There are lessons that stand to be learned from just about everything. I am now focusing on lessons that should come from the world’s experience of Communism.
The main lesson from Communism is that you don’t get to keep people’s loyalty for long if you insist on treating your workers like dirt. When a section of a population is being mistreated, it is only a matter of time before someone comes along and caters to that. With Communism, the hardest lessons were learned by places like Russia and China, where abuses were the worst, and the least hard lessons were learned by places like America, where the abuses were the least.
We have some in conservatism claiming that anyone who’s had anything to do with Communism is evil. In fact most people who supported Communism came from the right place. They didn’t like seeing workers being mistreated. They didn’t like seeing women being mistreated. They didn’t like seeing people of other races being mistreated. Many of these people were ethical and compassionate. Much more so than people who want them lynched.
While Marxism itself is wrong – and I have written about all the ways in which Marxism is wrong – it doesn’t take an evil person to want to improve the conditions for workers, women and other races. All this does not require a revolution and can be done within the framework of capitalism and democracy. When I worked in the computer industry I did not feel exploited. I was being paid right and I was being treated right. These people in business have learned their lesson from Communism, and they made correct changes in their practices.
It is in no way valid to advocate for slaughter of propertied class. It is however valid to work to improve conditions for workers, women and other races. Once again, this does not require a revolution; it can be done within the framework of the system that we have now.
There are many valid arguments in favor of business being good to the workers. There is an argument toward compassion – that the worker has a family to support. There is an argument toward reason – that the worker is working hard and should be correctly compensated. There is an argument toward the Golden Rule. One does not have to be a Commie to care about such things. Both rationality and Christianity favor this approach. And a person claiming to practice either has it demanded of himself that he treat people in general – and his workers in particular - well.
There are also many valid arguments in favor of better treatment of the environment. What we have here is timeless treasures that man has not created and cannot recreate. These should be protected, even as the world goes on with scientific and technological progress.
This being done, the more idealistically minded people will work within the system instead of advocating for a revolution. They will find home in the capitalist system in fields that they can believe in. And the same people who are now troublemakers will becomes significant contributors, applying what is in many cases extraordinary creative intelligence to come up with and implement real solutions to the problems of the world.