The C Word

When you say communism to someone in the west they automatically class you in one of two groups. You are either a Stalinist, craving for an evil dictatorship to take power, or you are mad. I have met more than a few people who think I am crazy believing in communism and as soon as communism is raised in any conversation I am in, someone instinctively goes “Oh, don’t get Dan started on communism”. But this distrust of communism is based on a preconception in western civilization that communism is the idea of power hungry lunatics, who hate fun and love uniformity, and that Capitalism gives you what you want when you want it. But both of these statements are wrong, and the west’s distrust of communism does not stem from a love of capitalism. The west alienates communism because it loves consumerism.

After the Second World War, people all over the globe dreamt of a new world, without the fog of war. In the west this world would come in the form of strengthening capitalist views; using the cold war the USA created an alliance of countries the relied on ever increasing free market policies. As this evolution happened people got used to being able to buy anything they wanted, whenever they wanted it. This type of consumerism works perfectly when the economy is strong and the market is growing. But capitalism relies on a ‘free market’ that is allowed to do what it wants. So as the market grows, the market then falls. One only has to look through history to see periods of economic growth, followed by periods of recessions and depression. And this is where my argument that the west loves consumerism and not capitalism stems from. If the west loved capitalism, when the market started crashing, the citizens of the west would start investing their money in banks and infrastructure, spending less money on themselves and start putting more money into businesses. 

But they don’t. Even when the economy is shrinking the populace of the west still want to buy things. In fact our most recent economic crisis was partly caused by banks selling high risk loans so people could buy things. People’s appetite for a new product is never quenched. Even though the world economy has been in turmoil since 2008, for the past four years people in the west have spent billions on computers, gadgets, clothes and other non-essential items that make living ‘that little bit easier’. Consumerism is like a rolling snow ball: as people want to buy more and more expensive things they have to get larger and larger loans. This is worst in times of economic crisis as it deepens the crisis by creating vast amounts of debt. If people loved capitalism they wouldn’t take out loans in times of crisis. Because the past two generations have been born into times when no one has starved, no one has had to tighten the purse strings because of war or famine, times when spending money has been praised and encouraged and not times when people are told to save and spend wisely, the modern western population thinks that spending money all the time is a basic human right and necessary to survive. This is why the west shuns communism; they fear not being able to spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need. They also fear not being able to show off the things they bought with money they don’t have to people who didn’t buy said thing. Consumerism is built on lies and power.

The decadence of consumerism is engrained in western society; communism is seen as the opposite of this decadence. The powers at be like to believe the populace love the capitalist system, but they love the freedom of consumerism. I believe that communism offers more freedom; freedom to live in a society where your opinion matters, a society where each person has an equal amount of power, a society where man is freed to achieve higher goals than simple collection of capital. Once the west shrugs its reliance of consumerism, communism will be waiting.