Communism failed…in the cultural revolution?

Question

One of the reasons why all attempts at communism fail is because of the fact that it goes against human nature…


So I gotta use this point to support why I think communism failed in China during the cultural revolution, and the previous attempts at communism before that (such as the creation of the communes)…

So who was “greedy” or “individualize” during the cultural revolution that made it fail?

Thanks all in advance!

Answer 1

I think you have chosen the wrong "point" to support your argument. By the time the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China occurred in August, 1966 - China had already been developing or functioning as a Communist state for 16 years. Another reason why your "point" is invalid is that not all Communist states had a Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution like the Chinese did from 1966 - 1976. It would be an error to try to apply this theory to ALL Communist states.

It was a great revolution as it attempted to change the lives of hundreds of millions of people. It was proletarian as it was a revolution of the workers against the party officials.It was cultural since it aimed to alter the values of society in the Communist sense. I think it is best if you do a little more research on the Cultural Revolution if you insist on using what was in effect a power struggle within the Chinese Communist Party and "an abberant period period in Chinese history."

Answer 2

Well done to JS for a great response. I just want to add that communism didn't fail because it goes against human nature. In my opinion the world has yet to experience a true 'communist' nation. Many countries have called themselves 'communist' but have not reached the ideals of Marx, Engles, etc. China has come the closest, but there is significant growth of socialism and socialist ideas in so called 'democracies'. Marx stated that capitalism would become top heavy and corrupt and destroy itself. If you look at Russia and China there wasn't a true middle class, and many of the elements of capitalism that Marx based his predictions on were missing at the time of the revolutions. In Cuba you have most of the Marx's prerequisites for communism, but outside pressures from both Communist and Capitalist countries moved the revolution into a totalitarian state.

Not all attempts at communism have necessarily failed, and those that did failed because of other factors than 'communism goes against human nature'.