Communist party surges as Japan's economy withers

Leave it to the Universities to fill peoples minds with Karl Marx's theories without pointing out the problems, and unrealistic solutions proposed by him and his successors. Instead of Marx please see Friedrich List, or read Gerschenkron. Marx may have been able to identify some of the problems with Capitalism, but his analytical ability stops at this point and deteriorates into solutions that are baseless and unfounded in History.

What idiots! THe Japanese Communist Party is the most idiotic, backwards bunch of idiots (even by the winners in most Japanese politics) and their leader looks jusk like Doraemon but wiht glasses!

Let me make a broad generalization. Marx is wrong when times are good and right when times bad. Marx himself was not concerned with either good or bad times by themselves but with the way capitalism would create its own demise.

In bad times the demise of capitalism seems closer at hand. People are scared and look for alternatives. I do understand in the sudden interest in Marx. Marx makes sense especially at a time like this. But interest in the Communist Party? That is a surprise. I know it's been a Euro-style Communist Party for years. But still, there is something fuddyduddy and old maidish about Communist Parties. It's the best alternative around for now for those people looking for an alternative.

The CPJ is a reformist party. They are social democrats, not revolutionaries. Outside of fighting for justice within the capitalist system they have no clear vision of an alternative to capitalism.

To take a line from Lenin, the CPJ just might discover that the masses are more revolutionary than they.

communism is not about revolution any more. I find its ideas good, like no exploatation, protection of the weak and security. Unfortunately it did not exist, it is an ideal, a mirage.

communism is not about revolution any more. I find its ideas good, like no exploatation, protection of the weak and security. Unfortunately it did not exist, it is an ideal, a mirage.

That's right. Communism sounds good on paper, but put it into practice and you've got a monster far greater than what capitalism could ever become.

their leader looks jusk like Doraemon but wiht glasses!

insightful voting advice for the masses

The CPJ will lose more seats in the next election. These articles about them "regaining power" come out from time to time, but at every election they lose more and more seats.

They would win many more seats if they changed their name to something that doesn't include the word "communist".

the problem with communism is its worrying tendency to slide into dictatorship. at best you get a hellish bureaucracy. in truth, it seems that most communist states seem to be more founded on Leninism; Lenin hated the proletariat. he saw them as just a means to an end

I think the whole infatuation with whether capitalism will fall is misguided. Capitalism is the best economic system to harness our technology and investment for the greatest good; the problem now, is the dark side of the reliance on fiat money, money that is printed and printed and printed with nothing backing it up. A currency backed by gold would lead to more uniform economic growth with less of the mighty rises and corresponding falls.

Capitalism is the best economic system to harness our technology and investment for the greatest good

rubbish. capitalism is horribly wasteful.

Past and present communist systems appear to always require the implementation of a societal system of strict and structured control over its inhabitants to ensure that their abstract notion of group equality can be achieved thus preventing individualisms, self expressions, and other forms of personal liberties in order to ensure their systems survival. Enforcement of such policies by any system of governance is nothing more than a tyranny.

If I may leave a quote: ''Of all the tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.'' C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

"Marx’s Das Kapital is now available in cartoon form, and a surprise best-seller of the year has been a revival version of “Kanikosen,” a 1929 novel about exploited workers on a crab boat. That novel, too, is out in manga form, and is being made into a movie."

Coming to a bookstore near you soon, the condensed version of the above in manga form titled, "Communism For Dummies."

Communist party surges as Japan's economy withers

In other news, stupidity is on the rise.

I am wondering if the CPJ is organizing group tours to North Korea to show how a real life workers paradise works?

If things got bad enough in heaven, people would give hell a try.