I know, this is very very controversial. But if you really think about it, as an ideology, there is nothing good or bad about communism. After all, good and bad, right and wrong, these are value judgments, and depend on the values of the person making that judgment.
So why have we come to this "communism is bad" thinking?
Blame the U.S. And the Soviets. I think the reason why "communism is bad" came about because of its association with the Soviets. If you really think about it, it is not communism that is bad; it is Stalinism that the U.S. was really targeting. But because the ideology became a synonym for its implementation, it came to become the "evil" that needs to be defeated.
And along with such a thinking, every other country that practises communism. Like North Vietnam, and China. Leading the U.S. to see the Vietnam War as a contest of ideologies, when it is really a contest for national independence. Leading the U.S. to see China as an enemy, when China shares so many similarities with the U.S. Like developed cities along the coast, with a poorer inland population. The income divide between the racial majority and the racial minorities.
It also allows the U.S. to conveniently work with autocratic, and even oppressive, regimes as long as they go under the names of "democracies".
A "democracy" can offer less freedom for its people than the Chinese government. The important thing is not to look at labels, which are convenient, but to actually see what is the reality, and base our judgments on facts, on what is being practised. We should be trying to find similarities between peoples and nations so that we can use those similarities to help us work together. We should not be focusing on our differences and using those differences to divide us and them.
When we focus on differences, and use that to shut people out, to exclude them, we alienate them, forcing them to find alternatives, other ways of doing things which are detrimental to us, further reinforcing our "correctness" in shutting them out in the first place. This is just a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.
Humanity can be so much stronger, if only we work on bringing people together to unite our strengths, rather than focusing our energy on pushing people apart.
So why have we come to this "communism is bad" thinking?
Blame the U.S. And the Soviets. I think the reason why "communism is bad" came about because of its association with the Soviets. If you really think about it, it is not communism that is bad; it is Stalinism that the U.S. was really targeting. But because the ideology became a synonym for its implementation, it came to become the "evil" that needs to be defeated.
And along with such a thinking, every other country that practises communism. Like North Vietnam, and China. Leading the U.S. to see the Vietnam War as a contest of ideologies, when it is really a contest for national independence. Leading the U.S. to see China as an enemy, when China shares so many similarities with the U.S. Like developed cities along the coast, with a poorer inland population. The income divide between the racial majority and the racial minorities.
It also allows the U.S. to conveniently work with autocratic, and even oppressive, regimes as long as they go under the names of "democracies".
A "democracy" can offer less freedom for its people than the Chinese government. The important thing is not to look at labels, which are convenient, but to actually see what is the reality, and base our judgments on facts, on what is being practised. We should be trying to find similarities between peoples and nations so that we can use those similarities to help us work together. We should not be focusing on our differences and using those differences to divide us and them.
When we focus on differences, and use that to shut people out, to exclude them, we alienate them, forcing them to find alternatives, other ways of doing things which are detrimental to us, further reinforcing our "correctness" in shutting them out in the first place. This is just a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.
Humanity can be so much stronger, if only we work on bringing people together to unite our strengths, rather than focusing our energy on pushing people apart.
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