Has anyone here ever actually lived in a communist country?

It’s all an illusion. People in the west may or may not want it, but only a tiny percent can afford it.
Most people in the developed world live “lives of quiet desperation,” just struggling to make it by. Communist or capitalist, most people have less than they want and are prisoners to both the hard business of survival and their own unrealistic dreams (fueled by Hollywood fantasy.)

No but maybe you Americans could enlighten us what's it like

What kind of music and art were allowed in communism?

China for 14 years.....

That’s true.

Do you mean the ancient “legality” school of philosophy, like in the writings of Han Feixi?

China is a kind of hybrid Confucian/legality civilization....

I lived in the Soviet Union (Estonia) until it broke up and I was free to move to USA.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry when people here call USA or UK as communist countries. It's ridiculous and shows that they have no idea what living under real communism is like.

True, real "communism" would be about community, thus, the only system close to utopian communism was primal tribal community. Some tribes even reportedly shared wives ;) Like the Agathyrsos. In Biskupin which was built around 2800 years ago, all buildings were of the same size and quality, which suggests there was no special, separated zone for the ruling/rich class. Anyway in the past we used to build circular enclosures/forts to provide protection for people and common goods, supplies, not for the elite...

What is now called communism is actually state monopoly capitalism.

Bingo.

Tokugawa was also about that.

Wrong.

All the EAST Asian countries, that profess "Communism" are fake.

They're actually Asian Empires, based on that of Quin Shih Huang, Attila, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, Imperial Japan.

For example North Korea is heriditary rule, which was NOT allowed in true Communism.

Similarly Xi Jinping has removed term limits. And big-business including billionaires like Jack Ma, are allowed in China. So again no longer communist.

.

Few people remember that Confucianism was the official state religion under the Tokugawa...good for you. Legalistic in tone.

“The Law” still has a kind of sacred status in Japan.

Last Edited by Ordovician on 07/13/2020 09:49 AM

Right.

It's Tian Ming mostly in China, Korea and Japan, all Sino-civilization models.

Something like that, yes.

Two weeks before the wall came down (1989), we were in Berlin standing in front of wall looking up at the towers with guards holding guns keeping anyone from attempting to cross. On the West Berlin side the wall was covered with colorful graffiti and the other side was drab.

We had to travel by train through the Communist side where the stations walking up an down were guards with weapons and dogs at the different platforms the train went through. The train that we were on was exactly like the type you see in the old movies. Plain, uncomfortable, wooden seats, striped of any signs or embellishments. There was even an older military police type woman in the pencil skirt and white blouse walking up and down the isle watching us.

We had been in Budapest earlier and our phone conversations was listened in on when we called home to the States to let family know where we were. In East Berlin we were staying with family, a cousin (medical doc) who treated Reagan while Reagan was in Berlin. On the east side people were snitches and the clamp down on freedom of speech and movement was very visible.

Standing at the Brandenburg Gate, we could look across from the west side to the east side and there was such a sharp contracts between the two sides. One of the relatives, Johann Gottfried Schadow had designed Quadriga statue. Standing there looking at the two sides, east and west, reminded me of a black and white movie on the east side and color movie on the west side. Think 'Wizard of Oz'

[link to www.visitberlin.de (secure)]

We also went to see The Glienicke Brücke, a small steel structure that crosses the Havel River and links Berlin with Potsdam, spanned the front line of the Cold War for three decades. It was the setting for a few of the most memorable high-value prisoner exchanges between the Soviets and the West.

All in all it was an unforgettable trip. I was there as a presenter/trainer in Zurich, Switzerland for the police and mental health professionals on identification of victims abuse violence and treatment. Afterwards we traveled by train to visit family who lived throughout Europe in Austria, Germany, Hungry, Switzerland, Italy and England.

Oppression and fear represented the Communist side. Freedom, color and laughter represented the West.

Mozi - Mohists in antic China was - were close to that too.

Some of these stories make me want communism. I am not satisfied by western consumerism and find it too shallow and the women unattractive because of it. You can't please everyone I guess.

East Asians cannot self-sustain democracy. Japan, S.Korea, Taiwan were all occupied by the West, and had democracy foisted onto them

The East Asians prefer very strong warlord type rulers, due to a hive-mind tendency. Attila, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Chinese despotic emperors, Japanese Shoguns etc.

