11. What We Strive For
11.2 Communism and Wealth
Having a shared value system is not only very helpful for a state, it can even be its driving force, if it is a distinctive feature. Which brings us to two historical examples: the promise of freedom in the United States, and the failed utopia of communism* in the Soviet Union.
Communism was the last truly major positive narrative about the future. It wanted to radically change how people live together in society. To replace people’s constant competition with a cooperative society that creates a better future for everyone, thanks to ever faster progress in science and technology.
Unfortunately, communism believed it could change human nature to achieve this. And on the way to that unattainable goal,97 it led to dictatorships, violent rule, labor camps, and famines.
But regardless of the fact that it didn’t work, I still find it fascinating that a positive narrative was able to inspire so many people. Not only being against something, but for a positive vision of the future.
But what exactly is “communism”? It is the ideal of a classless society in which everything (or at least all means of production) belongs to society as a whole. Society is thus one unified community of need that manages the economy together. A “state” as an independent construct is no longer necessary.
The emergence of the idea of communism, in France in the mid-19th century, happened during the industrialization. It’s obvious why the communist vision must have seemed incredibly attractive to poor industrial workers. Their parents or grandparents — maybe even they themselves — had moved from the countryside to the city to find work. In doing so, they had left behind the community of a village, the shared management of a farm, and shifted into the anonymity of factory work.
On the one hand, they were just as powerless against exploitation by the new moneyed nobility of factory owners as they had previously been against exploitation by the landed nobility. On the other hand, they no longer had the safety net of village and extended family that had existed in rural life. In the city, a long illness or a workplace accident could mean deep poverty or death. There was no such thing as health or unemployment insurance, or continued pay during sickness. Extremely long working hours, child labor, and very low wages defined their living conditions and made it impossible to prepare for emergencies.
Much like agriculture and permanent settlements were a major leap forward for civilization as a whole (formation of states, far higher population density), yet a much worse life for the individual, so did industrialization massively increase the economic output and wealth of states, yet simultaneously worsened people’s living conditions.
The new wealth remained concentrated in the hands of a few: the owners of factories and the means of production. But while the shift to permanent settlements lies thousands of years in the past, only faintly remembered in legends, factory workers still had living memories of life in the countryside, in their village community and extended family.
A societal system that would not only bring back the cohesion of the extended family, but expand it to encompass all of society, the entire state—that was something worth fighting for!
The idea of communism emerged amid the revolutionary turmoil of 19th-century France (where, from 1780 to 1880, the form of government changed every few years) and spread from there across the world.
In the Russian Tsarist Empire, this new idea then succeeded. As a result of the revolutions of 1917, a government formed that saw realizing communism as a state goal—the Soviet Union was born.
And even though the country never managed to actually realize communism (it was socialist, not communist, since there was still a state, as well as politicians, military leaders, and officials, all holding more power than ordinary people), even though the Soviet Union led to labor camps, violent rule, and an inefficient economy—it is still historical proof that people’s enthusiasm for a vision can become the driving force of a state.
Communism is thus a (failed) utopia that inspired vast numbers of people. But what is the value system behind it? After all, value systems are what this chapter is about.
As strange as it may sound, it is communism itself. The ideal is a society in which the highest goal of all people is to establish and preserve this classless society that manages the economy together. The needs of the individual are meant to take a back seat to the needs of society. Which, as already said, is one of the main reasons communism failed: it wanted to change basic human nature—and it had to, in order to work.
The „Ten Commandments of Socialist Morality and Ethics“[59], that were included in the SED party program in the GDR from 1963 to 1976 clearly illustrate this value system of communism:
1. You should always stand up for the international solidarity of the working class and all working people, and for the unbreakable solidarity of all socialist countries.
2. You should love your fatherland and always be ready to use all your strength and ability to defend the workers' and peasants' power.
3. You should help to eliminate the exploitation of man by man.
4. You should do good deeds for socialism, because socialism leads to a better life for all working people.
5. You should act in the spirit of mutual help and comradely cooperation in building socialism, respect the collective and take its criticism to heart.
6. You should protect and increase the public property.
7. You should always strive to improve your performance, be thrifty and consolidate socialist labor discipline.
8. You should educate your children in the spirit of peace and socialism to be well-educated, strong-willed and physically strong people.
9. You should live clean and decent and respect your family.
10. You should show solidarity with the peoples struggling for national liberation and those defending their national independence.
One can view the USA as a counterproposal to communism, with its promise of freedom and wealth to its citizens and immigrants—although, being independent since the late 18th century, it is actually the older of the two systems. The U.S. Declaration of Independence says: „We hold tese Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.“[60]
The USA has always been a country of immigration. For European immigrants98 it was this promise of freedom, the chance of wealth and happiness, the possibility of going from dishwasher to millionaire, that led them to leave everything behind and accept the costs and hardships of a weeks-long crossing in order to build a new life in the USA.
On the basis of this conviction that all people were created equal, the USA, with its independence, chose democracy over a monarchy with rulers by divine right: a democracy with elected representatives and an elected president. It took a long time for this right to vote to truly apply to everyone, including the poor, women, and Indigenous peoples. Only in 1965 were restrictions on voting rights at the state level declared illegal in the USA.[61] But compared to autocrats or aristocratic systems, the USA’s democracy, despite all its limitations, was a major political step forward for the people.
Alongside democracy and the vast natural resources available to the USA, it was above all unrestrained capitalism that laid the foundation for its success story. Capitalism did have obvious problems as well: great inequality in society, ruthless exploitation of nature (for example, bison), the power of money in politics. However, compared with the European monarchies, and later the communism sought by the Soviet Union, capitalism in the USA had one decisive advantage: it worked. In combination with democracy, it both greatly improved the life of each individual (material prosperity) and strengthened the economy of the country as a whole, leading to its rapid rise to a global power.
From the very beginning, its constitution, its democracy, and its form of capitalism were all things the USA was very proud of. They gave the country a sense of mission to spread its ideals throughout the world.
And it was enormously successful in doing so. It exported the basic features of its political system (a constitution or basic law, elected representatives) to all Western industrialized nations. The decisive rules of capitalism (property rules, patents, corporate structures) now apply essentially worldwide.99 The USA also does a fantastic job of exporting the pursuit of wealth and happiness to the world. From Hollywood movies to Coca-Cola and McDonald’s franchises to internet companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook.
There is a good reason why I used “happiness” and “wealth” as if they meant the same thing in this description: the USA, and capitalism in its American form, do the same.
For immigrants to the USA, who often arrived in America with only very few possessions, this was obviously true. In many cases, poverty was the direct reason they emigrated from Europe. When every unexpected major expense or every loss of income is a direct threat to your existence, when more money means better food, warm clothing, and a heated apartment, as was the case for workers during industrialization, then more money really does very directly mean a better life, and thus more happiness.
It lies in the nature of capitalism that this connection is seen as self-evident and is continually reinforced, even in cases where more money isn't actually needed in order to be happy.
The explanation for this is simple: every company always wants to sell more goods and make greater profits, and tries to achieve this (alongside better products) through advertising. Every advertisement tries to convince consumers that they need precisely this product from precisely this company in order to be happy (creating a need). Through constant competition, in the USA advertising was perfected over decades (and today exists in the same form in all Western industrialized nations). Which ultimately also means a perfection of communicating the message “wealth is happiness” to the entire population.
If there is one point on which I agree with believers in conspiracy theories, it is this: advertisements are a form of brainwashing we are all systematically subjected to. But not because some secret world government commands it, but simply because it is a natural and expected consequence of unrestrained capitalism.