In the first part of this series on knowing your political-isms we took a brief look at what socialism was and reviewed a few of its primary concepts. In this article we are going to go over the idea of communism to find out its history, what it really entails, and whether or not holding communist ideas is actually a danger to us or not.

The goal of Communism is, first and foremost, to create a classless society and to establish and political system in which there is common ownership shared equally by all members of society. Communism, which stemmed from political movements in the 1800's, has often been heralded as an ideal of liberation, a equalizing force to liberate the “have nots” from the oppression of the “haves” that is created by the imbalance of power created by capitalism.

In its purest form, not only are the means of production shared equally as in socialism, but every member of society also has an equal voice in the decision making process of the nation. It seeks to fight against the oppression often associated with imperialism and to equalize power, balancing it against the ills caused to society by capitalism. The typical symbols of communism have been the hammer and the sickle, representing those who do the real labor of society such as the farmers and workers, or agriculture and industry with equal, with division of the products of those labors going equally to each citizen based on his or her need.

So if communism is an equalizer, the liberator of the common man, why does it have such a bad reputation? Like many other philosophies or ideals, those involved in certain movements have tended to taint the original concepts in a negative way. Just like socialism, communism too has many different flavors with various nations putting a different slant on it, even perverting its foundational principles in some cases. And it is important to realize that communism is no different from any political, economic, or social system in the sense that a bad leader or corrupt industry can arise but that should not be seen a fault of the system, merely of the person.

Communism has most frequently, and perhaps erroneously, been associated with past communist leaders including Marx, Mao, and Lenin; however, they represent only a tiny school of thought within the greater umbrella of communism and socialism that also includes Christian Communism which points out the fact that Christian ethics are based on a socialist or communist social system and that such ethics are naturally anti-capitalism. The form of communism that came to life in Russia and China made a move away from what many in communist schools of thought, such as the EuroCommunists, Christian Communists, and other forms of Non-Marxist Communism feel are essential to the heart of true communism and corrupted their authority that was used in an attempt to oppress the very people they were supposed to be liberating. As evidence of this we see many nations in Europe where pure, non-Marxist communism is still quite popular, particularly among nations that once opposed the Soviet, oppressive version of communism that has put so many at odds over this form of social construct.

This imbalance of power has given communism a bad name because, in the name of communism, some very unpopular regimes have become tyrants in their own right. However, this is not a failure of the ideals of communism nor does it mean that people should dismiss or even fear those who believe in the noble cause of creating a classless and equal society. In fact, it could be argued the most basic and natural form of a social or economic structure is indeed communism.

Consider being shipwrecked on a deserted island for example, the most natural organization system would be that everyone involved pitches in and performs an equal amount of work and as a result e Everyone shares in the fruits of those labors equally with decisions being made by the group as a whole. While it may be desirable in some cases to choose a leader who as the ability, knowledge, skills, and vision to lead and organize in the given situation, that equality of labor and profit is still split equally among every member with the understanding that the leader to is performing a service and is involved in every aspect of the groups survival. Although the model can be a bit more complex from one school of thought to another, this is the basic underlying structure of Communism.

So to spite popular belief has being pushed by many on the right, there is nothing anti-American about the concept of communism, neither is it illegal or unconstitutional although there seems to be a lot or propaganda these days trying to suggest otherwise just as there was during the McCarthy era of state endorsed ideological witch hunts.

Change scares a lot of people, especially the people in power who know that equality and justice means that they no longer would get to sit at the top of the food chain feeding off of their fellow man. But times are changing, and the American sentiment has steadily been evolving to move away from the old ways of exploitation and injustice.  The American Communist Party is growing and many are beginning to a demand an end to the inequalities that for too long have plagued our society and that is not a change that we should fear, but embrace.