Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff.
– Frank Zappa
I once heard a boy ask his grandmother, “What is communism?” And she answered, “It’s people who hate God.” I was so shocked by this answer that I involuntarily laughed a little out loud. My head was spinning from how many ways this answer was wildly inaccurate in answering the question, inept even in addressing the question at all. Yet, the answer was so succinct and powerful. It may have been the most powerful answer to that question ever stated. The boy surely shuddered upon hearing it. He was surely threatened and offended by the word communism from that point forward, as he was raised in a family steeped in the worship of a Christian God, where this God was so ubiquitous in his life that it represented all things good in the world.
Communism, of course, has nothing to do with a belief (or attitude toward) a deity. Communism is an economic philosophy that says all means of production should belong to the people. It has nothing to do with religion at all. So, why did this loving grandmother say that to the boy? Was she lying to her grandson? No. She was telling him what she had learned. She had learned about communism in the context of her nation’s war with the Soviet Union.
The USSR was an authoritarian state led by a megalomaniacal dictator, Joseph Stalin. Stalin did not allow religion because it conflicted with his own power. If God is supreme, then those who commune with God would know better than, and have a moral authority over, the state. But authoritarianism seeks absolute power, and it cannot suffer challenges. This is why neither Stalin nor Hitler could allow religious leaders to have power and religions to have followers. Nor can they allow organizations and institutions like unions or universities to be independent from the state. This is not about an economic system. It’s not about communism or capitalism. It’s about authoritarianism and its insatiable lust for power.
But, the Baby Boom generation was not haunted by the threat of an evil dictator, like their parents had been of Hitler. They were instead haunted by the threat of some faceless devouring force called communism. Something akin to the Nothing from The Never Ending Story, communism was an enormous and pending doom.
This narrative continued into Generation X, my generation. The first world map I remember was a world of nations with the United States in the center and the USSR split in half and encroaching from either side—two giant, red masses tilting inward toward us and flaring in the distance like some modern-day Mordor that had managed to wrap around us all. This map was looming in the background of every classroom, mostly not discussed. When adults and text books did give language to that looming fiery threat from all directions, they didn’t call it Stalin. They didn’t call it authoritarianism. They called it communism. Two generations of Americans were raised to believe that communism was their enemy, not merely an economic and societal concept that can be applied or not applied as we choose, but a vile threat that could destroy everything sacred and holy. Communism was a beast that hated God.
Conceptually, communism is an economic system that distributes everything equally to all people. While one may easily call communism impractical or even naive, it’s a pretty farfetched idea to believe that communism is an encroaching demon that hates God. That’s obviously ridiculous, right? Well, not if that’s what you were taught your whole life, not if the word represented exactly that to you, not if every adult source around you reinforced this message, and not if your grandmother told you when you were a child that communists hate god.
Philosophically, communism would actually be the economic model that most aligns with the teachings of religion, and capitalism would be the least. The idea that all resources be divided equally among all people is much more in line with not only the radical ideas of Jesus of Nazareth, but with the teachings of Muhammed and the Buddha, as well. It’s a dream-like ideal where everyone is equal.
Not only does communism align best with the world’s religions, but it is also the most democratic economic model (again, in concept). The problem with communism, though, is not in its ideals, but in its application and practice. Communism cannot exist, or at least it cannot persist, without authoritarianism. An autocratic regime is necessary to enforce the tenets of communism. And this is the problem. Dictators are the enemy of freedom. Power consolidation is the enemy of democracy. Stalin was the enemy of the United States. He would have gladly taken over our nation and put us under his control. But that’s not communism, that’s authoritarianism. And it’s authoritarians, not communists, who cannot tolerate a god.
I think about what I might have said to that boy if he would have asked me, “What is communism?” Maybe I would have said, “It’s an idea. Like heaven.”
Utopia
The road to Utopia is paved with knowledge.
– Bertrand Russell
In the year 1516, an English lawyer named Sir Thomas More published a book entitled Utopia in which he describes a fictional island society with communal property, religious tolerance, and universal well being. More invented the word Utopia from the Greek word eutopia (which means good place). He swapped out the eu (meaning good) for u (which means not) and thus created a word for no place – Utopia. The message here is that Utopia cannot exist.
