communist are not looked at quite as negatively as nazis
It could be because of some key ethical underpinnings.
Communism dictated that all people are equal and shall be treated equally, giving from their means and receiving according to their needs. Of course, if as one with more means, you didn't see that you should help pay for those with less, there's a problem... And there were splits over whether 'revolution' in other countries should be actively fomented, or merely encouraged... the pure theory (as I understand it) indicates that the latter would happen spontaneously - hmm, shome mishtake shurely?
Nevertheless, the premise of absolute equality of anyone before the state - the law, the people - is not uncommon and a good starting point.
The Nazi beliefs held that certain 'races' were intrinsically superior, and that others were (at best) the untermensch, sub-human, deserving only of exploitation for the benefit of higher breeds of humanity - slavery: while the lowest of the other races were an evil to be eradicated. And that the desirable outcome was for the superior breed of mankind to rule the world.
Nice. If you happen to be pure-blood Aryan, anyhow.
Both ignore the market as a means of determining 'worth' and reward'. Both believe in the power of a central state body to determine human destiny. Both believe in their absolute correctness.
But only one ideology called for genocide as an active policy, and world domination as the desirable aim and logical result. IMHO, that makes only one of them intrinsically evil.
In practice, thankfully, both have failed. But I think it's understandable why communism retained some intellectual attraction, especially compared to the alternative. |
