Communism looks good. In theory. But for me it seems human mentality isn’t far enough evolved so it would work. Also China is far away from an ideal communism.
I can say capitalism is shit and all the other large scale established systems arent perfect too. No need to pick a side. We won’t develop something better saying one of these is already good enough
I don’t understand what you mean by saying “human mentality isn’t far evolved enough.” Human mentality is shaped by how we live, produce, and distribute, in other words by our material conditions. We get to communism through socialism, which involves changing our conditions and thus this changed our mentality. As for China, it’s still in the developing stages of socialism, it has not reached communism yet.
Power corrupts people. Everyone powerful, even with the best intentions starting, becomes more or less evil because there is no good regulation and feedback. The transformation to communism needs people with power to ensure society stays on its path. So has every socialism country. Having a powerful minority ruling the population will cause discrimination and abuse because almost nobody will give back his power by choice.
growing up in a country with socialism past I can say that the change to democracy has changed more to the good than to the worse. Sure there were some things better back then. But overall it’s a better society now. Not ignoring, that there are many things really bad in our current mainly capitalistic democracy damaging it from inside. And doesn’t matter which country with a former socialism system you look into: the majority of people experiencing both say overall it changed to the better.
I hope one day humanity will evolve to a point where ideal communism will work. But I don’t expect us to experience this soon. And if we get to this point, we won’t need something like socialism for transition.
Power isn’t some mystical force that “corrupts” like a supernatural curse, that’s idealist hand-waving. Power operates within material structures: who controls production, how institutions are designed, what class interests they serve. Blaming “power itself” dodges the actual question: power for whom, exercised how, under what constraints?
China’s system for example isn’t an “all-powerful minority” ruling by fiat. It’s whole-process people’s democracy: democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight woven into a continuous cycle. NPC deputies aren’t a closed clique, they come from factories, farms, labs, ethnic minority communities; even the smallest ethnic group has guaranteed representation. Major policies (like protections for delivery workers) emerge from legislative proposals and public consultation, not backroom decrees.
You mention growing up in a “socialism past” country (which leads me to assume post soviet, please correct me if I’m wrong). Given you’re posting online with this analysis, you’re almost certainly too young to have lived experience of the actual socialist period. What you’re calling “socialism” was likely the shock therapy neoliberal collapse that followed: male life expectancy in Russia dropped over six years between 1989 and 1994; similar crashes hit all across the former USSR. That wasn’t due to communism(socialism) failing, it was rapid privatization, asset stripping, and the rise of oligarchic kleptocracy. Inequality didn’t just rise; it exploded. People saying “it’s better now” aren’t comparing capitalism to socialism, they’re comparing post-shock-therapy stability to the immediate humanitarian disaster of the 1990s, with no lived memory of the prior system’s guarantees.
And no, we won’t just “press the communism button” once humanity “evolves.” That’s pure idealism. People aren’t abstract moral agents who magically become selfless when the time is right. Consciousness is shaped by material conditions. You don’t skip the socialist transition by wishing harder; you build the material foundations (productive forces, social relations, institutional capacity) that make higher-stage communism possible. Wishing for the end state while rejecting the transitional process is like demanding a skyscraper while refusing to pour the foundation.
Vibes aren’t analysis. Nostalgia for a period you didn’t live, conflated with the trauma of its violent dismantling, is not the correct way to approach this issue. If you want to critique socialism, engage with its actual theory and practice, not a caricature filtered through the lens of neoliberal collapse.
“Power” is not a supernatural corrupting force. Evil does not exist, there is no such thing as a supernatural force that guides the actions of people. What you are confusing is the profit motive within capitalism incentivizing rule bending and corruption, as well as the continuation of class struggle into socialism requiring constant vigilance against capitalist restoration.
We will always need to transition between capitalism and communism with socialism. You cannot collectivize all production and distribution overnight, you cannot wither the state overnight, you cannot eliminate classes overnight, and you cannot take people from capitalism to communism mentally overnight. This is an impossibility.
China doesn’t claim to be good enough, it strives to be better by developing the productive forces and preventing capitalists from controlling the state.
Communism looks good. In theory. But for me it seems human mentality isn’t far enough evolved so it would work. Also China is far away from an ideal communism.
