American Materialism and the Soviet Union's Negative View - Assignment Example

260403 To What Extent did American Materialism Lead to the Soviet Unions Negative View of Western Capitalism during the 1970s and 1980s? I This paper should detail, from both the Soviet point of view and Andrew Bacevichs point of view, the flaws of American capitalism. When analyzing please include the assertion that capitalism does often times lead to greed and materialism, but that at the same time it allows for a more free market and access to that market. The following discussion examines whether or not American Materialism lead to the Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism during the 1970s and the 1980s. The Soviet Union or at least its leadership was widely perceived to have a highly negative view of the United States in particular and Western Capitalism in general due to its opinion of American materialism as well as other factors detailed below. In many respects the Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism whether or not it was caused by American Materialism predated the 1970s and also the 1980s. The Soviet Union was supposed to represent the great communist alternative to Western Capitalism, and its alleged shortcomings including American Materialism and the suppression of the working masses. Reasons for the Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism were linked to the dislike of American Materialism and the other factors mentioned below as well. The communist ideology that formed the basis of the Soviet Union’s doctrines undoubtedly owed a great deal to the ideas and theories of Karl Marx, the co-author of the Communist Manifesto and sole author of the volumes Das Kapital. Both the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital demonstrated the strong link between Karl Marx and historical materialism in his attempts to promote the rise of the proletariat at the expense of the capitalist classes. Officially the Marxist – Leninist ideology of the Soviet Union always hated American Materialism and its Marxist worldview makes that easy to understand.1 Economic status, class positions, as well as material factors should be the only things, which actually mattered for communists on the road to the inevitable victory of the proletariat over their capitalist oppressors. Karl Marx stressed that historical materialism was the only valid method of understanding the past, the present, as well as the future of the human species. It was the key to a communist present as well as a communist future until the end of time. Karl Marx and historical materialism as the Soviet leadership pointed out officially stressed that the ultimate victory of the proletariat would mean the end of organised religion and poverty as well as the demise of capitalism all by itself. Communists regarded the concept of historical materialism as the key to the eventual triumph of the proletariat. Marxists also believed that the establishment of communist political parties that readily accepted the notion of historical materialism would provide them with the ability to succeed in the class war. Historical materialism was a doctrine that increased the leadership of the Soviet Union’s dislike of American materialism and increased its negative view of Western Capitalism as a whole during the 1970s and the 1980s.2 The Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism can be traced back to its very own beginning with the Western opposition to the Bolshevik regime after the October Revolution. Britain, France and the United States had contributed to the Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism by backing the anti-Communist forces during the Russian Civil War. In Moscow the knowledge that the Western powers had actively attempted to crush communism from the onset meant that the leadership of the Soviet Union were always suspicious of Western Capitalism before the 1970s and the 1980s. The fundamental Marxist – Leninist ideologies underpinning the official doctrines of the Soviet Union meant that its leadership would always have an essentially negative view of Western Capitalism anyway. According to the concepts of Marxism – Leninism Western Capitalism in general and American Materialism in particular represented what communism was diametrically opposed to, and would eventually replace. Officially Marxism – Leninism contended that contemporary Western Capitalism deceived Western workers into accepting capitalism by giving them access to consumer goods and welfare systems without reversing the inequality of the capitalist system. American Materialism and Western European style welfare states would not alter Western Capitalism as the means of production predominately remained in the hands of capitalists. There were certainly reasonable grounds for arguing that the Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism during the 1970s and the 1980s stemmed from its leadership’s public dislike of American Materialism. The United States had always been able to produce a greater volume of consumer goods than the Soviet Union could yet the Soviet leadership contended that American Materialism was a bad even very harmful phenomenon. American Materialism was strongly linked with the ability of American and other Western multinational corporations to mass-produce consumer goods and for the American general public to consume these goods in ever greater quantities. The leadership of the Soviet Union found American Materialism disdainful as it distributed consumer goods on the basis of who could afford them rather than upon the basis of who needed such goods the most. Some members of the