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COMMUNISM
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COMMUNISM , the name loosely given to schemes of social organizations depending on the abolition of private See also:property and its absorption into the property of a community as such. It is a See also:form of what is now generally called See also:socialism (q.v.), the terminology of which has varied a See also:good See also:deal according to See also:time and See also:place; but the expression " communism " may be conveniently used, as opposed to " socialism " in its wider See also:political sense, or to the political and municipal varieties known as See also:collectivism," " See also:state socialism," &c., in See also:order to indicate more particularly the See also:historical schemes propounded or put into practice for establishing certain ideally arranged communities composed of individuals living and working on the basis of holding their property in See also:common. It has nothing, of course, to do with the See also:Paris See also:Commune, overthrown in May 1871, which was a political and not an economic See also:movement. Communistic schemes have been advocated in almost every See also:age and See also:country, and have to be distinguished from See also:mere See also:anarchism or from the selfish See also:desire to See also:transfer other See also:people's property into one's own pockets. The See also:opinion that a communist is merely a See also:man who791 has no property to lose, and therefore See also:advocates a redistribution of See also:wealth, is contrary to the established facts as to those who have historically supported the theory of communism. The See also:Corn-See also:law Rhymer's lines on this subject are amusing, but only apply to the baser sort:- " What is a Communist! One that See also:bath yearnings For equal See also:division of unequal earnings. Idler or bungler, or both, he is willing To See also:fork out his See also:penny and See also:pocket your See also:shilling." This is the communist of hostile criticism—a See also:criticism, no doubt, ultimately based on certain fundamental facts in human nature, which have usually wrecked communistic schemes of a purely altruistic type in conception. But the See also:great communists, like See also:Plato, More, See also:Saint-See also:Simon, See also:Robert See also:Owen, were the very See also:reverse of selfish or idle in their aims; and communism as a force in the historical See also:evolution of economic and social opinion must be regarded on its ideal See also:side, and not merely in its lapses, however natural the latter may be in operation, owing to the defects of human See also:character. As a theory it has inspired not only some of the finest characters in See also:history, but also much of the See also:gradual evolution of economic organization—especially in the See also:case of co-operation (q.v.); and its opportunities have naturally varied according to the state of social organization in particular countries. The communism of the See also:early Christians, for instance, was rather a voluntary sharing of private property than any abnegation of property as such. The See also:Essenes and the See also:Therapeutae, however, in See also:Palestine, had a stricter form of communism, and the former required the surrender of individual property; and in the See also:middle ages various religious sects, followed by the monastic orders, were based on the communistic principle. Communistic schemes have found advocates in almost every age and in many different countries. The one thing that is shared by all communists, whether speculative or See also:practical, is deep dissatisfaction with the economic conditions by which they are surrounded. In Plato's See also:Republic the dissatisfaction is not limited to merely economic conditions. In his examination of the See also:body politic there is hardly any See also:part which he can pronounce to be healthy. He would alter the See also:life of the citizens of his state from the very moment of See also:birth. See also:Children are to be taken away from their parents and nurtured under the supervision of the state. The old nursery tales, " the blasphemous nonsense with which mothers See also:fool the manhood out of their children," are to be suppressed. Dramatic and imitative See also:poetry are not to be allowed. See also:Education, See also:marriage, the number of births, the occupations of the citizens are to be controlled by the guardians or heads of the state. The most perfect equality of conditions and careers is to be preserved; the See also:women are to have similar training with the men, no careers and no ambition are to be forbidden to them; the inequalities and rivalries between See also:rich and poor are to cease, because all will be provided for by the state. Other cities are divided against themselves. " Any See also:ordinary See also:city, however small, is in fact two cities, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich, at See also:war with one another " (Republic, bk. iv. p. 249, See also:Jowett's See also:translation). But this ideal state is to be a perfect unit; although the citizens are divided into classes according to their capacity and ability, there is none of the exclusiveness of birth, and no in-equality is to break the See also:accord which binds all the citizens, both male and See also:female, together into one harmonious whole. The marvellous comprehensiveness of the See also:scheme for the See also:government of this ideal state makes it belong as much to the See also:modern as to the See also:ancient See also:world. Many of the social problems to which Plato draws See also:attention are yet unsolved, and some are in See also:process of See also:solution in the direction indicated by him. He is not appalled by the immensity of the task which he has sketched out for himself and his followers. He admits that there are difficulties to be over-come, but he says in a sort of See also:parenthesis, " Nothing great is easy." He refuses to be satisfied with See also:half See also:measures and patch-See also:work reforms. " Enough, my friend! but what is enough while anything remains wanting?" These sentences indicate the spirit in which philosophical as distinguished from practical communists from the time of Plato till to-See also:day have undertaken to reconstruct human society.
