What are your thoughts on communism -negative and positive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rozellelily
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Ex-Yugoslavia - Totally negative. I did not live in Yugoslavia for a long time, it fell apart (with war of course) when I was very young. I do have an opinion backed with arguments though.
  1. Where I’m from, people did not get married in Churches because they could have problems with getting a decent job. They often married (in church) only in secret. Many who were only civilly married, were then married in the Church, after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
  2. Where I am from, pretty much every single forest has marks (Crosses) of mass grave sites. Even multiple sites in single forest. The mass graves were reported by locals only after the break up. Most of the people were never given (even after the war) a proper burial or identification for that matter. Those were not exclusively soldiers that died there by the way. One of the biggest mass grave discovered to the date is a cave filled with a lot of women and children, a lot.
  3. The Church was not free to do it’s business with Rome - that is why only after the war many cases for canonization were brought forth - especially when it comes to the Martyrs of course, because they all have a common killer - communism. This reminds me of burning of a bishop. The only really accepted religion was the cult of personality of the dictator.
  4. If the countries that were together had such a friendly relationship, I do not understand why after the collapse, they were retaliating for all the past offenses - hence the brutality of this war.
  5. People here were smuggling stuff from Austria in Yugoslavia. Stuff like sugar, washing detergent, baby food.
  6. When people were building one of the churches I know, they were given such a hard time doing so, that it’s a miracle that they ever finished it. But the communist regime gave them such limits, that the church is now in the second floor. You have to take a lift or a double staircase to get in the church.
  7. You were allowed to drive your car only on odd or only on even days (depends on your registration number), because of the fuel shortages.
I’m sure I could come up with more.

I’m sure there was a spirit of unity in good moments of the brotherhood - but that was not worth the cost.
 
Last edited:
There has never been real Communism (as Marx means it)… it has never been possible, and if it were, it would likely not happen because it would mean that the ones at the top are out of a job. Sort of like what is happening with a certain virus…
 
Last edited:
100 million people dead and millions more imprisoned, tortured and physically and emotionally scarred for life. Complete and total economic collapse everywhere it has been implemented. Yeah, sounds very rosy. Might as well talk about the “positive” aspects of slavery, National Socialism, or Apartheid.
 
Or the positives of capitalism which resulted in over 100 million dead in India from 1947 to 1979.
 
Last edited:
India had an officially socialist economic policy from 1947 to 1991. So that argument falls flat on it’s face.
 
Yeah and many other things. List could be endless.
Rozellelily said:
but as someone born under communist rule, perhaps hard to believe but there were positives also.
Click to expand...
I will just say that I have a deceased family member who spent decade in prison for being Catholic, who previously survived death penalty and then torture in prison which gave him permanent organ damage.
My family members (and many other families) were always followed when they went to church, children would get F in school just because someone saw them or their parents in church. Adults would hide fact that they are Catholics. Only “truly” free humans were those who were members of Communistic party.

I live in ex-Yugoslavian country and we still have problem with communism. No there is no anything good about communism. It’s the same as asking is there anything good about nazis. Of course there were good things under nazis too but it doesn’t mean that nazis had good side. Today nobody would say that.
Unfortunately communism still gets good reviews by some.
“Communism can function only as a fictional philosophy on paper” - words of my former philosophy profesor (he was also a priest) at university.

I am sorry but I think that you have wrong impression.

There is around milion people killed under communistic regime in Yugoslavia, people who opposed system and those who were Catholics or other religion. Communism didn’t care is that a child, is it pregnant woman, invalid, elderly or anyone else.
I never heard that any human being can be so cruel except member of totalitarian regimes. It is because there is no God included. Where is no God there is awful disorder. And if any goodness exists in society without God it is just a shadow of something that ‘should be’ good.
 
Last edited:
I am very sorry for what happened to your family member.

But what about the “evils” of today though, where some people (from all side) still just hate each other based on nationality. I.,e " I hate Croats", or “I hate Serbs” etc?
Sadly, I know too many people like that. We should be proud but what about the people that go too far?

God and religion is good and the perfect system when people follow the commandments of love God and neighbour, but if instead religion becomes so tied up with national identity and leads to wars (whether literal or in the heart) is then religion any better than communism?

Maybe the idea of a united Jugoslavija is now just romantic and nostalgic notion, but I do not see the positives in ultra-nationalism either.
 
