Thread: Does Communism still have a role to play, or is it dead?

Originally Posted by it-ogo

There are theory and practice.

Theoretically classical Marxism (based on the idea of proletariat domination) became obsolete when informational society replaced industrial one and proletariat became a minority. As for Communism as an idea of perfect society, now there is no prove it is possible and no grounded plan to obtain it. On the other hand the idea of social justice will always be attractive.

In practice, all the regimes that proclaimed Communism as their ultimate goal were unsuccessful. On the other hand half-bred Socialism, which was implemented in Scandinavian countries, proved to be viable and rather nice. But you know more about that, Jo.

In ex-USSR countries Communistic symbols and rhetorics is a synonym of conservatism, patriotism and old-good-times for some part of elder population, nothing more.

Interesting and informative post! Thanks for responding.
Funny that there are people who think if Communism as Conservative.

As for Sweden - well, now that I am (temporarily) back here, I have my rose-coloured expat specs OFF and it's an absolute disgrace what has happened to all the nice (but occassionally annoying) socialist institutions of the past. Particularly a lot of previously state owned companies have been privatised and are providing a considerably WORSE service than before, with 1 grumpy stressed employee doing the job that was previously done by 2 people. At 3 times the old price...

The trains used to be clean, modern and punctual. Now, in the hands of their new private owners they are dirty, outdated and delayed! The only thing they have got better at, is checking the tickets.

The country used to be much cleaner before as well, we were famous for it. But now it's so bloody dirty and messy everywhere because street cleaning is carried out by some private company that does the bare minimum with as few employees as they can possibly get away with.

Previously, they were out ploughing and sanding the streets in about 5 minutes after it started snowing. Snow maintenance crew member was the ultimate job for alcoholics that could not manage anything else. Everything worked perfectly.

But it is not profitable to have snow maintenance crews standing by all winter.... so now that even snow ploughing has to be profitable there is chaos in the morning every time it has snowed....!

The two major old things that are still around are free child care and a central queue for rental flats. Both of these thing just irritate me at the moment. I was offered a flat which was very nice, but located in an absolute dump an hour from town by commuter train. So I declined it and got a harsh telling off. And since it's virtually impossible to sack anyone, no company dares hire people properly so every other job is done by a temp from an agency, or a consultant.

Originally Posted by Hanna

The country used to be much cleaner before as well, we were famous for it. But now it's so bloody dirty and messy everywhere because street cleaning is carried out by some private company that does the bare minimum with as few employees as they can possibly get away with.

But you're still democratic and preach multiculturalism... I wonder when the Europeans will finally say 'That's enough!' Do they still have that potential?

Originally Posted by Ramil

But you're still democratic and preach multiculturalism... I wonder when the Europeans will finally say 'That's enough!' Do they still have that potential?

No.... Sweden is rather spineless, sadly. Since we lost our empire the last viking spirit left the country.... (darn Russia!!!) It tends to get carried away with whatever ideological ideas are fashionable. Anything from racial hygiene to left wing utopianism.

Right now it's multiculturalism (right - because that always works out so well.... NOT!!!!)
The latest thing is feminsm. Even men have to be feminist, I am not joking. Political parties talk incessantly about how "feminist" they are, and feminism has some really weird results in the work place - mainly that many men cooly leave work at about 3 o'clock to collect their kids at the creche.

The idea is the more men are like women, and women are like men, the better.
It's just really irritating. I like being a woman and don't want to pretend that I have the personality and interests of a man. Similarly it is to me neither attractive, nor much point in men trying to be like women.
Saying something like this is totally unacceptable in Sweden at the moment.
A bit like saying America's invasion of Vietnam was justified, in the 1970s.... Haha!