792
See also:Sir See also: More's ideal state differs in one important respect from Plato's. There was no community of wives in Utopia. The sacredness of the See also:family relation and fidelity to the marriage See also:contract were recognized by More as indispensable to the well-being of modern society. Plato, notwithstanding all the extra-ordinary originality with which he advocated the emancipation of women, was not able to See also:free himself from the theory and practice of regarding the wife as part and See also:parcel of the property of her See also:husband. The fact, therefore, that he advocated community of property led him also to See also:advocate community of wives. He speaks of " the See also:possession and use of women and children," and proceeds to show how this possession and use must be regulated in his ideal state. Monogamy was to him mere exclusive possession on the part of one man of a piece of property which ought to be for the benefit of the public. The circumstance that he could not think of wives otherwise than as the property of their husbands only makes it the more remarkable that he claimed for women See also:absolute equality of training and careers. The circumstance that communists have so frequently wrecked their projects by attacking marriage and advocating promiscuous inter-course between the sexes may probably be traced to the notion which regards a wife as being a mere See also:item among the goods and chattels of her husband. It is not difficult to find See also:evidence of the survival of this ancient See also:habit of mind. " I will be See also:master of what is mine own," says Petruchio. " She is my goods, my chattels." The Perfectionists of See also:Oneida, on the other See also:hand, held that there was " no See also:intrinsic difference between property in persons and property in things; and that the same spirit which abolished exclusiveness in regard to money would abolish, if circumstances allowed full See also:scope to it, exclusiveness in regard to women and children" (Nordhoff's Communistic See also:Societies of the See also:United States). It is this notion of a wife as property that is responsible for the See also:wild opinions communists have often held in favour of a community of wives and the break-up of family relations. If they could shake off this notion and take hold of the conception of marriage as a contract, there is no See also:reason why their views on the community of property should See also:lead them to think that this contract should not include mutual fidelity and remain in force during the life of the contracting parties. It was probably not this conception of the marriage relation so much as the See also:influence of See also:Christianity which led More to discountenance community of wives in Utopia. It is See also:strange that the same influence did not make him include the See also:absence of See also:slavery as one of the characteristics of his ideal state. On the contrary, however, we find in Utopia the See also:anomaly of slavery existing side by side with institutions which otherwise embody the most absolute See also:personal, political and religious freedom. The presence of slaves in Utopia is made use of to get rid of one of the practical difficulties of communism, viz. the performance of disagreeable work. In a society where one man is as good as another, and the means of subsistence are guaranteed to all alike, it is easy to imagine that it would be difficult to ensure the performance of the more laborious, dangerous and offensive kinds of labour. In Utopia, therefore, we are expressly told that " all the uneasy and sordid services " are performed by slaves. The institution of slavery was also made supplementary to the criminal See also:system of Utopia, as the slaves were for the most part men who had been convicted of See also:crime; slavery for life was made a substitute for See also:capital See also:punishment. In many respects, however, More's views on the labour questionwere vastly in advance of his own time. He repeats the indignant protest of the Republic that existing society is a warfare between rich and poor. " The rich," he says, " desire every means by which they may in the first place secure to themselves what they have amassed by wrong, and then take to their own use and profit, at the lowest possible See also:price, the work and labour of the poor. And so soon as the rich decide on adopting these devices in the name of the public, then they become law." One might imagine these words had been quoted from the See also:programme of The See also:International (q.v.), so'completely is their See also:tone in sympathy with the hardships of the poor in all ages. More shared to the full the keen sympathy with the hopeless misery of the poor which has been the strong See also:motive power of nearly all speculative communism. The life of the poor as he saw it was so wretched that he said, " Even a beast's life seems enviable!" Besides community of goods and equality of conditions, More advocated other means of ameliorating the See also:condition of the people. Although the See also:hours of labour were limited to six a day there was no