1) Communism = Socialism + Human Nature.
2) Whether or not you agree that a country can live and thrive under this system tells a lot about your own personal concepts of the word "fairness". I will use the American education system as an example.
To many, "fairness" means to hold all people under the same standard and let them be the ones to strive toward those goals. To argue that the standard of fairness was not set up by people like you (or you were not part of this country at the time of the standard's inception) is meaningless. This is the system that you live in, and you should play by its rules (when in Rome...etc.) in order to have a happier and more fullfilling life. To people who live and thrive under this system, "life is not fair"....but that is what personal resiliency and determination are for.
Yet a new school of thought evolved from within, near the end of the 1960's. Ironically, it was inspired from the Civil Rights' Movement. Though it was kept out of organized government, it came within the field of education. The old standards of "fairness" were obliterated when people started to question or challenge the above standards as the "way". People began to interpret fairness as "give everyone what they need"- or in its precise case...give every student what they need. In essence, this was the most racist argument of all (that students of one particular racial and ethnic type were intellectually incapable of meeting the standards in the "white man's world"). All of a sudden, "trivial"
things like deadlines, projects, traditional grooming and dress, prayer, facts, grading rules, rubrics, even attendance...it all became instantaneously challenged by people under the impression that it would give students a better life, and a better chance at opportunity. In place of facts and basic computational reasoning, higher order thinking, applied knowledge, student centered learning...all were by-productsof that system. Ironically, as far as motivating students...this approach was working.
****SIDE NOTE: However, not all standards for teachers, schools, states, and students were equal. G.W. Bush, in an effort to promote equality in education, held an open forum, and met with political leaders of almost every society within America. They developed the rubric of and in the end, No Child Left Behind was unleashed on the world. This has completely fucked the education system in America, not only because the new standard of fairness (sub-standard as it may be) has been initiated, but also because now the student can be in complete control of the SUCCESS of said educational system simply by passing or failing a multiple choice test.******
The secondary problem with said system is it immediately backfired once you graduated high school. Many of the students that are catered to in schools end up having to take remedial courses after failing to pass standard collegiate entrance exams- placing cost as more of a deterrent to higher education- elites know this. Many more students now graduate from high school and enter the working world...subsequently losing their first job because nobody ever told them that they needed to be places on time, or projects would be needed to be completed by a specific deadline, you actually need to interact with other humans, etc. After several
jobs, a person gets a negative reference list, and then (barring imagination and luck), get plastered into either a dead end job or out of the workforce entirely.
3) Although I do not quite share pillowfire's "enthusiasm" for Socialistic policies, I must agree with his above statement: no one can point to a country that ended in revolution, adopted Socialism as its guiding light, and stayed the course into a communal society. In the end, human nature prevailed, and without any incentive to be better (a better worker, a better teacher, a better scientist, a better inventor, etc.) than the rest, all the opportunities for generating wealth failed, and in the end, government took the responsibility upon itself to create incentive. Naturally, it is cheaper and easier for government to create negative incentive ("Do this/succeed in this/ Achieve this or I'll kill you and send your family the bill for the bullet"), then positive incentive.
Even in countries with strong senses of nationalism and racial unity/uniformity cannot inspire their own people to always take care of the commune- in the end, humankind will ultimately look out for "number one"- in the case of many, number one includes themselves and their families. This is NOT a bad thing...indeed, it is the greatest builder of wealth, ideas, and knowledge. To say that the United States is a better breeding ground for socialism than any other country (when no three countries on earth boast as many languages and dialects as spoken on Manhatten Island) is absurd. America embraces too many political, cultural, and religious differences to place any political system on its people other than a Democratic Republic. To invite Socialism will invite many other problems within the many races of American society (I do not have the time to list them). AND don't argue with me that that is only what the (english/scottish/welsh/german/italian/czech/do I really need to name them all?) would do. If you would like to see what African tribes are doing...look into Darfur.
The main reason why Socialism has never worked in the world is human nature- there are simply too many takers- too many people who want things for free, and have a sense of entitlement simply for living on the planet and breathing, successfully breeding, or waking up in the morning. They feed on the media and their need to justify every little discomfort or pain in their lives as the fault of society, and continue to state that "if I had this (or that), my life would be better". Then when government passes said program, they sign up...AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T NECESSARILY NEED SAID GOVERNMENT PROGRAM BUT COULD POCKET THE SPARE CHANGE. After all, fair is fair, right?
The point of Capitalism is: If you can identify exactly it is what you want, we already have the perfect system for you to go out there and get it/make it happen. You simply have to be just a little bit better/or more determined/or more clever than the next guy. The flip side of this coin is this: In order to have equal opportunity to succeed, every American must also have the EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO FAIL.
