Noble Questions

Severin,

Yours are noble and insightful questions. I had planned on covering communism in some depth in class, with a fairly broad Wikipedia handout to start with--you'll get it Tuesday. Since this isn't a political science class, however, it won't be necessary for our purposes to get into the intricate workings of communisim and socialism, but it sure would do us well to know about them in general terms. To that end, here's a helpful bit I found:

In very broad strokes, socialism is an economic system in which "the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy." In modern societies, socialism often attempts to eradicate class divisions. While the word "socialism" is sometimes used interchangeably with "communism," the two aren't the same -- communism is a more extreme form of socialism.

Communism advocates the "collective ownership of property and the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members." While communism is first and foremost an economic system, it's also a political ideology that rejects religion. And just as communism is a form of socialism, Marxism, Maoism, and Leninism are branches of communism.

The more important consideration, for us, is why the Big Scuffle over what appears as a benevolent theory? Do you have any thoughts on this?

To answer your second concern about the negative portrayal of war and the army: this class, as I envision it, is not a history course either, but, as the name implies, the rhetoric of the vietnam war. Which is to say, in layman's terms, how do people talk about and make sense of the Vietnam War? What kind of "arguments" do they put forth? I certainly don't have an agenda, but I looked for the texts that seemed most rich in meaning and complexity. And given how complex this era was, we're in for some pretty heady and emotional subjects. Your question is exactly the right one to be asking. With regard to FMJ, for example, we can ask what Kubrick's point was, how did he argue it, and why or why not is it successful. I promise there will be many opportunities to hear from different sides of the story. But it will be up to you to raise the challenging questions, either here or in class, when you deem things are being one sided. I look forward very much to having you in this class, Severin. Welcome.