The ‘-ism’ conversation with my uncle was an enlightening experience which all contributed to expanding my scope of knowledge because I got to learn more about our society, politics, government, and a bunch of stuff that I was too ignorant or uninterested to find out about before. This conversation happened via online messaging, so it was originally disorganized and all over the place. I tried to reorganize it properly so that it seems more user-friendly to read, but it now sounds like a mini interview with a clueless student asking a bunch of ignorant questions to a teacher patiently satisfying the student’s thirst of knowledge, while providing useful and interesting links to engage the student to learn even more. (Haha, that was a mouthful!)
Anyways, let’s cut to the chase so you can be mildly entertained or enlightened too.
Here is how the conversation with my uncle basically went:
(Some background info: I was using a laptop at school to message my uncle.)
(U= Uncle, M= Me)
M: Today, I was asked “what is the opposite of capitalism?” by some Chinese stranger from my campus. Do you know the answer?
U: Communism
M: Why? What is communism? How about socialism?
U: This is a very broad topic that is worthy of many research papers. But I will try to simplify it for you.
Communism says that everyone should receive an equal share of material goods, that the rich should not be many time richer than the poor. So whether you’re a truck driver or a physician, you should basically get paid the same. Capitalism says that a person should be as rich as he or she deserves. So if you work harder, or smarter, or take advantage of better opportunities, then you deserve to be richer than the next guy and have a better lifestyle.
This is why they are essentially opposites
Socialism says that both of these are a bit extreme. We should reward the hard working but still keep the society balanced, as much as possible. Therefore everybody should pay a lot of taxes so that, through the government, the rich can subsidize the poor. This is basically what Canada is.
M: Ohhhhh, so the difference between socialism and communism is that socialism still has the social hierarchy between the rich and the poor?
U: In theory, yes. But in practice, everyone knows that there’s a huge importance placed on hierarchy in supposedly communist countries, such as China and Russia.
M: Is this considered general knowledge?
U: It’s general knowledge for intellectuals. It’s what’s supposed to separate a university graduate from a high school graduate.
M: Oh dear me…I just finished an exam and I was asked that by this stranger as I was walking away…. what a weird encounter… I guess I’m not intellectual enough.
U: It’s okay. You’re still young. You have a lot to learn. There is no shame in that.
M: Thanks, so is china communism or socialism?
U: They call it… Chinese Communism.
M: Oops, hahaha, I get it. So there isn’t a gap between the rich and poor in china then? I thought there was.
U: In China, there is a HUGE HUGE gap between the rich and the poor. That’s the whole problem.
M: But they still insist on communism? Why is there still a gap? Was it there already?
U: They have to. They’ve made a villain out of the US and Capitalism. There’s no going back. There wasn’t much of a gap when Mao was in power. Everyone was poor and many people starved. Now that China is opening up and people actually have a chance at things, the gap has become very large.
M: oh dear… I heard that Mao did horrible things to maintain equality.
U: Mao did terrible things. But at least he kept EVERYONE poor.
M: HAHA. Is there’s no way to make everyone rich then?
U: The only place where everyone is rich is heaven.
M: Is US based on capitalism?
U: Yes, the US is the world’s capital of Capitalism. The US used to have a strong middle class. That’s about as close to ideal as society can get. Now the middle class is basically gone, and the 300 richest Americans are about as rich as the 83 million poorest ones put together. Refer to this 10 minute video on how bad things are now:
http://gawker.com/russell-brand-may-have-started-a-revolution-last-night-1451318185
M: I thought Canada had a strong middle class too.
U: Canada is more Socialist, so it’s not as bad. But it’s certainly not well off either.
M: How about Europe? Is it socialism, communism, or capitalism?
U: I think Europe is in trouble economically. It’s a mixed bag of isms. I cannot say much about Europe with confidence, because I don’t look at Europe much.
M: How many ‘isms’ are there?
U: There are many isms. There is even one that the new China’s founding father, Sun Yat Sen, penned up and tried to put in practice. But Communism and Capitalism are the ones that receive the most attention and public awareness.
With Europe, I can only say that at least it’s basically a free market. People there are not severely limited as they are in China and Russia.
M: I just finished watching the video. Russell Brand makes some interesting points about where we should be focusing on but he doesn’t really say how to deal with it all.
