Devastating Battles

Have a look at this site, as you can see from it cuba is far ahead from its neighbours.
http://www.freepeoplesmovement.org/cuba/

 

Indeed, if the Communists are to be believed it is a virtual paradise

I like this little snippet:

A quote from that site...lol.. :roll: :roll:

 

...and along these lines one should remember that Adolf Hitler remained Germany's democratically elected head of state from 1933 till 1945, he was elected democratically and was re-elected democratically, just as I'm sure Castro is equally fairly elected. In fact he was never un-elected.

One arguable success in Cuba does not negate Communism's almost total failure rate as a form of government in terms of weighing it's goals against its actual records.

 

Cuba is still poor and people are still leaving it because they'd rather live in the US. This indicates that though communism is a working system under which to rule a country, it does not structurally benefit that country or enable it to compete with capitalist countries. Hence though it can't be completely dismissed it would be almost impossible to defend.

Ultimately, however, it was the dream of Marx and Engels that the entire world would revolt against capitalism and overthrow it to form first the socialist and finally the communist world order. In this new world there would be no nations or peoples and all would be equal. Obviously in order for the entire world to revolt against capitalism, the majority of the world will have to have some severe problem with it, including the majority of people in capitalist countries themselves. As long as this is not so, socialism and communism will only come about in countries where grievances with capitalism are so widespread and urgent that there is in fact a revolution of the lower classes against the establishment; and as long as the revolution is an isolated event, it will fail to become "communism" in the view of those who coined the term. Ignoring the obvious fact that human nature would prevent the existence of a communist utopia (the utopian value of which is arguable), a regional revolution has failed by definition because it is regional.

 

Yes but do not compare a small iland under trade empargo to a country as big as america. compare cuba to countrys like brasil or hati.
The reason some people go from cuba to the U.S.A is that america lets them,how many mexicans would do the same if bush gave them such an oppitunity?

 

The US just happens to be the nearest country that provides migrating Cubans with opportunities. I'm sure that if Cuba were located close to any other Western country, people would still be moving from Cuba to that other country, because it offers them more prospects for their future than communist Cuba.

 

Well, people from Mexico come for mostly economic reasons. Mexico doesn't pretend to be a workers paradise as Cuba does. Many of the people coming from Cuba come partly for economic reasons but also to escpape the political oppression. Not hard to believe when Castros' government has a history of jailing political dissidents.
If the Cuban exiles came for only economic reasons they wouldn't be so eager to overthrow the Communist government so that they can reclaim their country. The exiles that made the Bay of Pigs landing, as ill considered and poorly supported as it was risked their lives and freedom to attempt to overthrow Castro and his regime in order to reclaim their country rather than just living quietly and prosperously in the US.

 

communisuim its self is a good idea but it cant happen all people equel no goverment Soviet communisium was diffrent then the pure form

 

Guys, Soviets and Communism are different!

Soviet in Russian would mean "Council" or "worker's council"

 

kaiser wrote:

Soviets are what you call people who belonged to the USSR (before it dissolved obviously)..never mind that it may not be technically correct..it caught on.

Communism / Socialism is the economic system of the former USSR as well as other Marist/Leninist states.
It's also okay to call the Soviets ...Communists (or Commies).

 

I wonder if this is why Castro has such success in elections...


But to be serious:

Communism, true Communism, is a lot like Pacifism. It is a noble ideal, and arguably a 'perfect' society.

However, in both cases you nee absolutely everybody in the whole world to all embrace the ideal and behave themselves, otherwise it breaks down.
Call me an old cynic (or even a young cynic) but I am not willing to believe that the day will come when everybody, everywhere loses their selfish tendancies and willingly devote themselves to such ideals.

Sad, but true.

(except, of course, after the Day of Judgement, but that is slightly different! )

 

Ricky wrote:

We can either govern ourselves in a way that is consistent with human nature - Capitalism coupled with political freedom or we can attempt to go against the tide of human nature - Communism/Socialism and all forms of collectivist based systems which must always be coupled with coercion since people don't take to it unless forced.
I don't consider it cynical to be a realist.

 

I consider it realistic to be cynical...

Seriously though, it's not completely possible to see human nature as black-and-white as you seem to do in the post above. Not everything that is based on the individual and his rational beliefs is accepted, and not everything that is based on the collective is rejected. A perfectly individualistic society is as much of an unworkable ideal as a perfectly collective society.

So far it seems that a capitalist system with political freedom generates the least resistance among the general population. However, we cannot know if it is therefore the last station of human political or ideological development (which people like Fukuyama do). For example, the Romans realized that their political system had flaws but they did not step down from it because they did not see any workable alternative - as much as you seem to do, they simply considered their system to be ultimate. Today we see this quite differently...

 

Roel wrote:

It's not that simplistic or black and white. That is merely the abbreviated explanation. This subject has been discussed so many times before I couldn't work up sufficient enthusiasm to start from the beginning and give a more detailed analysis

 

(sit down before you read this)

I agree with Grieg.



Basically Capitalism is the most workable system currently known.
Yes, not all people are all selfish - nothing is that simple.
But enough people are selfish enough to scupper the introduction of Communism.

 

Ricky wrote:

Zounds! Will wonders never cease?

Selfishness if good

Ayn does a better job of explaining some of these ideas in:

and

both can be found here:

http://www.aynrand.org