Response to Charlie

In response to Charlie’s post about communism, I would say that Communism in its actual form was never even practiced in Russia for the exact reasons you mention.  I think the fact that Stalin found it legitimate to kill more peasants than should ever had been killed is a sign that Stalin wasn’t really a communist, but instead an authoritative dictator who had fantastically believed himself to be a communist, and therefore a representative of the people.  There were some communist aspects to Stalin’s regime, but I not feel it accurately reflects what communism is.  That being said, I also feel that Stalin is evidence of why communism can never actually work, cause something like Stalin will always prevent communism from actually working.  Why does Stalinesque things happen?  Because in no culture in the history of man has the poor and dejected people’s ever been helped to a point of comfort without simply turning them into rich people that take advantage of new poor people.  It’s a fatal flaw of living in a world where people are competitive and born with advantages.  There will never be an equilibrium that communism strives for, and this means that something like Stalin will always occur when communism is trying to found itself.