Communism Vs. Capitalism
Edward_r2
Join Date: 2003-11-27 Member: 23626Members
Join Date: 2003-11-27 Member: 23626Members
in Discussions
<div class="IPBDescription">reflected in NS</div> Recently I got to thinking, and realized that NS is a reflection of the merits of communism versus capitalism. The aliens are like a capitalist corporation, splitting their net income among themselves, and doing what they wish with it. The marines are the communists, with their central res pool, and being forced to take whatever the commander hands them. The struggle of marines versus aliens can be seen as the struggle of communism versus capitalism, a ferocious debate of which is the better system. And given that we, being humans, naturally tend to side with the marines' point of view (take the NS manual as an example of this) could it be that NS is inherently slanted towards communism?
What are the merits of communism vs. capitalism, and how are they reflected in NS? Discuss.
What are the merits of communism vs. capitalism, and how are they reflected in NS? Discuss.
Comments
Ill concieved. That is a common mistake. Practiced communism usually turns out to be a dictatorship, which is partially good, because there is a raw stage in real communism where everyone becomes quite poor and down and out. The next step requires the said dictator to step down...which is the problem. Neither team has enough components of the true way to be credible making your argument flawed. Capitalism is the law of the jungle. Humanity is beyond that. You can't deny what WILL be someday.
That is exactly my point: the marine system is a mirror of how communism works out in practice; you have a dictator (the commander) handing out things which are to benefit everyone, and if it goes poorly, there is a bloody revolution (ejection of commander).
As for the second part, I think that NS is also inherently slanted towards communism. Thanks for angrily agreeing with me.
Ignorance is bliss, but its also the softest clay, remember that.
That's strange, because I can't think of a single capitalist country on earth. Please, serious discussion and not flamebait.
Social Security, welfare, medicare and other programs are based on Socialism, giving the poor/lazy the minimum means to live.
Counter to that, China far from being Communist, they have far to many aspects of a free market economy to be labelled as such, they're basically a socialistic dictatorship.
Capitalism - everyone for themselves
Socialism - everyone for themselves, but wealth is spread slightly so that everyone gets at least the basics.
Communism - everyone for the society
You can't apply these to an entire country, just to programs within a country, to find out where it lies on the scale.
You also have to keep in mind, the true second stage of communism has never been witnessed on Earth. The first stage is the pooling of wealth and possesions, that they may be distributed to everyone equally. Than the dictator steps down and everyone will fill into their respective social positions. The problem is, the individual human doesn't like to sacrifice their wealth...the rich like to stay rich.
I would actually go the other way in your NS example, I would base the aliens off of communism and the marines off of capitalism/socialism:
The aliens share resources, they have to agree to work cooperatively, because they don't have an overview of the world. Not one person knows or has everything, or CAN know and have everything. They need to work for the betterment of the team to succeed.
The marines work for their resources, they work for themselves (except the Commander, who would be sortof like the representative of the country). If a marine does good, he gets paid with HMGs, HA or a JP. Conversely, a marine that gets eaten all the time, he gets nothing (except the socialist programs like weapons upgrades, armor upgrades, and the 'early warning' Motion Tracking).
I think my description is far more fitting. You just can't fit an honest communist society to the marines...just a despotic one.
[of course, everyones view of directly free market or directly communistic society will be different, so it's kindof how you interpret it]
Lets get it on CWAG! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Lets get it on CWAG! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
What if I told you I have discovered a way to change the need for everyone to be for the society, yet it drives on greed but benefits all in the same manner
I've read <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=51438&view=findpost&p=726832' target='_blank'>CWAG's Idea</a> and it sounds suprisingly like capitolism. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Meanwhile, the educational infrastructure required to train all those people how to perform skilled and unskilled jobs cannot and will not exist without some people taking all of their time to train them. However, those people need all of their needs met also, which in turn means they need compensation from their job, which turns it into capitalism.
The humans are capitalist in structure, someone at the top gives orders, and you work with him, or else you get nothing. The commander gets the fruit of everyones work, and decides what to do with it.
The aliens, i would label anarchists. Because they are not forced to work with each other, but if they dont, they will probably lose. Wealth is equally distributed. Everyone can do whatever they want, structurally, but if they dont communicate and get things done together, the things not gonna work
The resource distribution systems in NS have little to do with government systems.
The Marines are not Communist, they are a military organization. An army is built around a command structure where everyone knows who is in charge and who has the last say. In this respect, the Commander has complete control of resource and structure use unless overriden by a Marine vote (mutiny). This is akin to a ship commander who has control of all the ship's resources and tools, but needs his crew to execute commands and relies on their loyalty to keep him in control.
The Aliens have a shared resource system and any individual may build structures. However, kill resources are awarded individually while tower resources are awarded team-wide. Since resources can not be transferred, they work more like separate mercenary entities under pay of the Hive. They receive a "paycheck" from tower resources but can augment that gain by plundering individually. They do not share their resources with other "mercenaries" and use their resources only internally.
Therefore, it is not a matter of Communism versus Capitalism in NS but rather a matter of Military Unit (centralized command and resources) versus Mercenary Group (destributed paycheck resources with private kill gain and internal-only use).