The Pros and Cons of Communism :: Communism Essays

Communism: How Bad Can It Be? Everybody in my class liked Mr. Debenedetto the social studies teacher. He barely gave homework and class was fun. Who would not like him? This was one of the few classes for me to be listening intently. I was interested in the topic we were currently studying: communism. We were discussing about how America was always against communism whether it be the Vietnam War or the Cold War. At that time I did not know the true meaning of communism. The textbook definitions were always wordy and confusing. What does â€Å"a theory or system of social organization based on the holdings of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state† (dictionary.reference.com/browse/communism) suppose to mean? In addition, I recall a conversation with my dad. I had asked him, â€Å"Why is communism so bad?† He responded by saying, â€Å"Don’t be stupid. Who told you that? If communism is so bad, why is China so successful nowadays? Did you know that China lends money to America?† Even to this day, I keep thinking about his comment. Who started the idea of communism? What is a communistic society like? Why does America think it is so bad? Through researching, I hope to answer these questions and others that may pop up. My history teacher, Ms. Shuman, while discussing communism, said that China is not meant to be any other type of government: â€Å"A county with that many people can’t be a democracy; the population will not be controlled. China is fit to be communistic.† Obviously, before trying to find out if communism is bad, I have to find out what communism is. To find general information on communism, I browsed the Internet and found a Website on political ideas. A pure communism society would involve everyone sharing everything equally and everybody providing a service for others (www.allaboutphilosophy.org/communism.htm) So from this a new question arose: If countries are trying to be communism, then why is it so bad? Looking for general information on the history of communism, I went to my local library. The librarian looked into the database and found only two books. One of which, Communism by Nigel Ritchie, I thought was going to be an easy read since it was a picture book. However my intuition was wrong. The book gave me a lot of information on communism’s history, but there were so many political words that I needed to look up such as socialism and capitalism.