Influence your thoughts and feelings

[--Pete]

Hi,

My personal feeling is that (for humans) communism works very well at very small scale groups (e.g. families and Iwi=>(tribes/clans))  This is because at least at the 'community' level there is:
- still the feedback loop to the leadership
- more cohesive 'world view' and goals of the members
[right][snapback]86866[/snapback][/right]

I don't think so. Communism is not just the process of "From all . . .", but fundamental to the concept is the participants' free and willing desire to be part of the process. This is not true in families, which are typically either a tyranny, or an oligarchy (as long as the parents are the oligarchies, a situation that is all too commonly not true). Thus the natural tendency for children to move out (and in and out and in, etc. in some cases ;) ).

In the case of tribes, clans, religious groups, etc., you can only have communism by permitting people to leave, indeed 'shunning' them if they don't comply with the rules. So, in effect, you have a commune, cut off from the main stream. They may adhere to the selfless rule of communism, but they are not the 'logical endpoint' of the Communist conception -- rather they are, at best, dead end escapes for a few people.

Perhaps this is all a matter of semantics. Perhaps it is just that I'm using 'communism' wrong, and should be saying 'Communism'. Indeed, it is a strange insight to see that 'Communism' as practiced is nothing like 'communism' as preached. So much difference on one letter's case -- and how do you distinguish 'C' and 'c' in conversation? ;)

--Pete