Ideology

Leninism was a mutation in the praxis of Social Democracy. Equally significant, the nature of Fascist anti-Bolshevism was a new type of revolutionary movement and ideology - a rebellion against the very foundations of modern European civilization. Furthermore, Fascism (in its radicalized, Socialist, Nazi form, Nazism) was more than a simple reincarnation of counter-revolutionary thinking and action. Nazism was something brand new, an attempt to renovate the world by getting rid of the bourgeoisie, money, parliaments, parties, and all the other "decadent," "Judeo-plutocratic" elements. The problem with Leninism (and later Stalinism), as evinced in 1918 by Karl Kautsky and Rosa Luxemburg, was the sanctification of the ultimate ends, and thus the creation of an amoral universe in which the most terrible crimes are justified in the name of glowing "tomorrows." This fixation with the future and the readiness to use the most atrocious means to attain it is a feature of all ideological utopias, but in the Stalinist experience it reached grotesquely tragic limits. No less important, the appeals of communism were linked to the extraordinary power of its ideology (and the core myth of the Party as carrier of Reason in History). No other revolutionary movement has been as successful as Leninism in turning the gnostic creed into a self-hypnotizing weapon. Leninist militants worldwide believed in the myth of the party with an ardor comparable only to the illuminates of religious millennial sects. The most important point is that both regimes (radical Leninism/Stalinism and Nazism) were genocidal. Analytical distinctions between them are certainly important, but the commonality in terms of complete contempt for the bourgeois state of law, human rights, and the universality of humankind regardless of spurious race and class distinction is beyond doubt. Leninism and Nazism contained all the political and ideological ingredients of the totalitarian order - party monopoly on power, ideological uniformity and regimentation, censorship, demonization of the "people's enemy," besieged fortress mentality, secret police terror, concentration camps, and, no less important, the obsession with the shaping of the "New Man." Often, comparing the two absolute disgraces of the 20th century - the Gulag and the Holocaust - leads to misunderstandings and injured feelings among victims of one or another of these monstrosities. The key point, however, is the legitimacy of the comparison, and here I agree with the Polish-French historian, Krzystof Pomian's approach:"It is undeniable that mass crimes did take place, as well as crimes against humanity, and this is the merit of the team that put together The Black Book: to have brought the debate regarding 20th century communism into public discussion; in this respect, as a whole, beyond the reservations that one can hold concerning one page or another, it has played a remarkable role. To say that the Soviets were worse because their system made more victims, or that the Nazis were worse because they exterminated the Jews, are two positions which are unacceptable, and the debate carried on under these terms is shocking and obscene."Indeed, the challenge is to avoid "comparative trivialization" or any form of competitive martyrology and to admit that, beyond similarities, the extreme radical systems had unique features, including rationalization of power, definition of the enemy, and designated goals. They represented efforts to establish total control over society through systematic aggressions against any form of autonomous associations and initiatives, as well as the persecution and eventual extermination of ideologically defined adversaries. The ideology behind the tragedy of Communism and Nazism is aptly summarized in this apocalyptic statement as the vision of a superior elite whose utopian goals sanctify the most barbaric methods - the denial of the right to life to those who are defined as "degenerate parasites and predators," the deliberate de-humanization of the victims.At the end of the day, reflecting on the "why" of the whole communist experience recalls that Leninism emerged from the wedding between a direction of European revolutionary socialism - one that could not come to terms with the established liberal order and the rights of the individual - and the Russian tradition of conspiratorial salvationist violence. Similarly, the mixture between revolutionary anti-capitalism and ultra-nationalist German racism led to Hitler's millennial dreams of Aryan supremacy. Socialism, social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members. This conviction puts socialism in opposition to capitalism, which is based on private ownership of the means of production and allows individual choices in a free market to determine how goods and services are distributed. Socialists complain that capitalism necessarily leads to unfair and exploitative concentrations of wealth and power in the hands of the relative few who emerge victorious from free-market competition—people who then use their wealth and power to reinforce their dominance in society. Because such people are rich, they may choose where and how to live, and their choices in turn limit the options of the poor. As a result, terms such as individual freedom and equality of opportunity may be meaningful for capitalists but can only ring hollow for working people, who must do the capitalists’ bidding if they are to survive. As socialists see it, true freedom and true equality require social control of the resources that provide the basis for prosperity in any society. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels made this point in Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) when they proclaimed that in a socialist society “the condition for the free development of each is the free development of all.” Communism, sometimes referred to as revolutionary socialism, also originated as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and came to be defined by Marx’s theories—taken to their extreme end. In fact, Marxists often refer to socialism as the first, necessary phase on the way from capitalism to communism. Marx and Engels themselves didn’t consistently or clearly differentiate communism from socialism, which helped ensure lasting confusion between the two terms. Led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks put Marxist theory into practice with the Russian Revolution of 1917, which led to the creation of the world’s first communist government. Communism existed in the Soviet Union until its fall in 1991.Today, communism exists in China, Cuba, North Korea, Laos and Vietnam—although in reality, a purely communist state has never existed. Such countries can be classified as communist because in all of them, the central government controls all aspects of the economic and political system. But none of them have achieved the elimination of personal property, money or class systems that the communist ideology requires. Likewise, no country in history has achieved a state of pure socialism. Even countries that are considered by some people to be socialist states, like Canada, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, have successful capitalist sectors and follow policies that are largely aligned with social democracy. Many European and Latin American countries have adopted socialist programs (such as free college tuition, universal health care and subsidized child care) and even elected socialist leaders, with varying levels of success. However a key complaint from citizens of these countries are taxes, and in relation to free heath care often you hear “wait times”, as well as experience a shortage of people joining the medical field. Which inspire incentives for the medical field which is assumed to be picked up by an increase in taxes. Democratic socialism, a growing U.S. political movement in recent years, lands somewhere in between social democracy and communism. In Marxist words “Socialism must move towards the ultimate goal, Communism” and That closeness to communism, is enough for me to never support Democratic Socialism.-Sources: Britannica, WilsonCenter. via /r/u_MrRagnarLodbrok https://ift.tt/30Xtkxj