Last edited:
StudentMI said:
I do find it odd that Christians are so prone to deny the communistic nature of early Christianity. So be it.
Click to expand...
I don’t find it odd because there were some important differences, among them, one, that people entered that community voluntarily, and two, worship of God was the basis for the community rather than something to be wiped out.
 
There is no such thing in its pure form it was mans attempt to create heaven on earth with all people being treated equity - massive failure and impossible a failed experiment.But because a few can hold all the power it still exists in its twisted form.
 
Rozellelily said:
But what about the “evils” of today though, where some people (from all side) still just hate each other based on nationality . I.,e " I hate Croats", or “I hate Serbs” etc?
Sadly, I know too many people like that. We should be proud but what about the people that go too far?
Click to expand...
I think that those people are minority. I know one person who hates Serbs (that is something truly distorted). I don’t hate any nation or religion no matter what some people did.
Rozellelily said:
but if instead religion becomes so tied up with national identity and leads to wars (whether literal or in the heart) is then religion any better than communism?
Click to expand...
No, one example for that is Ustase and Independent Croatia at that time. It is same extreme and evil as communism, it uses God as an excuse for hate, killing and torturing people.
Rozellelily said:
Maybe the idea of a united Jugoslavija is now just romantic and nostalgic notion, but I do not see the positives in ultra-nationalism either.
Click to expand...
Those are extreme sides of one thing.
One doesn’t have to belong in any of those groups. It is possible to love all people no matter which religion, ethnicity, nation or whatever else, to bring them into unity and still live in free country without extremism.
Communism cannot sincerely unite nations when some will for sure be excluded (Catholics, other Christians, Jews, Muslims etc. you name it)
 
Last edited:
The bottom line is that communism is a form of government that forces people to do everything. There is no charity in this form of government. There is forced redistribution of resources.

A Republic or Democracy is a government made by the people through voting. People decide how their resources are used. That is the fundamental difference between Free Market systems and Marxist systems. There really is no need to argue beyond this fundamental difference. One system is forced on the people. The other is governed by the people.
 
Last edited:
I think democracy has it’s negative also such that democracy allows full freedom of press which is good of course. But then on the negative those freedoms can become too broad as we see now with people just criticizing everything, calling the Governments and the Pope all sorts of swear words or even worse derogatory things etc.

And so much for democracy when the people vote for one party based on promises, then as soon as the party is it they go back on word and make excuses…
And once in, the public rarely has much say in the day to decision making anyway.
Under democracy don’t we anyway still have some form of forced redistribution of resources in the way of taxes, divorce settlement, child support rulings etc…

And if it isn’t a government causing the gaps of wealth and people in poverty, someone else fill the shoes. I.e., so many people in western countries have now just become corporate slaves serving only to make the rich richer.

Although you are correct, the other option isn’t better.
 
Last edited:
Rozellelily said:
Communism has always talk about in a negative life, but as someone born under communist rule, perhaps hard to believe but there were positives also.
Click to expand...
My wife was raised on a small farm in Iowa by a mother who had 7 children whose husband had died. She thought eating potatoes until they came out of her ears, pumping water out of a well by hand, and bathing in a metal feed tub was the way everyone lived. That was all she knew and the fact that she survived day to day was a great positive to her.

As for communism, I see no positives in being oppressed by your own government concerning things like free speech, the right to choose your own political leadership, and the ability to choose your own path in life.
 
Last edited:
Rozellelily said:
I think democracy has it’s negative also such that democracy allows full freedom of press which is good of course. But then on the negative those freedoms can become too broad as we see now with people just criticizing everything, calling the Governments and the Pope all sorts of swear words or even worse derogatory things etc.
Click to expand...
Are you serious? The fundamental liberties of the people can never be too broad, especially when it comes to free speech. We are not a “democracy” anyway, we are a constitutional republic and there is quite a difference between the two. The democratic process only comes into play with the voting franchise, after that the constitution is supposed to be the basis of our system.
Rozellelily said:
Although you are correct, the other option isn’t better.
Click to expand...
It is much better. There is no better system than a constitutional republic which is supposed to limit the power of the controlling government and allows freedom to find it’s rightful place in our lives. Our problem is we have veered away from a limited Federal government and seeing to it that maximum power remains at the local level, whether state or county.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top