Sunday, May 16, 2010

Dialectic of Communism and Capitalism

This is an aside I've decided to axe from the actual IoM text, but I did think it was an interesting thought, so I wanted to share --

Civilization has more requirements than just this one. As groups or nations increase in size, a sacrifice must be made, either on the part of the individual or the group. This has been the crucial dilemma, the Gordian knot, that civilization has wrestled with since its inception, and it exists in a microlevel within cultural, artistic, and corporate endeavors. There is no right answer, but, no matter what society or time we live in, we all must live with the repercussions of our answer. Though admittedly reductionalistic, the contrasting examples of Communism and Capitalism demonstrate this point well. To that point: Capitalism leads to a failure towards the good of the group for the needs of the individual, whereas the opposite is true with Communism. The form of Capitalism we are speaking of is best exemplified by the Corporate Capitalism which grew out of 1950's Post-war optimism in America. It would appear that European socialist Capitalism is of a slightly different sort. As it is relatively young, it is difficult to say what fruit it will bear. Most interesting, if we are to look at these two systems as the opposite ends of a dialectic in a Hegellian sense, the ultimate outcome of either, at their most extreme, is fascism, even if the face of Corporate (that is to say, Capitalist), and Communist fascism appear different. The conflict between Capitalism and Communism is like the warring of two different personalities; both with virtues and flaws, but both only able to see the vices of the other, and their own virtues. To truly understand the character of a person, a nation, a religion, we need only look to their demons, their outcasts, and their enemies.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:04 AM

    This old chestnut?

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's why I axed it. But it's not old to everyone.

    ReplyDelete

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