The Kim Jong family dynasty seizing power in N.Korea, and now Xi Jinping in China, under the guise of "communism" is another example. Actually they're EMPERORS, with almost godlike powers.

The Mandate of Heaven.

.

Under hard lockdown we going commie real fast.Nightime curfews and the banning of cigarette and alcohol sales is stripping us of our freedoms.

The country has been bankrupted by the elite looters,who will now be turning to the IMF and the world bank which funds will be looted by the same.

Add to that the wanton slaughter of the white farmers,destruction of the economy and redistribution of wealth you have Animal Farm playing out to the letter.

Black legs good,white legs bad.

Please share some descriptors of what life was like.

On one hand if everyone is provided for, that part sounds good. Starving doesn't sound like provisions were met.

Long lines is what seems to be described.

Do people live blandly or is one allowed to paint a room?

Is the family unit encouraged or discouraged in communism?

What is interesting is Business has taken on a very high status in East Asia since the 20th century.

In the traditional days, the hierarchy was Royal/Imperial at the top, followed by warriors, farmers, then artisans, and last “peddlers” and business people, who were always seen as less than dirt, even when rich...their status was like a prostitute or “entertainer.” Almost like the untouchable class in India, even though some made huge money. Often they were just considered criminals.

Now in Korea, China, and Japan money and business are basically almost at the top of the pyramid...there was a time when a humble village teacher would be more respected than a business man...that ended long ago...in the 20s for Japan, maybe in the 80s for China.

Yes, your going to be well enriched...when the 3rd world hordes take over. 40% non-White population now in USA, and rising fast. Which never happened in any communist country in the USSR and Eastern bloc.

lmao...

This one is getting there.

i post before music from Yugoslavia...

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] pop

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] pop

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] winner Eurovision...

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] rock

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] rock

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] traditional Slavonia

...

The problem of Americans - those who think there has never been life, and are supported by people who have left their homeland mostly for money! The same ones when they come back play the greatest patriots - BLJAK!

The power of the West is that it is much easier to sell a lie about the American dream than the East.

Both systems have their advantages ... The other thing is that socialism no longer exists, and then capitalism eats itself!

Communism felt like a kindergarten - the supervisors ensured that people got their bland but regular meals (both literally and figuratively), that they were taken care of and properly educated. The news was filtered - make-believe positivity... rose-coloured glasses... lullabies. As in any kindergarten, we were constantly watched, disciplined and reprimanded. Individuality was not encouraged, was thought to be a frivolity. And the door to the outer world was safely locked.

lmao....

S.Africa is NOT commie!

ALL affirmative action in South Africa is BASED on RACE, not on class (workers, poor).


Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a racially selective programme launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving black (African, Coloureds, Indians and Chinese) South African citizens economic privileges that are not available to White South Africans, in essence wealth redistribution.
[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]


Go read up on BEE and come back.

.

Yes. I live in America, which is more Communist in spirit and law than the Soviet Union. Materialism, Hedonism, Militarism, Elitism, Imperialism: all the marks of Communism are now not only fully codified in American law but are also fully and willingly celebrated and venerated by the population at large.

No.But I went to high school in Seattle.

Yes, Westerners have no real idea what is all about in The East Asia. Tian Ming - The Mandate of Heaven is all about, from the start of Zhou Dynasty and that is more than 3000 years ago.

I am Westerner, Slovenian for real, but I am in the know, very rare.
Communism in the East is only an outer jacket for something else inside of it. Surprise soon coming for the West and also GLPers here are very naïve too about that with all that "fuck China, fuck Communists". It's not about that at all.

I spoke with a Russian mathematics expert who said the years under communism were “paradise” for him: not in a material sense, but he was in some institution of theoretical math where he didn’t have to do anything but play with abstract ideas...there was no pressure to perform, everyone respected him as “yes, professor sir” but he didn’t even have to teach...just sit around and talk philosophy with his colleagues every day for 20 years.

Then after communism he could only get low-level jobs like a cashier or a taxi driver etc because even though he was a genius, his skills had no practical use in the capitalist world. I suppose people like that benefitted in their own way.