Quote:
Originally Posted by Loving Linux Penguin
No country has EVER actually been a communist country. Sure, they've called themselves "communist", but they don't truly follow marxist theories and are therefore NOT communist countries. In principle it's a really great idea. So I wouldn't be surprised if Jesus fit into the THEORY of communism, but I don't see him as a dictator in a "communist" country.
|
First, just because a state isn't Marxist doesn't mean that it isn't communist. Communist thought has diverged and evolved since 1848 into schools such as Leninism, Stalinism, and Maoism. There are obvious differences between those and Marxism (for example, Maoism focuses on the rural peasantry rather than the industrial proletariat as the revolutionary class), but they're still communist theories. To draw an analogy, just because Black Sabbath were the first metal band doesn't mean that Iron Maiden aren't also a metal band.
Second, I'm assuming you haven't read much Marx, because he was actually pretty statist. While the ultimate aim was a classless society, the path to that classless society lay through the centralisation and nationalisation of all banking, abolition of the right of inheritance, forced internal migration, and an extension of state-owned industry. While the ends were utopian, the means were draconian. So, while no communist country has ever made it to the classless stage, they've actually implemented some form of Marx's intermediate state quite closely (although with revisions as discussed above). And while Marx's theory of history meant that a proletarian revolution would be inevitable, the falsification of many of his predictions (the permanently worsening condition of the working class, for example) would seem to demonstrate otherwise. More practical communists like Lenin believed in a revolutionary vanguard party that would lead the people in a revolution tailored to the circumstances within the country: in Russia, that meant alliances with rural peasants, and the removal of democratic rights from members of capitalist classes.
As to the question of whether Jesus was a communist or not, he wouldn't be anything recognised as a communist today. Jesus did not preach or predict a revolution against the state, calling on his followers to "render under Caesar what belongs to Caesar". He formulated no theories of class. While he preached that his followers should give away their possessions to the poor, this was more of an ascetic idea than a communist one. While his teachings may resemble a superficial caricature of communism, of the kind believed in by those who have no understanding of communism's theory or practice, Jesus was a religious thinker rather than a political one.