U: Sadly, he’s just a comedian, so he doesn’t have everything figured out. But he admits that there are people far more qualified for figuring out a way, and he points out that those people are not the ones who are currently in office. The important thing is, his heart is in the right place.
M: Who invented Communism and Capitalism?
U: Karl Marx invented Communism. You can borrow the original work, “Communist Manifesto”, from your local library.
M: I’ve heard of that name before…
U: It’s a very famous name. For a good reason. He invented Communism. He never got to do much with it. But his works stirred the imagination of many people, some of whom gone on to acquire great political power. Like Mao.
And if you really wanted to know… he has a big beard, too.
Here’s his biography: http://www.biography.com/people/karl-marx-9401219
M: Oh, so Karl Marx got the ‘communism’ idea and published it, but people with political power, like Mao, got more into it and did something with it?
U: He wrote it up because he was sick of seeing rich people having it all… without having to do anything! It was a good treatise, and by most accounts, a real communist society would be akin to utopia.
Unfortunately, the ugly side of human nature always comes into play when power and money is involved, and so no one has ever made Communism work the way it should.
M: The way communism is supposed to work… is it to make everyone rich or at least middle class?
U: It’s not to make everyone filthy rich. It is to make everyone have what they need and able to put themselves to good use in society. If you look at Star Trek, it’s kind of like that.
M: Ideally yes… but then we first need to define what is “necessary” and the ‘basic’ of what everyone needs.
U: Like I said, this is a very broad topic that is worthy of many essays. Wouldn’t you agree?
M: Hahaha yes, it is an interesting topic of our society. What about star trek though?
U: Star Trek is a TV show and movie franchise. It is a SciFi show that touches on many things, including politics, science and human nature. That’s why it has such a cult following.
M: Wow, I heard that it has many stories. But I only know the Borg.
U: The Borg is like the ultimate version of how bad communism can get.
M: The Borg deletes individualism, right? We did an English assignment about relating the Borg to the internet once.
U: Your prof is creative.
M: So in Star Trek, they made communism look bad by using the Borg huh?
U: Not really. The humans were basically in communism as well. And they are, by and large, quite happy.
In Star Trek, everyone can eat whatever they want, everyone gets an education, everyone has a place to live and everyone gets a job. And no one seems excessively richer than others. That’s what communism says should happen.
M: I think they need to invent another word for the ‘extreme communism’ in the Borg then. Because communism sounds like it still has some discrepancies between people.
U: No one called the Borg extreme communism. I decided that.
M: oops, hahaha, but it’s similar, no?
U: I decided that because I see the similarity.
M: But similarity does not mean equivalence?
U: One can only find similarities in this case, because there is no human equivalence. At least, not so far.
M: Hmm, nicely said.
U: I encourage you to read the book “Communist Manifesto”. It’s short. You can decide if it’s sweet.
M: Is that book in English? Or Latin?
U: It’s been translated to many languages. English certainly is included.
M: What’s the original language?
U: “At the beginning of 1846, Marx founded a Communist Correspondence Committee in an attempt to link socialists from around Europe. Inspired by his ideas, socialists in England held a conference and formed the Communist League, and in 1847 at a Central Committee meeting in London, the organization asked Marx and Engels to write Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (Manifesto of the Communist Party).
The Communist Manifesto, as this work is commonly known, was published in 1848, and shortly after, in 1849, Marx was expelled from Belgium. He went to France, anticipating a socialist revolution, but was deported from there as well. Prussia refused to renaturalize him, so Marx moved to London. Although Britain denied him citizenship, he remained in London until his death.”
Judging from this, they were in London. But I’m not sure the original work was in English.
M: I’ll try to find it in the library then. I hope my school library has it.
U: It’s an iconic book. It wouldn’t be much of a school library if they didn’t have it.
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/communist/summary.html
This isn’t the real thing. But it might save you some time.
M: Thanks for the sparknotes summary but I just got the book. It’s around 100 pages. Not too bad.
U: Fast move!
M: Hehe, the library was right beside me…This is my first time borrowing a book from my university library though.
U: Well, you can say to your grandchildren, “When grandma used to be in university, the first book I borrowed was the Communist Manifesto! So what is that you’re reading?”
M: HAHAHA! Anyways, I’ll read it on the bus home. Bye now.
U: Bye!
Something to Read 