This is a good involved question. In theory, the communist utopia envisioned by Karl Marx was a vast improvement over the impoverished conditions prevelant in the industrialized world in the early 1900's. Indeed in Russia and China, the systems that existed prior to communism were very exploitive of the people.
The problem lies in the practice of communism because failable humans must setup the system and enforce it. The one thing that communism neglects to address is some of the most basic human traits including GREED (Capitalism certainly takes it into account). What happens is those who attain power within the system get corrupted - this is the truism; "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". In all the communists systems that have appeared on the planet, each has had an all powerful dictator to run it. So that means one person, and one person alone gets to decide what is best for the millions of people living in the system. And since that one person is corrupted absolutely, everyone has to bow to that person's vision, whether they like it or not! And the usual penalty for opposition is either exile or death.
To make the communist system work, they must eliminate cultural, ethnic and religious differences. We see how it's done today in Kosovo (Milosovich learned well as a communist). It's been done in similar fashion in Russia and China. Not a very good system, in my opinion.
Hippies rejoice in our differences. We respect and celebrate diversity, it's what makes life interesting. Imagine if you went traveling, and everywhere it was the same. The same dreary buildings, the same slogans on banners, the same language, the same mentality, the same laws, the same music for god's sake! This is life under communism (yes I know capitalism puts McDonalds everywhere, but at least in France it's not a big mac, its a Royale). Is this what we want our lives to be? If this is the price of peace, I agree, it's far too high.
Once upon a time, the communist system in it's idealized form was an improvement. But now that we've seen it's limitations, we can bid it farewell. What we need is a new, better system, one that takes into account human nature, especially the need for self-actualization. This system should encourage individuals to expand their minds and talents. We have yet to do better than the ancient Greeks who gave us the radical form of government called democracy.
Now that technology has enabled us to all communicate efficiently, to be well informed, and to easily express ourselves we have available the means to achieve something far greater than ever before. We need only to organize this into a self-governing system, one that will totally replace the existing one. It's already beginning, our only obstacle is removing from power those who place such a high value on it (power). I hope it will be an evolution, not a revolution, that will accomplish these goals.
In the meantime, wars over political, racial, ethnic, and religious differences will occur, perhaps even more frequently! It's totally "natural" to remove competing genetic material, whether you're human or bacteria (sometimes it's hard to tell the difference). That's the bottom line. Each person protects his own DNA, first starting with himself, his family, his extended family, the group he identifies with, his ethnic, or religious group, then his nation. It's completely instinctual.
What we need to do then, on an individual basis, one person at a time, is come to an understanding that our entire race is facing a mass extinction if we don't change our attitudes. "Isms" and differences between people only keep us apart if we let them. We must get beyond our FEARS or genetic bias, and realize that we are all the same. We need to recognize our common inheritance, this planet, as being a sacred place and start showing it some respect (Communists seem unable to do this).
I believe it is possible for people to get beyond their differences and to display a higher morality that respects all life. All it takes is a good example for people to see how easy it is to live in peace and harmony. All it takes is a hippy.
-The Old Hippy
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