Long live democracy

[Great_Mage_Atari]

Some of my relatives and friends owe the Poles a HUGE favor. It's because of them that they were able to get out of communism and into the free world.
**God Bless the Poles**

I would also like to make one thing perfectly clear, since people are not understanding this. I do not support communism. I do not want it, I do not need it. My only reason (and this is seriously my ONLY REASON) for saying communism isn't inheritantly evil is that it's not. Ok? It just isn't. Communism just goes sour. That's it. Nothing more. And as for Shinobody's challenge on finding one country that started off as a communism: USA. Original colonies were a communistic society.
Off-topic.

[Boldek]

as long as humans sin, there will be corruption. and communisms intense amount of power centered on a few humans makes it one of the worst types of government. the bigger the government, the more countries will falter.
long live democracy! may the communists never claim Poland or America!

[Great_Mage_Atari]

Always nice to see patriotism!

[Gambit]

as long as humans sin, there will be corruption. and communisms intense amount of power centered on a few humans makes it one of the worst types of government. the bigger the government, the more countries will falter.
long live democracy! may the communists never claim Poland or America!

Wrong on so many counts. All of which I've already pointed out in this thread.

[artisticdude]

the bigger the government, the more countries will falter.

Hear hear! And it's exactly the problem the USA has right now... too large a government.

I'll withhold comment on the communism thing until I've investigated it further, as my current knowledge/understanding about it isn't really sufficient to justify a statement on my part ATM.

[Great_Mage_Atari]

No problem aritsticdude. I'm not here for arguments or to pick sides. Only educate. I pick the side of Democracy, if any. As for the "comparing communism to a monarchy" statement, it was only an example of government vs. government, since slavery was an act of cruelty to humans. That being said, do I like communism? Heck no. Democracy is the way to go.

the bigger the government, the more countries will falter.

This is very true. So very, sadly true. Too much government= lots of unhappy people.

[Dixie]

I don't understand why you people still keep comparing and antagonizing democracy and communism. It's just not the same thing: democracy is a political system, communism is an economic one. In Marx's writing, communism was to be a democracy, it jsut didn't happen in practice. Still doesn't mean it's incompatible. It's been said in this thread before, understand! Comparing/antagonizing these is like doing so with cars and bananas. It's just wrong.

Always nice to see patriotism!

Ironic how I saw a quote (which I don't remember textually) in one of the more recent call of duty games which said something along the lines of "Patriotism is humanity's measles, it's a symptom of youth". I totally agree with that general statement. Fanatics and patriots generally disgust me.

[Great_Mage_Atari]

I don't see what's wrong with having pride in your country.
As for comparing communism and democracy, you do have a point. I shouldn't have compared the two, although in every history class I have ever taken, the two have been compared. But I know not everything there is to know apparently.

[Dunno]

democracy is a political system, communism is an economic one. In Marx's writing, communism was to be a democracy, it just didn't happen in practice.

Jackpot!
We're not talking about theory here, but about how it DID work out. I know there were countries where democracy and communism lived together but these countries either fell apart with big bang or the government was overthrown soon after the election. It's a natural process- sooner or later everyone will notice that working doesn't pay back in communism. And that leads to the fall of free press, television and courts. They all become corrupted because that's the only way to earn something in communism, through corruption. And you can't disagree that democracy simply isn't possible without above mentioned.

Fun fact: in communism (at least in Poland) you could buy TONS of things for just a few spoonfuls of coffee. Clothes, bread or furniture, not to mention an article in a newspaper or falsified election. Well, you'd probably need a bit more here, but you get the idea. You couldn't buy anything in shops so that was the only way to get anything. I can talk about it for much longer, so just say if you'd like to hear it.

[boru]

I can talk about it for much longer, so just say if you'd like to hear it.

I've always been fascinated by these firsthand accounts, they're much more interesting than some of the random bather in this thread.

[Zachron]

I don't understand why you people still keep comparing and antagonizing democracy and communism. It's just not the same thing: democracy is a political system, communism is an economic one. In Marx's writing, communism was to be a democracy, it jsut didn't happen in practice...

Communism is an economics system. You could have a democratic + communist country, just like you could have a totalitarian government with a free market. I just can't think of any examples of the former having happened yet.[/quote]

Because no democratic population of appreciable size would elect to have a purely communist economy. And even if the change-over was peaceful, without the use of deadly force there would be no way to stop people from abandoning it by the same democratic process. Communes cannot exceed a certain size before personal interests and collective interests become incompatible, at which point communism fails. And the mere existence of greed and self-interest nullify the system unless deadly force is used against those who posses these traits. (And even if you breed greed out of people, self-interest will remain...in fact self-interest is much at the core of human nature, and is quite often at play in those who enforce the system) The system will not persist beyond its usefulness without enforcement, and it's usefulness ends the moment profitable ventures are available. So then there are two ways to enforce it, kill everyone who would seek profitable ventures, or artificially make profitable ventures unavailable.

[Blarumyrran]

this thread in 1 image

[Dunno]

heeeeey...

[Shinobody]

Maybe I'm just stupid (quite possible), but how this is related to this topic?

[Great_Mage_Atari]

Funny, but off-topic. Theres a thread dealing with funny comics.