I've spoken with some of you about communism and the way you look at this phenomenon. I've heard many interpretations and I am very curious of you could state your thoughts what "Communism" is.
If you could do it in bullet-points so I can use this for a thesis I'm working on.
I'll make sure as to keep you all posted when I'm done writing it. I'm sure some of you will have a good laugh and ample ammunition to shoot it full of holes.

Thanks...

The way I see it communism in theory has never existed. Communism is a mixture of several schools of learning (6 or 7 various Communist schools such as Marx, Lenin, Mao and more interesting the Council Communism).

If we see on the Marxist theory the result of state socialism is Communism.

You can refer it to political, economical and social theories as well as the life under the conditions of a communist party rule.

Communism is a pernicious ideology which has been applied in dozens and dozens of countries around the world, from 1917 to the present times, in all the various continents (Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America).
Communist regimes have been terrible dictorship in each and every country from day one.
There must have evidently been some rotten detail in the theory itself then.

This is what Ragan called communism:

One of the most compelling broadcast scripts is one he titled simply, "Communism, the Disease," written in May 1975. "Mankind has survived all manner of evil diseases and plagues," wrote Reagan, "but can it survive Communism?" This disease had been "hanging on" for a half century or more. As a result, Reagan felt it imperative to remind us "just how vicious it really is." This especially needed doing because the practitioners of communism, like many practitioners of medicine, sometimes came up with euphemisms or "double talk" to "describe its symptoms and its effects." For example, said Reagan, "if you and I in America planted land mines on our borders, ringed the country with barbed wire and machine gun toting guards to keep anyone from leaving the country we'd hardly describe that as 'liberating' the people." This was classic Reagan, on the attack, always speaking candidly, calling evil by its name. "Communism," he added for good measure, "is neither an economic or a political system - it is a form of insanity." He then made one of those seemingly wild predictions we'd hear throughout his presidency, mostly greeted by ridicule from his critics: Communism was "a temporary aberration which will one day disappear from the earth because it is contrary to human nature

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Btw Ted, since it sounds like you're writing a report on it, have you read "The Black Book of Communism"? And "The Past of an Illusion" by Francois Furet"? I'd recommend the two of them.

Originally Posted by sunb!

The way I see it communism in theory has never existed. Communism is a mixture of several schools of learning (6 or 7 various Communist schools such as Marx, Lenin, Mao and more interesting the Council Communism).

If we see on the Marxist theory the result of state socialism is Communism.

You can refer it to political, economical and social theories as well as the life under the conditions of a communist party rule.

Karl Marx is considered the father of communism, but his political views Marxism is different from what communism is. For example Marx said that Capitalism was a necessary evil step toward a "free society". While Communism considers capitalism to be a 'total evil' that should be wiped out. One most also remember the Bolshevism (those that overthrew the Russian Tsar) was an interlude between Marxism and communism. The first "communist" government was Lenin.

Nitpicking, mmarsh. Doesn't condone Marx's thought IMO.
The point is USSR was NOT in a single way the only place where marxism was studied and made become reality.
China, Cuba, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Albania, Nicaragua, Poland (and Eastern Europe), Romania, North Korea, Mongolia, Somalia, Ethiopia... I mean not a single country where marxism didn't translate into totalitarianism. Coincidence.

Originally Posted by mmarsh

Karl Marx is considered the father of communism, but his political views Marxism is different from what communism is. For example Marx said that Capitalism was a necessary evil step toward a "free society". While Communism considers capitalism to be a 'total evil' that should be wiped out. One most also remember the Bolshevism (those that overthrew the Russian Tsar) was an interlude between Marxism and communism. The first "communist" government was Lenin.

My point is that there are no "pure" Communist theory in my opinon, only blends and mixtures of various schools that lead to what we call communism in the modern day.

Of course we can disagree

Originally Posted by sunb!

My point is that there are no "pure" Communist theory in my opinon, only blends and mixtures of various schools that lead to what we call communism in the modern day.

Of course we can disagree

I'm not so sure (but I could be wrong). I would think Lenin would be a "pure" form of communism as he is considered the first true communist leader. But even while Lenin was alive their were others such as Trotsky who had different intrepretations of what communism should be. By the time Stalin was in power, Lenin's died after only 5 years in power and his vision of cummunism died with him.

A lot of people still get along with the idea of a "good" Lenin compared to a "bad" Stalin. It's just so wrong: Lenin was truly a bloody dictator, gulags and concentration camps, mass murders and deportations all started under his enchanted government.

IG

I dont know anyone who defends Lenin, I certainly wasn't trying to. The man didn't kill as many as Stalin or Hitler but he had people murdered including the Romanov family.

Just to be clear, Sunb! and I are only talking differences in communist political ideology; we are not defending it. They all commited murder, Lenin, Trotsky, Beria (a real sicko), Stalin. Just like there were various schools of thought on Facism, Nazi Germany was not the same Moussani's Italy or Franco's Spain and yet they all committed mass murder. Same thing.

Yeah yeah Mmarsh, this time it should have actually been you the one who took offense. And I should have apologized for making you think I was saying you were defending Lenin.
I was not saying that, though.
As far as ideology, though, yeah Lenin did add something to original Marxism as conceived theoretically, that's why his was called Marxism-Leninist.