|
Conservative Central |
||
| A reader
questions whether communism is a form of radical liberalism No matter how much you dislike liberals and communists, there is no way that you can call them the same thing. 'Radical left liberalism is represented by movements like the anarchists, the communists, and the radical wings of the feminist and animal rights movements.' Liberals believe in the rights of the individual. They believe that people are NOT by nature social. However, they believe that by living in society, we oblige by a social contract, to balance the rights of different individuals. They believe that governments should exist primarily to protect property, limiting the right of one person to take something of someone elses so as to protect the right of the other to own it. This leads to a minimalist government. Left liberalism is almost a contradiction in terms, but not quite. Keynesian economics, a belief which largely underlies current governments, says that governments have some obligation to ensure that some infrastructure such as health and education should exist. However, it still insists on the rights of the free market, with individuals working to serve their own interests. Communists on the other hand believe that people are social by nature and that wealth should be distributed according to need. They believe that people should work in the interests of the society, not for themselves. This is completely different to liberalism. For a response to this argument go to Is communism a radical form of
liberalism? |
||