scarcity, for in Utopia every one worked; there was no idle class, no idle individual even. The importance of this from an economic point of view is insisted on by More in a passage remarkable for the importance which he attaches to the See also:industrial condition of women. And this you will easily apprehend," he says, " if you consider how great a part of all other nations is quite idle. First, women generally do little, who are the half of mankind." Translated into modern See also:language his proposals comprise universal compulsory education, a reduction of the hours of labour to six a day, the most modern principles of sanitary reform, a See also:complete revision of criminal legislation, and the most absolute religious See also:toleration. The romantic form which Sir Thomas More gave to his See also:dream of a new social order found many imitators. The Utopia may be regarded as the prototype of See also:Campanella's City of the See also:Sun, See also:Harrington's Oceana, See also: The first impulse to See also:national education in the 19th See also:century probably sprang from the very marked success of Robert Owen's See also:schools in connexion with the See also:cotton See also:mills at New See also:Lanark. Compulsory education, free See also:trade, and law reform, the various movements connected with the improvement of the condition of women, have found their earliest advocates among theoretical and practical communists. The communists denounce the evils of the See also:present state of society; the hopeless poverty of the poor, side by side with the self-regarding luxury of the rich, seems to them to cry aloud to See also:Heaven for the creation of a new social organization. They proclaim the See also:necessity of sweeping away the institution of private property, and insist that this great revolution, accompanied by universal education, free trade, a perfect See also:administration of See also:justice, and a due See also:limitation of the See also:numbers of the community, would put an end to half the self-made See also:distress of humanity. The various communistic experiments in See also:America are the most interesting in modern times, opportunities being naturally greater there for such deviations from the normal forms of regulations as compared with the closely organized states of See also:Europe, and particularly in the means of obtaining See also:land cheaply for social settlements with See also:peculiar views. They have been classified by See also:Morris Hillquit (History of Socialism in the United States, 1903) as (1) sectarian, (2) Owenite, (3) Fourieristic, (4) Icarian. 1. The See also:oldest of the sectarian See also:group was the society of the See also:Shakers (q.v.), whose first See also:settlement at See also:Watervliet was founded in 1776. The See also:Harmony Society or Rappist Community was introduced into See also:Pennsylvania by See also:George Rapp (177o-1847) from See also:Wurttemberg in 1804, and in 1815 they moved to a settlement (New Harmony) in See also:Indiana, returning to Pennsylvania again in 1824, and See also:founding the See also:village of See also:Economy, from which they were also known as Economites. Emigrants from Wiirttemberg also founded the community of Zoar in See also:Ohio in 1817, being incorporated in 1832 as the Society of Separatists of Zoar; it was dissolved in 1898. The See also:Amana (q.v.) community, the strongest of all See also:American communistic societies, originated in See also:Germany in the early part of the 18th century as "the True See also:Inspiration Society," and some 600 members removed to America in 1842—1844. The See also:Bethel (See also:Missouri) and See also:Aurora (See also:Oregon) See also:sister communities were founded by Dr Kell (1812—1877) in 1844 and 1856 respectively, and were dissolved in 188o and 1881. The Oneida Community (q.v.), created by See also: In Ohio the principal were the See also:Trumbull Phalanx, the Ohio Phalanx, the Clermont Phalanx, the Integral Phalanx, and the Columbian Phalanx; and of the See also:remainder the Alphadelphia Phalanx, in See also:Michigan, was the best-known. It is pointed out by Morris Hillquit that while only two Fourierist Phalanxes were established in See also:France, over See also:forty were started in the United States.
4. The Icarian communities were due to the communistic teachings of another Frenchman, See also:Etienne See also:Cabet (q.v.) (1788—1856), the name being derived from his social See also:romance, Voyage en Icarie (184o), sketching the advantages of an imaginary country called Icaria, with a co-operative system, and criticizing the existing social organization. It was his See also:idea, in fact, of a Utopia. Robert Owen advised him to establish his followers, already numerous, in See also:Texas, and thither about 1500 went in 1848. But disappointment resulted, and their numbers dwindled to less than 500 in 1849; some 28o went to See also:Nauvoo, See also:Illinois; after a See also:schism in 1856 some formed a new See also:colony (1858) at See also:Cheltenham, near St See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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