are plotting the downfall of the United States, just as it's not accurate to think all atheists are devil worshippers.

The definition or intent of Communism is the problem. Because the system tries to deny and suppress certain realities of human nature and social interaction it deludes it's followers into believing that the intended goals of communism are achievable. It is no coincidence that the "true communist system" has never been implemented. That is because in achieving their aims they concentrate power which,like in every other case, will be a temping target for those who will use whatever means necessary to possess it. Once corrupted there are no rival sources of power available to those who might challenge this corruption and the typical pattern is for the establish order to remain in place until it's inherent weaknesses make it vulnerable to overthrow from within or from an outside source.

Collective strategies for social organization are necessary for certain functions in all societies but can never be the basis for the structure of governmental and economic organization. It is incompatible with individualism which is a necessary mindset to maintain any level of Democracy and personal liberty. Life is a struggle and there is no system that can create utopia. Communism, while not a theism, has much in common with organized religion. It sells believers a myth in order to better control them.