I can say capitalism is shit and all the other large scale established systems arent perfect too. No need to pick a side. We won’t develop something better saying one of these is already good enough
I don’t understand what you mean by saying “human mentality isn’t far evolved enough.” Human mentality is shaped by how we live, produce, and distribute, in other words by our material conditions. We get to communism through socialism, which involves changing our conditions and thus this changed our mentality. As for China, it’s still in the developing stages of socialism, it has not reached communism yet.
Power corrupts people. Everyone powerful, even with the best intentions starting, becomes more or less evil because there is no good regulation and feedback. The transformation to communism needs people with power to ensure society stays on its path. So has every socialism country. Having a powerful minority ruling the population will cause discrimination and abuse because almost nobody will give back his power by choice.
growing up in a country with socialism past I can say that the change to democracy has changed more to the good than to the worse. Sure there were some things better back then. But overall it’s a better society now. Not ignoring, that there are many things really bad in our current mainly capitalistic democracy damaging it from inside. And doesn’t matter which country with a former socialism system you look into: the majority of people experiencing both say overall it changed to the better.
I hope one day humanity will evolve to a point where ideal communism will work. But I don’t expect us to experience this soon. And if we get to this point, we won’t need something like socialism for transition.
Power isn’t some mystical force that “corrupts” like a supernatural curse, that’s idealist hand-waving. Power operates within material structures: who controls production, how institutions are designed, what class interests they serve. Blaming “power itself” dodges the actual question: power for whom, exercised how, under what constraints?
China’s system for example isn’t an “all-powerful minority” ruling by fiat. It’s whole-process people’s democracy: democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management, and oversight woven into a continuous cycle. NPC deputies aren’t a closed clique, they come from factories, farms, labs, ethnic minority communities; even the smallest ethnic group has guaranteed representation. Major policies (like protections for delivery workers) emerge from legislative proposals and public consultation, not backroom decrees.
You mention growing up in a “socialism past” country (which leads me to assume post soviet, please correct me if I’m wrong). Given you’re posting online with this analysis, you’re almost certainly too young to have lived experience of the actual socialist period. What you’re calling “socialism” was likely the shock therapy neoliberal collapse that followed: male life expectancy in Russia dropped over six years between 1989 and 1994; similar crashes hit all across the former USSR. That wasn’t due to communism(socialism) failing, it was rapid privatization, asset stripping, and the rise of oligarchic kleptocracy. Inequality didn’t just rise; it exploded. People saying “it’s better now” aren’t comparing capitalism to socialism, they’re comparing post-shock-therapy stability to the immediate humanitarian disaster of the 1990s, with no lived memory of the prior system’s guarantees.
And no, we won’t just “press the communism button” once humanity “evolves.” That’s pure idealism. People aren’t abstract moral agents who magically become selfless when the time is right. Consciousness is shaped by material conditions. You don’t skip the socialist transition by wishing harder; you build the material foundations (productive forces, social relations, institutional capacity) that make higher-stage communism possible. Wishing for the end state while rejecting the transitional process is like demanding a skyscraper while refusing to pour the foundation.
Vibes aren’t analysis. Nostalgia for a period you didn’t live, conflated with the trauma of its violent dismantling, is not the correct way to approach this issue. If you want to critique socialism, engage with its actual theory and practice, not a caricature filtered through the lens of neoliberal collapse.
“Power” is not a supernatural corrupting force. Evil does not exist, there is no such thing as a supernatural force that guides the actions of people. What you are confusing is the profit motive within capitalism incentivizing rule bending and corruption, as well as the continuation of class struggle into socialism requiring constant vigilance against capitalist restoration.
As for the majority saying life is better post-socialism, this is wrong. The majority of people that lived in the Soviet Union want it back. Additionally, over 90% of Chinese citizens support their system. In reality, socialism delivers far better democratic results, because the working classes are in control:
We will always need to transition between capitalism and communism with socialism. You cannot collectivize all production and distribution overnight, you cannot wither the state overnight, you cannot eliminate classes overnight, and you cannot take people from capitalism to communism mentally overnight. This is an impossibility.
China doesn’t claim to be good enough, it strives to be better by developing the productive forces and preventing capitalists from controlling the state.
Not what I see but maybe my expectations are wrong. Still not what OP wrote and I was invited to explain my downvote to the initial post