Communism:

I was a political science major in college. Always a conservative, and an avowed anti-communist, I decided early in my freshman year to read Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto - just so I'd have more complete information on what I was always railing against.

Was actually shocked by what I read. Karl Marx's view of communism actually sounded a lot like Christianity - but a Christianity without the presence of a God. In his book, everyone worked together for the common good, and everyone participated in making decisions of what the group would do - again for the common good. It was actually quite democratic sounding.

It was actually one of the stupidest ideas I ever heard of. It showed a complete lack of understanding of human nature - people DO NOT/WILL NOT operate/work for the common good - they operate out of self interest.

That said, it became obvious what would happen when any society tried to implement communism - since people wouldn't operate for the common good, they would have to be controlled - forced to do what the leaders of the society thought best. So, instead of a cooperative quasi- democracy, you end up with a dictatorship. It's why communism has failed everywehere it has ever been implemented. Human nature just doesn't work that way. NOTE: You can't even get a society to work
that way with a God (and fear of hell to help control people) in the picture - you certainly can't achieve such in the absence of such.

Anyone seriously considering communism as the political answer for a society needs to heed the lessons of history - or, just read Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto.

Imposing communism on a society not only means that the people of that society are oppressed by an egregious dictatorship, but centralized planning/control does not allow for individual incentive necessary to optimize the economic growth of the society. Note the constant failures of the Russian five year plans, and the eventual quasi-capitalistic endeavors now allowed individuals in China. You just can't get optimum growth and production without allowing for indviduals to benefit from the fruits of their labor.