Most people can't define 'communism' in the same way they can't define 'patriotism'. It's difficult to describe any government as entirely communistic or entirely capitalistic. What is patriotism? People feel like patriots regardless of the actions they take: they don't join the military, they may not act any different than any other american. 'Patriotism' is valued more than the actual things they represent, such as actual piety, civic virtue, or true patriotism. These terms are often used as a proxy for something else, 'good' and 'evil', and not its multi-valued orientation of each implementation having its own qualities. These abstractions are real though, it's just difficult to use them at the proper level of abstraction.
It’s difficult to describe any government as entirely communistic or entirely capitalistic.
This is a very good point. These modes of production are phenomena which don't occur in a vacuum. They interact with each other and play off one another. They emerge out of the conditions created by their predecessors. Capitalism in its infancy began in small pockets. It developed out of Feudalism and had to operate within the confines of a Feudalistic society. As a self-perpetuating system, it expanded in a drawn-out process which took centuries, and even today you can still see the imprints left by pre-capitalist socioeconomic development. At no point did somebody suddenly declare "Folks, we're doing Capitalism now," and the whole world became Capitalist.
The same is true of Communism. Communism begins in the pockets of the globe where Capitalism has ripened the conditions to such a degree which it can emerge. Communism expands from there, in a long, drawn-out process that will likely also take centuries. Communism will bear the scars and birthmarks of the society from which it was born, and it will take a long time for those scars to fade.
Most people can't define 'communism' in the same way they can't define 'patriotism'. It's difficult to describe any government as entirely communistic or entirely capitalistic. What is patriotism? People feel like patriots regardless of the actions they take: they don't join the military, they may not act any different than any other american. 'Patriotism' is valued more than the actual things they represent, such as actual piety, civic virtue, or true patriotism. These terms are often used as a proxy for something else, 'good' and 'evil', and not its multi-valued orientation of each implementation having its own qualities. These abstractions are real though, it's just difficult to use them at the proper level of abstraction.
This is a very good point. These modes of production are phenomena which don't occur in a vacuum. They interact with each other and play off one another. They emerge out of the conditions created by their predecessors. Capitalism in its infancy began in small pockets. It developed out of Feudalism and had to operate within the confines of a Feudalistic society. As a self-perpetuating system, it expanded in a drawn-out process which took centuries, and even today you can still see the imprints left by pre-capitalist socioeconomic development. At no point did somebody suddenly declare "Folks, we're doing Capitalism now," and the whole world became Capitalist.
The same is true of Communism. Communism begins in the pockets of the globe where Capitalism has ripened the conditions to such a degree which it can emerge. Communism expands from there, in a long, drawn-out process that will likely also take centuries. Communism will bear the scars and birthmarks of the society from which it was born, and it will take a long time for those scars to fade.
The old world is dying, and the new one struggles to be born?
:gramsci-heh: Looks like we're entering the time of monsters, folks.
I pray that most of these monsters will be Gritty.
Sorry, best the lathe of heaven can do is :frothingfash: .