NEXUS
MARAMARA KŌRERO / 专栏
I was walking home last night when a stranger approached. They were tall and skinny (lot’s of skin). I had never encountered such a person in my life. I shouted, “What business do you have here, wretched one?” To which they hunched down and whispered, “Communism doesn’t work.” The way I recoiled and went wee-wee-wee all the way home. I lay on my bed, their words burning my ears. After some time I realised, I was mad. That statement couldn’t be further from the truth. Too many times do people on Facebook say, “CoMunIsM iS BAd” or “This socialist-communist-tyrannical government is evil,” There’s so many wrong interpretations of communism and people don’t know what it means. So it was there, in the deepest depths, where this fate came upon me, and I accepted it: educating you on the triumphs, the epic highs and lows of communism. This begins with defining communism in a non-gatekeeping way, making this knowledge available to all. Because there’s nothing worse than reading Instagram comments like, “Communism is destroying our democracy”, when communism is, in fact, not the culprit for democratic decay.
" So what is communism? " It can be tricky to define because it has many definitions. I define it as a social system which can govern our way of living. I say ‘can’ because we don’t live in a communist society. Communism pushes for a classless system. That would mean the end of billionaires and the poorest no longer paying the most tax. Communism aims to abolish private property such as landlords and individualised landowners. So we aren’t a communist country because we have both of these: a class society (lower, middle, high class) and private property (farmland or housing being treated as investments, to name a few). There is more to defining communism. Communism hopes to end all labour. In a modern context, that means the end of the 9-5 and a goodbye to the concept of money. Now, I know what you’re thinking - no money??? The idea of a moneyless society isn’t that farfetched. Sure, it’s difficult to imagine nowadays because this world is interconnected and dependent on transactions. But history has seen cultural groups flourish without a dependence on money. The relevance of communism and a moneyless society is increasingly important. We have some of the highest living costs New Zealand has ever seen. Saving money is a struggle. Surviving is expensive. But that’s because this modern way of living is antonymous to communism. We’re deserving of a better lifestyle, of which can be achieved through communism. There is more I wish to say, but I’ll stop this brief definition of communism here. I should note that this article isn’t just glorifying communism. Countries throughout history have used communism (improperly) to fuel wars and gain power, losing lives and cultures. I’ll discuss those topics eventually, as they do not entirely fit the definition of communism. But for now, meditate on the sweet ideals of an alternative future.
22 N.09 / V. 55
