Reading about FOSS philosophy, degoogling, becoming against corporations, and now a full-blown woke communist (like Linus Torvalds)
Reading about FOSS philosophy, degoogling, becoming against corporations, and now a full-blown woke communist (like Linus Torvalds)
You lived in a country that called itself communist, in the same way that North Koreans live in a country that calls itself democratic. There has never been a country that actually achieved communism, because communism requires there be no state. At best these countries would claim that communism was their goal, but honestly most were lying, or at the very least co-opted and turned against their ideals somewhere down the line.
I do agree that the ideal communist state has never existed, though I need to challenge the assertion that communism demands the existence of no state. Anti-state philosophies are generally characterized as “anarchism” – it’s certainly true that communists and anarchists have historically held common interests, but in general they do not view themselves as members of the same group.
It’s a weird distinction, but the distinction exists for a reason. Communists do not reject the establishment of a governing apparatus, so it’s actually very inaccurate to say that “communism requires there to be no state”. You could instead adopt the anarchist argument that “communism is self-defeating because it leads to the creation of non-communist states”, but keep in mind that this is in-and-of-itself a rejection of communism in favor of communal anarchism.
The back and forth on what is and isn’t communism will continue until there aren’t two humans left to argue about it. I’ve described the classical Marxist view of communism including the withering away of the state. It has been redefined by various persons and groups over time, but I don’t have a high opinion of those definitions.
Anarchists also do not inherently reject the establishment of a governing apparatus.
Very eloquently put! If you’ll forgive me for quoting Engels (circa 1872) rather than Marx, I’d like to highlight a salient excerpt from his letters (bolded emphasis is my own, italicised emphasis preserved from original translation):
As you can see, even early Marxists did not actively advocate for the abolition of the state and in fact strongly sought to be perceived as separate from those who viewed abolition of the state as a fundamental prerequisite. Engels even ridicules the idea of completely abolishing state authority as magical thinking despite conceding that communism could eventually lead to the obviation of traditional state functions.
Fantastic! I thought that communism was impossible to achieve in a state, but if it is only achievable in ‘no state’, then we have to come up with a word more negative than ‘impossible’.