Throughout history ideal societies were imagined as a way to teach what is good and what is bad in governance. Plato’s Republic describes a just city governed by philosopher-kings. St. Augustine’s City of God describes an ideal place to be striven for by the city of man. The idea of perfectible societies further gained steam during the European Enlightenment. For a few hundred years, we saw the creation of utopias as an intellectual dialogue and debate about society. While Francis Bacon envisioned a society governed by scientists, Charlotte Perkins Gilman described a feminist utopia and William Morris imagined an anarchist one. Then, as seems predictable, we even saw the birth of dystopia in works like Brave New World (Huxley), 1984 (Orwell), and We (Zamyatin). The act of describing a utopia in order to design the society and system that would create the greatest good for humanity was common in intellectual writing. It is in this historical backdrop that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote of an economic utopia and called it Communism.
Communism quickly separated itself from the other concepts of utopia because it was economic in nature, which means it was on the pulse of revolution. All revolutions, regardless of their banners and slogans, are economic at their core. Communism tapped into something fundamental in a time of royalty and peasants. In Russia specifically, revolution was pending and communism was the utopia that inspired the willingness to unite and fight the oppressors of the times in a violent revolution. Communism provided the ideal to die for, but economics, like always, was the cause of the revolution. And revolution was needed. The consolidation of wealth and power was so extreme in Russia at the time that most lived in increasing poverty. The communist revolution was going to grab control of the nation and distribute power and wealth among the people. But once a revolution is over, a nation must put its revolutionary ideas into practice. And when enforced, the pursuit of utopia will slide into authoritarianism—the classic dystopian trap. Authoritarianism itself is actually built on an inarticulable, fundamental belief in a utopia that justifies the power of the single person to get us there. The ideal fades away, as it is nowhere, and this utopia is replaced with the person himself who comes to embody the utopia like a god: He will do what is best for us. And anything challenging him hates God.
China
Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.
– Napoleon Bonaparte
China is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations, stretching back over 5,000 years. China’s history is a sweeping story of dynasties, war, innovation, revolution, and resurgence. China gave the world paper, printing, gunpowder, the compass, silk, porcelain, tea, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and the most sophisticated imperial bureaucracy in world history.
Just over a hundred years ago, in 1921, inspired by the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded in Shanghai with the help of Soviet advisors. The key figure to emerge at that point in Chinese history was Mao Zedong who led the proletariat through a revolution, a civil war, and a full-scale invasion by Japan. After defeating the nationalists who fled to Taiwan, Mao and his followers declared a new nation—the People’s Republic of China. The CCP began implementing Marxist-Leninist principles adapted to China’s rural context. Landowners were stripped of their land and many executed. Individual farms were merged into communes. Then, Mao attempted to rapidly industrialize China by force (the way the USSR was failing to do in Russia). All of this rapid change led to economic disaster and a famine that killed an estimated 30 million people.
Now the cult of personality, Mao led a culture war on capitalism and traditionalism to justify shutting down schools, intellectuals, and any organization that was teaching different ideas than those that fully supported Mao’s communism and Mao’s power.
When Mao died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping gradually took control of the CCP. Deng initiated reform and an opening up to the world. He moved the nation toward a market economy, while maintaining CCP rule. China began to allow and encouraged private business and foreign investment. Capitalism was de-villified but remained strictly under the authority of the CCP. Political reform was not possible, but economic reform was being sought aggressively.
Since the 1980s, China has become a global superpower. China is the world’s second-largest economy, following the United States. China has the world’s second-largest population, following just behind India and over four times the size of the United States. China is a major global player in the world’s trade, diplomacy, and technology. While China remains communist in name, in practice it combines economic liberalization with strict political control. Private businesses exist and thrive in China. There are billionaires, stock markets, and global tech giants. But the CCP can intervene at any time (regulating or dismantling firms it sees as threatening), and key industries like banking, energy, telecom, and defense remain state-controlled.
Economically, China is neither Marxist nor even socialist, it is instead a controlled capitalist society. Therefore, the threat of China is not communism, it’s authoritarianism. The CCP is a one-party dictatorship, and there is no opposition allowed. It maintains tight control over the government, military, media, education, and internet. The CCP maintains ideological dominance and tightly suppresses dissenting voices like pro-democracy activists, independent journalists, and ethnic minorities. China’s very existence, and now global success, promotes alternative governing models to Western liberalism.
Xi Jinping, the current leader of the CCP, has further developed the economic markets while tightening his grip on social control. He has revived Maoist imagery and cracked down on dissent. He has many of his people believing that he will “Make China Great Again” and that he must increase and maintain his authoritarian control to do so. He has eliminated term limits and plans to stay in power. Xi will do what is right for all of his people, some believe, and he needs ultimate power to do so. He is the path to utopia. He is the opposite of democracy.