You’re not a communist, are you?

It’s a phrase I’ve heard quite a lot of times, but it made me think. Why are Americans bred to hate communism this much? Alright, they’re a predominantly Christian and capitalist society, and communism is essentially atheist and promoting concepts that go pretty much the opposite direction of capitalism. But still, is communism really a “threat” for U.S. economy?

I tried to make a Google search on why Americans hate communism, and one of the first results that came up is a Yahoo! Answers page where one of the users there gave the following answer:

Because it’s the opposite of everything our country stands for, the Utopian society described by Marx is a fantasy that is unrealistic and throughout history has been proved to fail…because power corrupts… when a centralized government has all the power it creates oppression in society.

Now, I don’t know much about politics myself, but when someone tells you that communism means centralized government and talks about “power” and “oppression”, they are clearly confusing communism with totalitarism.

Yes, communism has had no successful implementation so far, with revolutionized countries ending up under a totalitarian regime that in most cases ended up killing millions. Yes, it is probably unrealistic. But when people are confusing communism with totalitarianism, they are displaying a great deal of misinformation. And no, I’m not a communist, if that’s all you were looking for.

"Is this tomorrow?"

Wikipedia features a great article about the “Red scare”, which I advise you to take a look at. As one might expect, the term refers to the periods of time (1917-1920 and 1947-1957) where a surge of the Communist parties around the world could have affected the American economy.

The myth of the cruel and violent communist spy soon became part of the popular imagery promoted by the media in its well-known Hollywood movies. It may be also thanks to this that, even in the years of the Great Depression, when the ideals of communism became attractive for many, the U.S. communist party never became a “threat” for its economy, with the peak in the number of the party members being set much later, in 1939, at 50,000.

There were effects on America’s way of life as a result of the Red Scare and the nuclear arms race, which contributed to the popularization of fallout shelters in home construction and a growing fear for the unknown that can only be compared to today’s fear of terrorism in the American public after the events of 9/11.

But, even now that communism is far from a threat to its society, many American citizens seem to reject the idea of communism a priori, in a domain that seems still hopelessly dominated by misinformation.

My first “real” approach to communism was back in the days of high school, during the philosophy class. Even though I can’t say our approach was completely unabridged, I did get to read Marx’s Manifesto and a couple other things.

The Communist Manifesto

The overall impression that I got from it was an utterly positive one, and I am convinced that anyone reading this document with an open-minded attitude will share the same opinion. It’s about giving everyone the same opportunities, free education and equal liability to all labour.

It is not by chance that the document begins with a sentence underlying how people are fearing the movement without understanding its essence:

A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism. All the Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.

Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as Communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the Opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

That communism is probably impossible to put in practice is a completely different matter. When you say “communism”, you refer to the ideals, and not to its failed attempts to implement them which ended up in brutal and totalitarian regimes. Honestly, what’s so bad about dreaming of a fair society?

What to me sounds most disconcerting is that, even in the Internet era, many people still rather rely on the mainstreamed, strictly controlled media instead of doing their own research. Ultimately, this is not about communism or politics at all, but about the will to hear both sides of the story before making an informed decision, a once common policy that the world seems to have suddenly forgotten since the invention of television.