Communist. Scary word right? You may have heard the phrase “good on paper, bad in practice” or you might automatically jump to North Korea or the Soviet Union. But can it be good?

Is it inherently bad in practice, or has it just been done poorly by the government? Are all communists radical, or has lingering Cold War propaganda just led the masses to believe so?

I am, of course, inclined to believe the latter. I think communism can be – and hopefully will be — revolutionary. But what do I know?

I know a lot actually, a lot more than most. I feel I should preface, I, in no way, fault anyone for possible lack of education, nor do I despise anyone who disagrees with me. I simply ask for you to hear me out.

Let’s start with a fundamental understanding of what communism is, according to Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels. Marx and Engels were known for their work in “The Communist Manifesto” which is widely regarded as the model of what a pure communist society would look like.

I can imagine most people haven’t read it, which is fair, it’s a tough piece. So, for that reason, I would like to give a quick rundown of how communism would work.

In short, communism is a political ideology and economic structure in the same way capitalism is. The difference is, rather than production being owned by an extremely wealthy minority while the working classes do their work, all production would be owned by the people and the nation would be stateless. 

Large corporations would cease, and no one would own private land. With this, the idea of class would be eradicated.

Assuming it’s done fairly, all the money businesses make would be recycled through the people and given back to the community to supply necessities such as housing, medicare, education, etc. No one would be significantly richer than the next, and no one would be without the things they need as long as they were working.

Of course there is naturally nuance. The line between communism and authoritarian socialism is often blurred. Does any of this sound reachable in the near future? No. As Marx said, it’s a process, one that we’re already moving towards.

Social security, retirement funds- those are all things that we as Americans have access to under capitalist rule. Really, you can thank Franklin D. Roosevelt for those. A lot of Roosevelt’s campaign was using unlabeled socialism to undo the damages of capitalism in the Great Depression. 

Our modern day capitalism is becoming progressively more socialist with the years, and socialism is derived from communism. The hope is that we slowly continue to implement communist ideas into capitalism to grow out the inherent greed of the people. Enough so that they can function rationally in stateless borders. 

Idealistic? Sure, but so was democracy at one point. Reaching for seemingly impossible heights is the only way society has ever continued to grow. If history repeats itself, the communist beliefs will become more and more common.

Now, to address the elephant in the room: it’s never been done before, or, the more popular belief, it’s never been done correctly. The first part is true, we’ve never seen a pre-communist society thrive. The second is a misconception. 

All those negative countries you have associated with communism goes back to two things: one, Cold War propaganda, and two, authoritarian socialism. Countries in the Cold War, and even now, are often thought to use communism as a mask for totalitarianism. This is (somewhat) propaganda used to direct the masses– mostly NATO countries– away from communistic ideals.

Those often aren’t pure communist societies though. To be truly communist, one cannot have the same government set ups we do today, and they’d have to go through decades of a slow shift in order to not shock the people into a frenzy. Communist societies with hierarchy governments are actually authoritarian socialists.

But why do we need this progression? Because of capitalism. Many believe that in capitalism, you can work for your spot in the world, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Think of it like a triangle, the rich at the top, the working class at the bottom. In order for capitalism to work, the rich have to profit off the poor. To make it worse, reproduction is unavoidable, hence why nepotism is the way it is today. If people continue to be born into wealth, then no one at the bottom has room to make their way up. It’s maybe every one in 10 million.

If followed in the Marxist fashion, the struggle of the people would be so minimal, and selfishness would have long evolved. This false sense of hope and impossible idea of working to the top that capitalism has given people will be laughed about in the history books.

Again, I am not forcing my leftist agenda on you, but I hope to have at the very least encouraged you to have done your own research on the idea. Use Google, discuss online, and read some books. Challenge your own beliefs because often they are rooted in a society that has taught you to fear opposition.