# Communism

*"Imagine no possession"* --John Lennon

Communism (from *communis* -- common, shared) is a very broad name most generally given to the idea that sharing and equality should be the basic values and principles of a society; as such it is a [leftist](left_right.md) concept falling under [socialism](socialism.md) (if that we take to mean a "focus on wellbeing of people at large"). Many branches, theories, political ideologies and schools of thought have come to grow from this concept, [Marxism](marxism.md), [Leninism](leninism.md), [anarcho communism](ancom.md), primitive communism, Christian communism and [Buddhist](buddhism.md) communism to name only a few -- of course, some of them [good](good.md) and other ones [evil](evil.md), only exploiting the word "communism" as a kind of *brand* (as also often happens e.g. with [anarchism](anarchism.md)). Unfortunately, as a consequence of the disastrous failure of the violent pseudocommunist revolutions of the 20th century, most people came to equate the word communism with oppressive militant regimes, and so we shall stress that just like we cannot equate religion with the Catholic Church, **communism is NOT equal to [USSR](ussr.md), Marxism-Leninism, Stalinism or any other form of pseudocommunism**, on the contrary such regimes were rather hierarchical, nationalist, cruel, nonegalitarian and violent, we might even say downright [fascist](fascism.md). Really there is very little difference between Marxist and far right regimes, the difference is essentially just in the name, and so we MUST NEVER think of communism as of Marxism. As for [LRS](lrs.md), we embrace TRUE communism and aim to establish unconditional, [selfless](selflessness.md) sharing as the foundation of our [less retarded society](less_retarded_society.md) -- ideologically this is probably closest to [anarcho communism](ancom.md). **Yes, large communist societies have existed and worked**, to give an example: the [Inca](inca.md) empire worked without [money](money.md) and provided FREE food, clothes, houses, health care, education and other products of collective work to everyone, according to his needs. A bunch of other communities also function on more or less communist principles, see e.g. Jewish [kibbutz](kibbutz.md), [Sikhist](sikhism.md) [langar](langar.md), [free software](free_software.md), or even just most families for that matter. Of course, it's not claimed these societies and groups are or were [ideal](less_retarded_society.md) in all respects, just that the principles of communism DO work in practice, that communism should be considered a necessary condition of a good society and that such society is not impossible due to impossibility of communism because as revealed, it is indeed possible (if anything, only its scalability gets really questioned, and even if global communism was proven to be impossible, who says we are obliged to establish a single global society?). The color [red](red.md) is usually associated with communism and the "hammer and sickle" (U+262D) is taken as its symbol, though that's mostly associated with the evil communist regimes and so its usage by LRS supporters is probably better be avoided.

Common ideas usually associated with communism are (please keep in mind that this may differ depending on the specific flavor of communism):

- Ending [capitalism](capitalism.md) and similar rightist oppressive hierarchical systems which are the polar opposite of communism and are incompatible with it. Along with these also things like [consumerism](consumerism.md), worker exploitation, crime and poverty will disappear.
- Abolishment of private property, establishing common ownership, for example a factory shouldn't have a single owner who makes profit off of it, it should rather be collectively managed by those who work in the factory and they should collectively share what they make there.
- Sharing and collaboration as opposed to [competition](competition.md).
- Equality, seizing of division of people into social classes (such as workers, [bourgeoisie](bourgeoisie.md), rich, poor, aristocracy, ...).
- Eventual abolishment of [state](state.md), as again in a good society that benefits people there shouldn't be any crime, theft, abuse of workers etc. However some "communists" see state and its control of economy as a necessary intermediate step towards this goal.
- Abolishment of [money](money.md) as that is a means of dividing people into classes (rich and poor), means of abuse (wage slavery) and a tool of systems such as capitalism. In a good society money is unnecessary, everyone gets what he needs.
- Sometimes [revolution](revolution.md) (and even [war](war.md), temporary dictatorship etc.) is seen by some "communists" as a necessary way of achieving a change, however many others oppose this as revolution means violence, dominating man by another man (inequality) etc. -- peaceful voluntary evolutionary approach is also an option of achieving communism.
- Focus on workers and common people.
- Intellectual endeavor and idealism -- many communists are intellectuals, [scientifically](science.md) examining society and seeking models of an ideal society, a "[utopia](utopia.md)" as opposed to accepting life in a [dystopia](dystopia.md).
- ...

TODO

## See Also

- [less retarded society](less_retarded_society.md)
- [socialism](socialism.md)
- [commons](commons.md)
- More’s [Utopia](utopia.md)
- [Marxism](marxism.md)
- [capitalism](capitalism.md)
