Think about it. #1 Low crime. #2 24 hour free surveillance/monitoring. (Americans pay ADT 40 bucks to do this) #3 Free living quarters, they might be modest but hey its a free place to live in. #4 Free security guards. #5 No worries about the riffraff,muslims etc.. (Eastern Germany had a big wall with mines and armed guards for protection) now Germans have to worry about terrorists. #6 Free health care #7 free education and college #8 more slower life and people are more social VS todays 60 hour workweek so you can pay your overpriced mortgage and car. #9 Free transportation #10 Free alarm clock, in north korea people are woken up for work and never have to worry about the batteries dying, thanks to the speakers installed in the street. #11 Free food or subsidized by the workers at nominal costs. #12 simplicity of uniforms, VS having to bother with choices etc. no BS, just don your uniform and your good to go. #13 No religious BS to worry about.
you make good arguments, but it is tough to overlook those tens of millions slaughtered by either malice or incompetence
Most people do not like religion because it tells them how to live their life. So why do you call religion BS when communism is going to tell you how to live your life? With religion, you give up 10% of your income in tithes & offering. With communism, you give up 90% of your income in taxes. With religion you have to pray. With communisim you have to sing the national anthem every morning. With religion you have a book telling you what is right & wrong. With communism you have a government telling you what is right & wrong. With religion, if you do something wrong, you can say sorry and be forgiven. With communism,if you do something wrong, you will have a confession beaten out of you and then you will be put in a forced labor camp for 12 years where you will likely die a miserable death. Somehow I think religion is a lot nicer than communism.
You're confounding economic and political means, and you're thinking of communism in either/or terms. It is no more desireable for an society to be entirely "groupist" than it is for an society to be entirely "individualist". Man has two natures, social and personal. Balance is key.
Oh Mr. wise learned prison guard, I think since people fail to grasp your profound thought, you might want to stick to more widely used terms like "collectivist" instead of your very esoteric term "groupist". You know, just to help the mundane to understand your profound thoughts...
Okay, you convinced me. Religion and communism are a lot alike. They both require a lot of sheep to be "guided" by a relatively few powerful shepherds who do all the thinking for them. Therefore, thinking is not necessary and is generally frowned upon. Following is the order of the day. Peil, I can see the draw that religion has for you.
All these isms require, for efficacy, that the group accept them as true and/or best, and the group then enforces compliance with socialization and power. (There, phenomena, a bit of structural functionalism just for you. I have more tools in the kit than just the conflict perspective. ; )
The Chinese government has built more catholic churches than The Sea has, they just draw the line at huckster televangelist preachers who've come to dominate my cable stations and bilk little old ladies out of their estates. Ever watch one of these guys? It has to make you question the judgement of a majority who buy into religion. Rama lama-666? http://www.wsws.org/
TV preachers are so disgusting. Such a money grab. These guys are one of the many reasons I despise religion. Ever seen the movie Religulous with Bill Mayer?