{"id":78,"date":"2017-02-03T00:02:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T00:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hippy.com\/hip\/uncategorized\/marx-communism\/"},"modified":"2017-02-03T00:02:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T00:02:37","slug":"marx-communism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/ask-the-old-hippie\/marx-communism\/","title":{"rendered":"Marx & Communism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tDear Mr Hippy
\nLove the web-site, but there’s one small thing that I’ve just gotta
\ncorrect…. <\/span><\/p>\n

Communism is opposed to the state in any form – unlike your answer to the
\n‘Stinking Hippy says.<\/p>\n

Marx never actually provided a blue print for how a communist community was
\nsupposed to look like or how it was specifically to act. The big idea was
\nfor people, who are all equal, to work together in a harmony that was absent
\nfrom any great overarching power (like when French students and workers took
\nover an area of Paris and created their own artisan style community in
\nprotest against oppressive politics – your own fellow hippies!). By not
\nleaving a blue print, Marx thought that people would be able to create a
\ncommunist community free from the prescriptions of an antiquated era, that
\npeople would eventually evolve away from capitalism once it had reached its
\npeek and instead search for a better way of living where there was no
\ndiscrimination based on material wealth, race, colour or gender (the sort of
\nequality of living that resembles Star Trek I guess, no ones got a higher )
\nUnfortunately, by not providing a blue-print he left his ideals open to
\ninterpretation by some pretty nasty guys (i.e.. China, Russia, Serbia etc.).
\nBut that’s the problem with art – it generally can be interpretated by
\npeople in line with their own self interest.<\/p>\n

Basically he just saw a lot of corruption, poverty, inequality, bulling and
\nunnecessary pain in the 18th Century ( very anti-hippy behaviour!) and
\nwanted to motivate people to change things. Unfortunately the world was
\nstill quite barbaric in those days and so Marx’s revolution was portrayed in
\na way that people could associate with – namely a bloody uprising (aka
\nRussia, French revolution, China, Serbia etc.). I think that Marx gets
\npicked on a bit too much – after all he was only a guy with a concept that
\nthe world needed to be improved for the benefit of all. And that is
\nsomething that were all familiar with (and remember there were a lot more
\nscary people in history with worse ideals than that).<\/p>\n

So fellow hippy – do not judge those who you have not met – and never listen
\nto gossip coz it poisons your head.<\/p>\n

Peace, love and mushrooms
\nSarah<\/p>\n

\n

Sarah,
\nWhat you are describing is more like anarchy than communism. Anarchy is anti-system, where as Marx just saw replacing one system with another. Much of Marx’s focus was on the economics of society, and even though he took a sociologist’s approach, he completely ignored human psychology (a new field at the time). And I was discussing communism in practice, more than theory. Communism in it’s pure form is something completely different, most closely resembling the communes of the 60s till the present. But just like chickens, humans tend to establish a pecking order which then invests more power in the hands of a few who then control the masses. It’s inevitable as long as humans remain self-centered and greedy. <\/span><\/p>\n

By not providing a blueprint (which would always be unworkable anyway),
\nMarx copped out. He just put down the existing system without really
\noffering a viable alternative (as did many hippies). Fortunately many
\nhippies did explore alternatives, but these were limited to very small
\ncommunities of mostly like-minded individuals. And as you can see most of
\nthese have failed for one reason or another. The only ones that remain are
\nthose that launched capitalist enterprises that could bring in revenue
\nfrom outside the commune to keep it alive. And the politics of communes can
\nbe just as fucked as those of the greater society. I know of many where the
\nleaders took advantage of their fellow communers, and exploited them –
\nthese sometimes but not always had some kind of religious bent.<\/p>\n

And if you think the world ISN’T barbaric anymore, you haven’t traveled
\nmuch, and aren’t keeping up with what’s happening in the world. In fact why
\nnot look in your own backyard at the ANIMAL HOLOCAUST that is occuring just
\nfor economic reasons. It’s completely unnecessary. This is capitalism
\nshowing its true colors. Just wait until it’s a disease affecting humans.
\nYou can expect a similar response. Unfortunately, THAT day is coming….<\/p>\n

-The Old Hippy<\/p>\n

Posted by: skip
\nViews: 13753
\nTopic:14\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Mr Hippy Love the web-site, but there’s one small thing that I’ve just gotta correct…. Communism is opposed to the state in any form – unlike your answer to the ‘Stinking Hippy says. Marx never actually provided a blue print for how a communist community was supposed to look like or how it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[34,35,81,103],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-the-old-hippie","tag-communes","tag-communism","tag-marx","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hipplanet.com\/hip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}