Many people put the end of the Cold War as the failings of the Communist State against a capitalist super-power. However, there is no proof that these views are correct, most are based on assumptions and guess-work and cannot correctly convey the reasons behind the lose of the war. However, this article or thesis rather is not to prove either way, or trying to defend the communist system, but rather another side or view of it.

The question is, did Communism really exist? How could it fail if it didn’t exist? This is a good question, and I believe deserves a detailed study of the matter.

Let us quickly look over the basis of Communism as written by Karl Marx in the mid-late 19th Century. While technically, Communism was just Marx’s imprint of Socialism, he and Engels wished to disassociate themselves with the Socialist thinkers of the day, (Eg Claude Henri de Rouvroy). In there theories, he and Engels proclaimed Socialism was Inseparable with Humanity since the dawn of time and ever will be, however he saw Socialism as a practical medium into which his version could derive from.

As most of us know, Communism is about moving the power from the Wealthy to the workers, through ways of revolution or other violent means. As the saying goes, which is thoroughly endorsed by Communism, “The end justifies the means.” As figure 1 illustrates, Marx thought that Capitalism was a handy state to go onto more Left-winged politics, from Capitalism to Socialism to Communism in a number of revolutions. One question concerning this is why did he choose Capitalism to go onto Socialism? Was it because a majority of Western governments practiced it? Or was it the fact that it had better chances at increasing capital/revenue to use as a basis for the bigger things?

The first country/government founded on Marxism was the United Soviet States Republics, by Lenin and Co. Like most Marxists will say, Lenin deviated from course, and the USSR wasn’t a fully-fledged Communist State. HOWEVER, if anyone has read announcements by either Lenin or Stalin; neither of them state that the USSR was Communist, Stalin especially stated that and referred to the USSR as a Socialist State, and that the USSR Will be able to reach Communism without another violent revolution as Marx suggests.

But then why has the country always been labelled Communist if they’re saying they are not communist but Socialists? Because of the fact they were trying to follow the core policies of Marx, that and the fact that some of the policies churning out of the Kremlin weren’t exactly Socialist policies. Besides from that the founders of the USSR never, never, referred to the country as Communist, while they stated they were going to eventually be Communist, they just haven’t reached the point yet.

Every country which has tried to follow Marxism fails and deviates from course, due to the fact that Communism cannot be fully conceived without the prior successful Capitalist government and Semi-so Socialist government and even then cannot be a hundred percent while following the theories of Engels and Marx. This brings out interesting descendants of Communism/Marxism, such as Leninism, Stalinism and Maoism and whatever the hell Fidel wants to call his blend.

While all governments which embrace Communism have to be an authoritative system such as a Dictatorship or One-party System, can it be said that the Communism doesn’t work at all? While I, myself, don’t see Communism as a final destination for any government, I do see it being handy for poor/third-world countries which even with the flaws can successfully aid the country. For example, look at Russian History, it was always behind the Western European countries in industry and wealth, even with the Tsar government, Capitalism was barely thriving, however after the overthrow of the Tsars and revolution, upon the era of reconstruction by the Bolsheviks, after Lenin’s death, the USSR was invaded by Germany in WWII. By the end of the war, known as the Great Patriotic War, 25-30 million people have died in the eastern front, a majority of them Civilians, and a majority of those from the USSR.

With so much conflict, bloodshed, and damage both during the revolution and the war, Communism, with its blends, built the USSR from backwards country to the second most powerful country in the world until 1989-1991. Considering how poor the country was due to these events, most of the population, regardless of queues for some foods and goods, were happy in the improvement. As quoted from a book: “The Children have all grown up and married, and have their own children. Each has a flat. Small only one or two rooms. But with conveniences — a stove, maybe a refrigerator. One of them has a car. They simply can’t imagine life any better.” This was from a woman with memories of the 1940s, which before groups of families were living together in a big room, without any convience their Western counterparts enjoyed. Considering its population at the time, this was an amazing improvement.

China also had a similar modern history, and the current communist system modified by Deng Xiaoping, has helped not only Chinese Academically to some extent (Literacy is high, but alot of things are censored), health wise as quoted by the Wikipedia article “the country’s life expectancy jumped from about 32 years in 1950 to almost 73 years in 2006, and infant mortality went down from 300 per thousand in the 1950s to about 23 per thousand in 2006″. These are amazing improvements in themselves which can only continue before China is eventually burnt-out.

Nearly all countries which either had or are Communist have benefits not enjoyed by their Western/Capitalist Counterparts, be it Great Healthcare, as in Cuba, A high Literacy and Job rate as the USSR or China or otherwise. Honestly, it is really difficult to see if Capitalism would have helped the USSR or China as Communism did. Again while I see Communism as practical stepping stone for third-world countries, I like Socialist Capitalism system as provided in countries such as Denmark, Canada and Australia.

