Communism And Social Inequality

Before being able to understand the communist theory that holds forth the promise ofradical social and economic egalitarianism, the definition of communism is needed. According toRichard Pipes, the word communism refers to “three related but distinct phenomena: an ideal, aprogram, and a regime set up to realize the ideal” (IX). The ideal is the “most extreme form” offull social equality. It calls for dissolving ownership of property. Ancient Greece was the firstcountry to recognize private property in land and treat it as a commodity, therefore, they were thefirst ones to encounter social inequality from ownership (3). A program is summed up to be“abolition of private property” as described by philosophers Marx and Engels (X). Pipes,recognizes

Economic wise it would be control over theproduction, distribution, and exchanges all regulated by society. The purpose is so that thesociety is equal and has the same standard of living. However, it is not an easy nor successfulprocess to equalize society. As Pipes stated, “all living creatures from the most primitive to themost advanced, in order to survive must enjoy assured access to food and, to secure such access,claim ownership” (6). An example used from the book was the beginning of hunters andgatherers, there had been a claim of land. Hunters and gatherers worked in groups to find theirfood and would claim their access area, it was the area that was going to feed their group, and ifanyone trespassed their claimed area they would be killed

Plato envisioned a society inwhich everything materialistic was equally shared. The only things that were considered asprivate were what we were given by “nature” such as our hands, eyes, and ears, but other thanthat, everything including wives and children were meant to be shared. In both of their minds,the concept of peace for society consists of equal share.A Russian philosopher, known as Vladimir Soloviev, drew out the differences of whatcommunism really was since it had been misleadingly compared to Christianity. For example, inthe religion Christianity, it was pointed out that Jesus advised his followers to give up theirpossessions. The socialists and communists made a connection to Christianity, however insteadof giving up their own possessions they urged in giving up the peoples’ possessions and not theirown. In the west, people believed that when born, the mind was already full of ideas and values.An English philosopher known as John Locke, challenged this premise. Locke argued that atbirth one is clean of all bad, but after a while from the influences of other people the mind beginsto be molded up with ideas and values, and rather than being molded into full natural goodness,the mind is molded up of selfishness and greed.Two famous philosophers who contributed the most to build the communism complexthought