Finding the Causes of Communism

Finding the causes of communism

The ideas of communism can be traced back to the beginning of time, when man still lived in small, primitive communities. In these communities the members needed to rely on each other for survival. They shared everything they had, and each member provided protection for the whole. Nobody was wealthy or poor; everybody was equal. These social systems, as time went on, completely changed and became a lot more complex. Social classes came into existence bringing about inequality in possessions and in rights. Although the early form of societies represented communism in its purest sense, we don't call their members communists. Communism by the literary sense was developed by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels attempting to put an end to the class battles present between the working class and the Bourgeoisie. Was communism really the brainchild of their mind or maybe they were influenced by other great thinkers of the past? What might have caused these ideas to erupt in those times? Can we find a trigger in the past that laid down the foundation of communism?

It seems that communism, in its basic form, was once the ruling system in primitive societies. As cities started to develop, societies became more urbanized. A great number of people moved from smaller communities to large cities and as more people needed food and merchandise, the production had to increase to keep up with the demand. The industrial revolution made it possible for a lucky few to acquire and run large factories where they reaped the largest part of the profit of the production and distributed just enough money to the workers to get by. The gap between the working class and the factory owners that is the wealthy Bourgeoisie widened until the point when the social tension created upheaval. The Communist Manifesto written by Marx lists all the premises of communism. One of the most important ones were that people demanded equality and the abolition of private property. They wanted the government to gain control over the members of society making sure that everybody receives equal share of whatever the society is producing. The government in a sense would know better than the individuals because without the government's control people might start look at their own interest and accumulate private property and that would lead to having a class that is wealthier than the other. This system looks awfully familiar to Rousseau's ideas, his famous Social Contract and the General Will.

In The Social Contract Rousseau sets forth ideas such as the common good is more important than the individual's need. The individuals, forming the whole, have to give up their freedom for the general will, that is their own will in essence. The idea of becoming free by giving up your freedom sounds paradox, but Rousseau believed that it is possible to preserve freedom yet submit to the general will