Why did communism fail?
First, let’s be clear about one thing. The Soviet model collapsed. Marxist ideas have been implemented in various forms throughout the industrialized world with varying success and without the force of a totalitarian regime. The Chinese model embodied all the weaknesses of the Soviet model, however, the rulers have managed to perform a remarkable balancing act while introducing capitalist incentives into their economy while carefully permitting small accommodations to freedom of movement and expression, along with consumerist reforms, resulting in a burgeoning middle class and a raging culture of fashion and hedonist pursuits among the well-educated young. Neither the Russians nor the Chinese, and certainly not the Cubans, the Cambodians, the Burmese or the North Koreans have given us a model by which to judge Marx-Engels’ political ideas. As for the economic ideas, there’s no doubt that our mixed economies, the modern welfare state, social insurance or state-run healthcare for all pro
Couldn’t help making a remark on the point about IT Communism communism made by Charbax. It seems the root of this misconception can be found in a rather widespread belief that the basic internet domain com (as in dot com) stands for Communism. This gives ground to completely unfounded hopes and projections. Needless to say that in fact .com in domain names stands for Commercial rather than Communism. However discouraging it is but we have to agree with a point made earlier by the same author: communism cannot work as long as capitalists control most of the world ressources Hence the Internet predominantly controlled by commercial, not communal forces provides us with little reassuarance in the final victory of communist ideals. Almost all internet infrastructure, i. e. servers, cables, wires etc. are controlled by large multinationals an
