A post that actually has something to do with the prompt! Or maybe Nick's view of Communism

I think I'm going to start adding pictures that are pseudo relevant to my posts.



Theres quote by this one guy. As specific as that is, I feel I should provide some more information. I heard it last year in Mrs. Castlen's class. It was something along the lines of: the best thing we could do in this world would be to eleminate poverty. Or something like that. I've looked for it, but can't find it.

Regardless, that is beside the point, as I'm not going to talk about that quote. I'm going to talk about this one:

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.
-- Archbishop Helder Camara

I found that quote while looking for the previous one, and I remembered that I had heard it before. I had seen it in the video game Civilization IV. I'll refrain from going into detail about the game, as that's not this posts focus, but basically, throughout the game, players research different technologies, such as the wheel, electricity, currency, biology, and democracy. Once a technology is fully researched, a window pops up telling the player what (s)he can do with the tech. It also includes a quote relating to the tech. In this case, the quote was the one above, and the tech was communism.

It is a theory of mine that people compare things to a baseline standard that relates to their life. Here's an example to elaborate: take an extrememly rich person and an exceptionally poor man. If they both, for their birthday, were given a hot meal, they would appreciate it differently. While the rich man might scoff at the meager gift, the poor man would be very greatful and happily accept the present. Why is this?

It is because the two of them had different baseline standards. The rich man is used to extravagance and opulance, and thus is his baseline. Anything as exquisite as what he is used to his considered average, any thing greater than that is considered grand, and anything less is paltry. The same holds true for the poor man, except for the placement of the baseline. Being accustomed to poverty, his baseline is set at poverty. He considers the meal valuable because it is that much higher than his baseline.

Anyway.... I don't think that had anything to do with what I was trying to get to.... oh well....

An economic system in which different people earn different amounts of money creates a hierarchy of wealthy and poor. The wealthy are considered wealthy because they have more than the common man. If the common man were to gain more, than the threshold for being considered wealthy would rise as well. The same holds true for being poor.

So basically, what the quote is saying, is that if the poor weren't poor, than they would be middle class. And if no one was considered poor, than no one could be conisidered wealthy, since if there were wealthy people, than they would consider those with less than them to be the poor class. Therefor, everyone would be average. Thus, communism comes into play.

Communism can be a cool idea. The problem comes in the implementation stage. I used to think about establishing my own country or colony on a remote island or even in space. We could start government over, and treat it as a sort of communism. Only people who had a drive to create that sort of society would be allowed in. It would work out great! =D

Of course, it's reather idealistic and naive of me to think that there wouldn't be problems. But then again, they're only thoughts. And a man's mind is the only place where he can truly be free. But that isn't to say that all men inside their minds are free. Most, if not all people, are trapped inside their heads by something or other. But the potential is there.

Aside: blue penicls composed of recycled cd cases are pretty cool.