Understanding Socialism
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This video by The School of Life:
POLITICAL THEORY - Karl Marx - This is a great, short 10 minute video diving into the Marx's philosophy and ideas and how they could be implemented into a market economy.
The Difference Between Socialism, Communism, and Marxism Explained by a Marxist - This is a very good short explainer video explaining the differences between the various flavors of Marxism. I went to his website, https://www.socialism101.com/ and it's an excellent guide for understanding socialism/Marxism/communism/etc.
Debunked: "Socialism Has Never Worked" - Explaining & debunking the idea that "socialism has never worked" as dictated by a non socialist - even explained through religious ideology David Pakman, who has a great channel, but his ideas fall under the category of progressivism, liberalism, and social democracy.
Many of what I call neo-socialists believe that Marxist-Leninism as used by the USSR, China, and North Korea are inherently fascist systems of government and that is true to some degree, as after the initial leaders of these states died, the classical Marxist values went away, and an authoritarian commune state was created.
Marxist-Leninism broken down in it's simplest form is the idea that the proletariat, or the peasants will never stand up for their rights, and so a vanguard - that is a group of revolutionary leaders have to start the revolution, and once the system is in place, they hand the state back over to the proletariat.
Where this idea failed is that after the vanguard had put socialism into place, they refused to give up power and become essentially authoritarian dictatorships. The USSR would have been a completely different place if Trotsky had taken power of the Communist Party and the Politburo, rather that Stalin who instituted an authoritarian dictatorship masquerading as a communist society. After Stalin died, Nikita Khrushchev tried to do away with the cult of personality that Stalin had created under a system of reforms called De-Stalinization and issued the famous letter "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", which was leaked to the West.
However, because of endemic corruption in the USSR, it eventually lead to it's failure and collapse, and what we now see is a gangster state controlled by a former KGB spy, Vladmir Putin, and is run mostly by him and his oligarch friends who enrich themselves by siphoning off money from the state. The state is run under the KGB model of fear, assassination, incrimination and essentially the same corruption of the vanguard system of Marxist-Leninism.
China is also a false communist state, with a state being run by a so called 'Communist Party', which is really just a system to enable power to the leader of China, Xi Jinping. Why are there millionaires and billionaires in China which is supposedly a Communist state? The whole idea is absurd.
Cuba and Venezuela are also run under these pseudo-Vanguard systems, although Cuba would have a much better chance of it's socialist state working if it could trade and engage in free market exchange with the United States. This was eased under Obama, but Trump re-instituted the ban against Cuba after the so called "sonic ear" attacks. Biden, so far, has kept these same systems in place.
BBC Masters of Money Karl Marx HD (1 hour) - I haven't seen this documentary, so I can't comment on it. There was another one I was looking for that was made in the 1970s.
Karl Marx . Marxism Documentary - This is the BBC documentary I was thinking of that deals with Karl Marx during the era of the Cold War, while the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries still existed.
Understanding Capitalism
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One of the best documentaries on capitalist theory and how it's instituted is called Commanding Heights and is available to watch on PBS's website if you are in the US.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/hi/story/
If not, you can watch it on YouTube
Commanding Heights: The Battle of Ideas- Episode One (Official Video)
Commanding Heights: The Agony of Reform- Episode Two (Official Video)
Commanding Heights: The New Rules of the Game- Episode Three (Official Video)
Keep in mind this documentary was made in the mid-early 2000s, so a lot of the ideas and concepts have changed somewhat in this day and age.
Essentially, there are two schools of thought for capitalism. There is the mixed market economy, where the state controls some of the economy, but leaves the rest alone to do as it pleases within the letter of the law (in theory), and this is called Keynesian economics, developed and named after John Maynard Keynes. This was best practiced under the tutelage of FDR, who ran many government controlled economic systems to get out of the great depression, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the building of the Hoover Dam, the institution of a social security system and so forth. This was also seen in domestic policy under Lyndon Johnson who instituted the Civil Rights Act and etc to ensure civil rights for all citizens.
The other system of capitalism is the so called Austrian model of economics. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/austrian-school-of-economics.asp (Note: This web page endorses this model). Under this theory of economic system is libertarian capitalism. This is where there is a completely open and free market with no government oversight and the private sector essentially runs unabated without any oversight. This is the system promoted by the modern day right wing fascist media such as Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, and many other "news" sites.
The School of Life: HISTORY OF IDEAS - Capitalism
The School of Life: The Dawn of Capitalism
These short videos go over the history of capitalist thought and implementation and demonstrate the criticisms and failures of capitalism in the modern era.
I might come back and add to this thread later, but for now, that's all I'm capable of writing.
If you have any questions, comments, critiques or suggestions, please let me know.
