11-11-2009, 02:44 PM
Quote:Karl Marx is quite obviously the founder (prophet?) of Communism. Pretty much all Communist doctrines trace their origins back to him, usually but not always through Lenin. Various schisms give their particular interpretations (Trotskyites, Maoists, Guevarists, Neo-Marxists, etc...) but all owe their fundamental belief structure directly to Marx. Antecedents exist, but are generally ignored.
Capitalism is a much broader thing. Where does capitalism start? You could say Adam Smith, but he was only writing about the spirit of something that was taking place during his time, the unification of markets and specialization of labour in Britain, spurred on by increasing international commerce. That commerce, and the banking that made it possible, were innovations that go back long before, to France, to Italy, to the Netherlands (always the Netherlands!) and so forth. Being a "capitalist" does not require belief in much more than the functioning of markets and the relative importance of private property. It doesn't even strictly exclude being some stripe of socialist - I would consider myself to have both strong capitalist and socialist influences.
In short, one can talk about big-C "Communism," but only about little-c "capitalism."
-Jester
The big difference in my opinion is that communism is an ideology that requires people to do something that goes against their natural urges; namely share things equally. That is why it requires a 'belief' with the people to make it work. You must believe it is better to share than to only think about increasing your own wealth. Of course, as I said before, this is very difficult to maintain in a society (almost as difficult as a libertarian society:)) and that is why often totalitarian regimes are 'necesarry'.
Capitalism is much more natural, you directly see what the reaction is of your action, so no ideology has to be preached. (of course the inherent depletion of resources (mentioned by Zenda) and the inherent gap between rich and poor (internationally) are bad, but John Doe the farmer will never realize this (see the difficulty of getting people to do something against global warning even though the potential conseuqences are disastrous and will lead to huge losses of wealth).
To entirely different systems, but I think it is not correct, fair and useful to call communism a religion. Instead of talking about some supernatural being, and preaching behaviour that supposedly pleases this supernatural being is something else than an ideology that, although difficult to realize, might be a way of ensuring the survival of our species. (might, because there is no certainty there:) )