communism

plural communisms · alternative Communism

1. countableuncountableAny far-left political ideology or philosophy advocating holding the production of resources collectively, especially by seizing it through revolution.

   I want to gather together about twenty souls and sail away from this world of war and squalor and found a little colony where there shall be no money but a sort of communism as far as necessaries of life go, and some real decency.

   1932, D. H. Lawrence, The Letters of D.H. Lawrence, Edited by A. Huxley, page 219

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   Engels observes in one of his early writings that the Hegelian Left was the natural approach to communism, and that Hegelian communists such as Hess, Ruge, and Herwegh were a proof that the Germans must adopt communism if they were to remain faithful to their philosophical tradition from Kant to Hegel.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 83

   Synonyms: aspheterism

2. countableuncountableAny political social system that implements a communist political philosophy.
3. countableuncountableThe international socialist society where classes, money, and the state no longer exist.
4. WesterncolloquialcountablederogatoryoftenuncountableAny left-wing ideology, government regulations, or policies promoting a welfare state, nationalisation, etc.

   This tax plan is communism!

5. countablerareuncountableReadiness to share scientific findings (the first of the Mertonian norms).

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   A recent survey of 633 South Korean scientists found not only that communism was the Mertonian norm they thought most respected in practice (Kim and Kim 2018, 9), but also that younger scientists’ replies showed evidence of ‘mounting tension between the commercialisation of academic science and the norm of communalism’ (Kim and Kim 2018, 19). Our focus on scientific communism and its relationship to commercial research may thus reflect the concerns of working scientists.

   2022 January 26, Liam Kofi Bright, Remco Heesen, “To Be Scientific Is To Be Communist”, in Social Epistemology, volume 37, number 3, →DOI

6. countablerareuncountablecommunality, sharedness.

   Rational expectations econometrics extends a communism of statistical models to include a “sharing with nature” that is an essential input into making maximum likelihood or generalized method of moments be good estimators.

   2025 November 28, Thomas Sargent, “Macroeconomics after Lucas”, in Journal of Political Economy, volume 133, number 11, →DOI

1. uncountableThe ideology of political parties that use the term Communist in their names, usually Marxist and Leninist.
2. uncountableThe socio-economic system based on such parties' ideologies.
3. USinformaluncountableA state of affairs perceived as oppressive, overly arbitrary, or totalitarian.

   . ..he shouldn't...just...[say]..."I -- I am responsible for prosperity,"...that's Communism, Sir, you see.

   1953 (pub. 1997), Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy ed., Hinge of Generations-1953 Transcripts http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN091214825X&id=faq3Bng7IeYC&pg=RA1-PA24-IA44&lpg=RA1-PA24-IA44&dq=%22that%27s+communism%22&sig=euXrX5FOsAMFM3BcT3cmzgFmKb8

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   Although her elder daughter, Jane, complains, “that's Communism,” Mrs. Hilton rents her own bedroom to a retired colonel.

   1992, Sylvia Whitman, V Is for Victory: The American Home Front During World War II

   ...[he] condemned Thurmond's proposal for its “totalitarianism”: “That's Communism....That's China. That's not America.

   1998, Joseph Martin Hernon, Profiles in Character: Hubris and Heroism in the U.S. Senate, 1789-1990