The Growth of Anti Communist Belief in the 20th Century - Essay Example

? The Growth of Anti-Communist Belief In the 20th century Introduction Anti-communism is a political concept used in reference to all the political ideologies opposed to the spread of communism. Communism was a political concept rife in the eastern bloc countries such as Russia a country that was part of the USSR and Japan among other countries in Asia and parts of Africa. The political ideology aimed at creating a classless and moneyless society and economy. The political ideology therefore propagated for communal ownership of assets among other resources in the society1. The ideas of communism created a society in which everyone was equal and the means of production collectively owned by the society. The ideas of communism later grew rapidly spreading the political and social structures in countries all over the eastern bloc and causing an intense rivalry between the east and countries in the Western bloc that were mainly capitalist. During the cold war, the feelings against anticommunism began spreading in the eastern countries thereby resulting in the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The cold war created an enabling environment for the spread of propaganda about other countries and economic regimes. The cold war period preceded the Second World War, a period in which countries in the different economic blocs never shared any business transaction and they each lived in fear of the operations of each bloc. Each region therefore feared that the other was progressively becoming stronger and accruing military assets thereby gaining military power. This culminated into fear which no bloc could break by opening war against the other. However, the fear and suspicion that the East had against the economy of the West slowly began countering the effect of communism in the East resulting in the abolition of the economic regime. The West led by the United States of America and countries in Europe had the capitalist economic structure. Capitalism enabled rapid economic growth since it permitted private enterprises thereby enabling the government to collect taxes from the population thereby gaining more revenue. The ideas of capitalism promised rapid economic growth through private investment. The western countries therefore looked economically stronger than the Eastern bloc did since they had enough money to purchase any military artillery they would require. This was unlike the situation in the Eastern bloc where the countries communally owned the economy and therefore the military assets. The regime looked weak and threatened the growth of the entire Asian continent and their affiliates. The precarious times of the cold war therefore created an enabling environment for the spread of propaganda and hate messages among each region. The East progressively became suspicious of the activities of the western bloc, which had active economic activity. The fear and propaganda led to fighting among the different regions in the eastern bloc resulting in the split within the socialist world. The West feared that the growth of the communist ideologies in the East would eventually affect their economies since they targeted foreign markets after the war. The cold war therefore created an enabling environment for the spread of propaganda which the west appropriately created and used their advanced telecommunication mechanisms to spread to east and other neutral countries. The infiltration of the propaganda resulted in fear, which compelled the socialist countries to split their political ideologies a feature in the history of communism that resulted in the creation of left wing anticommunism. The creation of the left wing anti-communism preceded the split of the communist parties from the previously predominant socialist second international to create three different political ideologies including the democratic socialist, the third international and the social democrats2. Communism had an elaborate political system referred to as the socialist. The regimes had predetermined leadership most of which were not democratic. The western bloc therefore used propaganda to attack the political regimes of the social structure, which worked effective as countries in the eastern bloc began expressing their indifference to the dictatorial nature of the social communities as developed by the proponents of the communist societies. The breakaway from a unitary socialism structure to the different forms of socialism, with some of the regimes claiming democracy, resulted in internal resistance within the communist states thereby fostering the success of the western propaganda as an effective mechanism of disintegrating communism. The different forms of socialism began fostering democracy as an effective form of political governance thereby creating a sizable resistance to the central socialist society. Such schemes weakened the dictates of the communist regime in the eastern bloc thereby necessitating the split in the USSR, which was the strongest economy in the bloc. The split of the union made the independent countries vulnerable to the western forces therefore creating ease of the infiltration of the western propaganda, which further split the smaller countries. The division further led to the rise of anarchists, the group considered themselves liberal capitalists and therefore opposed a number of the dictates of the regimes and the socialist parties in the region. The anarchists opposed the authoritarian nature of the political regime and the fact that the state owned all the means of production. The anarchists therefore wanted a more liberal society; they did not oppose all the principles of communism and socialism but were opposed to the fact that people could not own property and the means of production. They argued that capitalism promised faster development of the economies since the democratic political regime and the capitalist economic structure motivated the citizens to work harder to acquire the wealth, a factor that increased the government revenue through the collection of taxes. Anarchists therefore also supported the growth of capitalism in the previously communism dominant regions. The systematic and steady rise of private property further led to the rise of anti-communism in the eastern bloc. The disintegration of the unitary socialist movement into the other three democratic ideas led to the introduction of private property as opposed by the previous regime, which created a classless society. The rise of private property promised wealth and power. Democracies require powerful and wealthy individuals to fund the campaign and the implementation of policies. The rise of private property systematically stifled the efforts and doctrines of socialism thereby weakening the political system in the entire region. Democracy dictates the freedom key among which is the freedom to own property3. Democracy therefore supported the growth of capitalism as was evident in the western countries. The rise of capitalism would result in class struggles that most leaders of the socialist political structures had strongly opposed. This therefore led to internal wrangles that eventually split the region resulting in the complete abolition of the socialist political structure. The resistance to communism resulted from a number of key factors among which was