I know this isn’t a one point thesis/essay, but rather just discussing if a Marxist Communist State exists, and if it’s really all bad as some people suggests. I am willing to provide a bibliography of books to people who require them as to provide sources to all material related to in this article.

It might also be interesting to note that while the United States keeps telling China to give more way to Democracy, which the U.S with things such as the PATRIOT Act is moving ever more to the right… I’ll finish this article with figure 2.

So I just got home from a Poker Game organised by Poker Masters and didn't go that good really; out of 97 players, I was the 8th person eliminated. Game was standard Texas Hold 'em. Guess I'll have to brush-up on my gameplay, I'm too aggressive and at one stage of the game I had at least 1/4th of the chips on the table.

Ah well, I need to get back into Poker. My friend who I went with, became 15th out of the 97th, so top 20. Congratulations Man.

So here I am, sitting in the Library at North Sydney Institute of TAFE, waiting for my “programming” class. Started the second week of TAFE today, doing Cisco-related modules pertaining to the OSI Layers. Something I've covered before, but eh, that's fine. I just want tonight to be over. A 12 hour day sure is tiring; I just hope I can survive the 16 upcoming weeks of it.

Anyway, as for my week from the last post, not much has happened. Monday-Wednesday I was at TAFE. Thursday and Friday, I went with two of my friends and we did some geeky stuff relating to Warhammer 40,000.

On Saturday? Now there's a story. I joined up with my friends to go to someone's birthday party, whom they knew. I can't say I've been to such a great party in years. Plenty of Alcohol, Drugs and Rock & Roll, well not really. Although there was plenty of Alcohol. I played pool with a few people I met there and socialised quite a bit with people whom I haven't met before. I met this one girl, who is literally amazing; she's intelligent, witty and very attractive. However, there are circumstances present which prevented me from asking her out. However, I really really hope I can meet this girl again, because I feel there could be something there.

Alright, so here I am home again. I'm successfully enrolled at North Sydney, just needed to do as a transfer form as I thought, silly confusing teachers.

The course there looks alright, there's about 26 people. Which will be divided into two classes, A and B. The timetables are drastically different. There's A and B, which did I choose? B of course! There's several points behind my reasoning on this.

1. I'll have to do 6-9 on Monday regardless of which group, to catch up on Programming Modules. The way I see it, if I'm doing a 9-9 day on Monday. Then I might as well do 1-9 and then 10-9.
2. More Time/Days to myself to work, relax or study on.
3. I miss Peak hour on the way home. While Peak hour is annoying on the way there, it's worse on the way back, and I'd like to Y'know sit down instead of being cramped, standing, aboard a train for an hour and a half.
4. Apparently we get better teachers then as well. Although I can't confirm this as of yet.
5. 95% of the 26 Students chose A. Meaning it's doubtful I'd get in.

Did a Class today, Cisco one, basically just played around with a few Routers, running several commands on them. But yeah, chances are my friend James (Subby), will probably do B as well.

It is currently 12:53AM Sunday, 16th July at the time I've started this entry. And a bit has happened since my last post.

Firstly, I have finished, hopefully, my last semester successfully at Macquarie Fields, passing all modules. The Headteacher of IT at North Sydney was suppose to contact me to arrange my transfer, but she didn't get back to me, so I'll be going in tomorrow and hoping I'm enrolled, if not, well my next six months will be rather empty.

Secondly, I just recently returned from a 2 and a half week holiday in South Australia and Victoria.

SA - Well, this was rather uneventful, what I did was the following.
- Help my father move (He was completing his move from Aldinga to Mt Barker)
- Present evidence at one of my father's courtcases as a witness (This took two days as I wasn't called up the first day); On the brighter side, I got to go around and check out Adelaide.
- Work on my Father's home-office: Improving network and adding another computer from alot of spare parts.

VIC - While I didn't do alot, it was unsuprisingly more eventful then my trip in SA.
- Met Paul (Aeoth) and his girlfriend Natalie (Chickz0r); Went to a bigass Arcade for a few hours and saw a movie together. Was pretty cool.
- Went Paintballing with Paul and Natalie and a few of their friends, met Andrew (Blaman) who provided transport for me (Cheers for that!) and Brad (Psieonic). Paintball was rather entertaining, the field wasn't that bad at all. And I learnt a vauable lesson, despite being seasoned at Paintball. Cups and Boxers don't mix.
- Went to a club with my Sister and played Pool.
- Hanged out with my Mother and Youngest Brother.

Overall, that's the summary. Nothing to brag about but I enjoyed myself quite throughly. Annyway, I'm going to head to bed when I press submit, and god damn do I hope I'm enrolled in North Sydney, or hope that it won't be complex or difficult to do so.