Soviet leadership hoped that American Materialism could eventually hasten the end of Western Capitalism as soon as consumers would no longer be able to get what they wanted as well as what they needed. American Materialism as copied by all the other Western Capitalist countries would run out of resources and would therefore be unable to placate its workers through the availability of mass consumer goods and social welfare provisions, social and political unrest would follow. Until Western Capitalism ran out of resources American Materialism was accelerating the inequalities within American and other Western societies.3 It could therefore be argued that the soviet Union had a highly negative view of Western Capitalism due to American Materialism being considered a vessel for unprecedented levels of collective as well as personal greed in Western societies. The leadership of the Soviet Union disliked the greed of American and other Western consumers as well as their respective societies. Soviet forecasts that the high levels of greed implicit in American Materialism would seriously weaken Western Capitalism might have sounded like suitable Cold War era rhetoric during the 1970s and the 1980s yet it did not make it come any closer to coming true. The Soviet Union did not like American Materialism because its principles ran contrary to the ideals of the Soviet planned economy. The Soviet Union leaderships’ negative view of American Materialism and Western Capitalism during the 1970s and the 1980s was increased because there was no element of state planning involved in it. American Materialism was all about individualism whilst Soviet Communism was all about achieving an egalitarian society through Communist economic management. Soviet central planning of the economy or so it was claimed by the leadership of the Soviet Union caused less social and economic damage than the haphazard ways in which American Materialism economics within Western Capitalism. The leadership of the Soviet Union publicly at least contended that the Soviet planned economy was more efficient as well as more socially responsible than American Materialism and Western Capitalism.4 In the early 1970s particularly after the Oil Crisis of 1973 the Soviet Union’s leadership seemed to have a valid case in arguing that their planned economy was more efficient than American Materialism as economic growth in the Soviet bloc was apparently stronger than in the West. The Soviet leadership appears to have overestimated the levels of economic growth caused by its own planned economy. In the end the much-vaunted superiority of the Soviet Union’s planned economy over American Materialism and Western Capitalism proved to be completely unfounded in reality.5 The Soviet planned economy was in fact highly inefficient, wasteful, and produced very little that anybody actually wanted. Its main benefit was that it gave everybody within the Soviet Union a job. Perhaps the leadership of the Soviet Union painted a negative view of American Materialism and Western Capitalism during the 1970s and the 1980s to divert attention away from the stagnation of the Soviet economy.6 The Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism during the 1970s and the 1980s was arguably not just based upon a dislike of American Materialism that had only started in 1970 and ended in 1990. The Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism had existed well before the 1970s and the 1980s, a view magnified by its Cold War rivalry with the United States. When viewed upon from the context of the Cold War the United States stood for everything that the Soviet Union abhorred and vice versa.7 The Soviet Union’s negative view of Western Capitalism during the 1970s and the 1980s was a continuation of its existing perspective from the onset of the Cold War in the late 1940s. The leadership of the Soviet Union was fiercely opposed to the greed and individualism of American materialism and Western Capitalism, whilst the United States was adamant about being correct about the failures that Soviet economic planning was responsible for.8 The defenders of American Materialism and Western Capitalism claimed that the whole economic structure of the Soviet Union’s planned economy was grossly inefficient and would eventually collapse. On the other hand these defenders of Western Capitalism argued that capitalism would continue to be more effective at giving people what they wanted at the same time as giving them more freedom of choice.9 Therefore the leadership of the Soviet Union did not like American Materialism because its principles ran contrary to the ideals of the Soviet planned economy. The Soviet Union leaderships’ negative view of American Materialism and Western Capitalism during the 1970s and the 1980s was increased because there was no element of state planning involved in it. However Soviet dislike of Western Capitalism can be traced back to the start of the Soviet Union itself. Bibliography Bacevich, Andrew. Limits of Power : The End of American Exceptionalism. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2008. Bideleux R and Jeffries I (1998) A History of Eastern Europe – Crisis and Change, Routledge, London Eatwell R & Wright A, (2003) Contemporary Political Ideologies 2nd Edition, Continuum, London Hobsbawm, E (1994) Age of Extremes, the Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, Michael Joseph, London Hunt, Michael H. Crises in U. S. Foreign Policy : An International History Reader. New York: Yale UP, 1996. Roberts J.M, (1996) A History of Europe, Penguin, London Watson J, (1997) Success in World History since 1945, John Murray, London Read More