the fact that communism had an authoritarian political regime referred to as the socialism. The world was increasingly becoming more liberal yet the communist political regime still held authoritarian control of the region often showing no regard to the human rights and the freedoms of humanity. The western used the dictatorial nature of politics in the region to develop effective and more relevant propaganda against the political system in the communist regimes. The ruling class therefore lived in more opulence than their subjects who worked hard in order to sustain the economy. The ruling class appeared to have owned all the society’s wealth. This led to internal wrangles and conflict of interest, as everyone therefore wanted to become among the ruling class. However, the political nature in the region permitted the selected few to rule and pass the reign’s to their children. This implied that the rest of the society would often work to sustain the opulent lifestyle of their leaders who were not only authoritarian but also hereditary. Another source of resistance was capitalism. Capitalism promised to give power to the common citizens provided they worked hard enough to acquire the means of production. The people had previously worked hard only to benefit their leaders. The ideas of capitalism however promised the people the ability to work hard, benefit themselves by acquiring power, and accumulate wealth. This would result in an equal society in which both the leaders and their subjects would have to work hard to achieve the lifestyles they wanted. The ideas of capitalism therefore appealed to a majority of the population and received oppositions from the dictatorial leaders. The people outnumbered the their divine leaders thereby resulting in the subsequent split of socialism in the eastern bloc a factor that further weakened the political institution of communism thereby paving way for capitalism. Additionally, religion offered a strong opposition to capitalism thereby resulting in its abolition. Religions have a systematic way of coercing obedience from their adherents4. They use persuasion through the divine nature of their structure to convince their followers to believe in their teachings. The eastern bloc had a number of countries and religions with different religions. One of these was the Roman Catholic. Catholic had often opposed capitalism since the Roman Catholic had an interest in the acquisition of resources5. The Roman Catholic was a semi-autonomous government with its own resources; it therefore had great influence in the western bloc and felt threatened in the eastern bloc by the rise of communism in the expansive eastern region. The Roman for example was one of the leading landowners in the periods leading to the French revolution. The church therefore felt entitled to its adherents’ loyalty most of which the authoritarian leaders of the communist world had previously acquired. This led to the church’s opposition of the economic structure and the subsequent socialist political structure. Islam is another very authoritative religion that has an effective control of its adherents. The religion had enjoyed a working relationship with the communist amount of wealth that the religion had in Spain, which was in the western bloc, could not compare to its wealth in Afghanistan or any other middle east region. The religion and its clerics therefore began feeling short changed by the communist regime. The rivalry between the religion and the communist regimes culminated in 1978 when the USSR attacked Afghanistan is resulting in a series of unrests in the Middle East region, which subsequently led to the rise of a political and economic system called the Islamism. To this day, Afghanistan and other countries in the Middle East have Islamic economic policies that govern their markets. The ideas of such policies arose from the conflict between the Muslims and the communist regimes, which denied the religion the economic power and wealth in currently, enjoys. Falun Gong a previously small religion in China contributed immensely to the negative attitude that the people later formed against communism. The religion had at one time protested to the Communist Party of China over alleged harassment. The communist government reacted harshly by banning the religion, subjecting the adherents of the faith to arbitrary torture and organ harvesting all of which were inhumane. The religion countered the acts of violence with intensive media campaigns, which succeeded in drawing the attention of the world and the rest of the Chinese population to the ills of the regimes6. The communist regime in China thereafter received serious criticisms and accusations from human rights groups among many other activists who felt offended by the acts of the government meant to protect the people. The numerous disadvantages of the communist regime inflicted pain on the people; the regime looked and operated in an oppressive manner. It limited the freedom of the subjects besides denying them the freedom to own resources. The subjects therefore felt exploited by their leaders who lived comfortable lives and formulated policies that made their lives more comfortable at the expense of the rest of the population. The world was fast developing and the people therefore needed an aggressive economic regime, one that could deliver economic prosperity within a shorter period and therefore offer and effective competition in the western world. The socialist regime in the east encouraged a uniform development of the region, which was not possible for certain countries had more resources than, others. Additionally, the fact that the country owned the communal wealth and therefore compelled everyone to work hard while gaining no direct benefit resulted in a poorly motivated work group. The people began feeling oppressed by their own countries since they could not even own land. The communist regime imposed a number of sanctions on its subjects most of which paralyzed the living standard of the people. The communal ownership of property denied the people an investment opportunity compelling the governments to institute the only operational media in the countries. The governments therefore used these media as their mouthpieces communicating their respective propaganda and policies. The people worked in accordance with the dictates of the policy makers but received no adequate incentives to continue working. The fact that the state reserved the rights over their dues made the regime appear more possessive and more oppressive. Land is a major resource in a country; the oppressive regime retained the ownership of all the lands in the regions leaving the people subjects and squatters in their own country. This tainted the regime resulting in protests and conflicts, which therefore destabilized the peaceful coexistence necessary for economic growth. Bibliography Arthur, Koestler. 1940. Darkness at Noon: A Novel. New York: Simon and Schuster. Chambers, Whittaker. 1987. Witness. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway. Ceplair, Larry. 2011. Anti-communism in twentieth-century America: a critical history. SantaBarbara, Calif: Praeger. Jan, Valtin. 1941. Out of the Night. New York: Kessinger Publishing. Victor, Kravchenko. 195. I Chose Freedom - The Personal and Political Life of a Soviet Official. New York: Angell Press. Read More