lapland wrote:
Jason first tries to establish a democrecy inside the reserve with leanings toward military rule. Even in our democratic society we have military rules. If natural or man made disasters fall we all have to follow protocals to insure for immediate servival. This is not declaring communism. Jason is forming a military. He is the General, and he has asked for volunteers to join his military campaign. That is decidedly anti-communist. It is purely American Democrecy because America is the only country with an all volunteer military. However once you join you are required to fulfill your obligations under military rule.
I think you are confusing democracy and capitalism. Democracy is rule by the people - voting for your leaders. Capitalism is owning the means of production and using them to create profit based on the free market system. Communism is shared ownership of the means of production, and distributing those products based on the common good. As I experienced living in China, it is possible to have a democracy within an Communist state. Although I'm unclear on many of the details, local communist leaders were elected, although most people weren't interested in voting. What we see in most communist countries is the "transitional" dictatorship that doesn't really go away.
When Jason first arrived, Temika was driving all sorts of produce between the different squatters - free-market capitalism. When he founded his town all the food was made common, electricity was common, the replicator he bought was for common use; labour was distributed based on skill level, not desire. One might argue that this could be acheived through a military-style government, but militaries are definitely not democracies. And Jason's decision to turn to military tactics occured only after he found out about the slavery. BTW, the last I looked China has an all-volunteer military, as do many other countries.
lapland wrote:
Communism asserts an individuals place within society. Permantly placing individuals where it deams best and controls everything about them, from their beliefs to their daily activities. It is clear Jason provides entertainment possibilities, but everyone knows their are limited methods of leaving the protections and still be safe. Those methods are researved for military purposes because of limited equipment. This is standard military rule.
There is a great deal of propaganda in Western countries about how (bad) people in Communist countries lives are, and a great deal of propaganda there about how bad certain things are here. Communist governments hardly control everything about an individual, but yes the education system there is less about independent thought, there have been certain community obligations, and a centrally planned economy is a disaster. However, I don't really want to get into a debate about what communism is like in practice in the real world, just in Jason's world.
I look at Jason's idea of having everyone share the burden of farming as similar to the ideal of classlessness in communism, everyone needs to share in that burden - and he doesn't seem like the type of guy who would allow someone to buy their way out of that duty. Of course that is pretty naieve, as is his decision to divide the world up back into the UN recognized countries - I would argue that many of the problems we face globally are due to territorial disputes. As an example of what might happen if he did that, China would almost definitely take over Taiwan, as it isn't recognized by the UN. But perhaps those sorts of problems are what Jason will have to face in a second book?