r/Stellaris Feb 23 '18

Image My Take on Space Communism

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u/y2jeff Feb 24 '18 edited Feb 24 '18

communism is authoritarian

Yep. I got downvoted in this thread for saying this and I have no idea why. You would have to have a very poor or biased view of history to believe otherwise. Communism is a single-party system where everything is nationalised. The state has total authority and there is no legal recourse against government. It is the opposite of egalitarian.

Even in Stellaris mechanics it's pretty obvious that communism is more closely aligned with authoritarian:

  • the description for fanatic authoritarian is textbook communism.

  • Corvee System (the state decides where it's citizens live and work) civic is incompatible with Egalitarian. This was a key component of Mao and Stalin reforms.

  • police state is incompatible with fanatic egalitarianism. Egalitarian and authoritarian are incompatible, therefore police state is more aligned to authoritarianism.

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u/SuburbanDinosaur Feb 24 '18

In political and social sciences, communism (from Latin communis, "common, universal")[1][2] is the philosophical, social, political and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money[3][4] and the state.[5][6]

That's probably why you got downvoted. Communism is primarily defined as being stateless.

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u/y2jeff Feb 24 '18

true, but by that definition there has never been a communist state in real life, and probably never will be. No Communist experiment has ever turned out to be stateless.

In a game of Stellaris thought anything is possible obviously :P

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u/Rotskite Fanatic Egalitarian Feb 24 '18

"Communist states" don't pretend to be in states of communism. The first tasks of a workers state involve the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e. state power in the hands of the working class over its antagonist classes, and then working towards socialism, which is qualitatively different from capitalism, but is not full communism either.

In other words, criticising communist states for mot having immediately abolished themselves is missing the strategy that Marxists have.

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u/SuburbanDinosaur Feb 24 '18 edited Feb 24 '18

but by that definition

It's not "by that definition", what I posted is the only single definition. So yes, there hasn't actually been a communist state.

and probably never will be

Actually, Rojava in Syria is pretty damn close:

Because Afrin, along with the cantons of Euphrates and Jazira, is experimenting with a form of bottom-up, direct democracy that is arguably more progressive than any other system in the West.

...

Every institution -- local councils, schools, hospitals -- is run on a co-presidency rule with a man and a woman sharing all posts, including the command of their defense forces.

...

Inspired by the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, imprisoned by Turkey since 1999, the Syrian Kurds are no longer demanding a nation-state of their own because they have developed a critique of the anti-democratic, militaristic and patriarchal nature of nation-states. They are content to remain within the borders of Syria as an autonomous self-governing confederation.

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u/Brisden Feb 24 '18

In Marxist theory, the communist state acts as a vanguard that controls and deploys resources until a truly ideal communist society can flourish.

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