Quora: Is the history of communism the darkest chapter in human history?
No. I confidently say this because communism (Marxism, really) is the symptom, not the cause.
Reasoning capacity is developmental, and humanity does not understand the process. The key step is free will, but that is a jib-door. It is invisible until you open it. Yet rational people build civilization, whereas dysrationality is tribal (collectivist). Humanity swings back and forth, from one to the other, in a horrible, peace-denying cycle.
Worse, civilization enables regions to momentarily support larger populations. This is fine when rational people are solving the problems arising from these populations, but when a stress event occurs (like a volcanic eruption or drought), or the population slips back into dysrationality, and societal wealth causes this (entitlement), the population is primed for conflict and misery. Nevertheless, Marxists are not rational, foreshadowing a problem.
Tribal conflict is the most serious problem, and dysrational people are tribal (e.g., Islamists). Marxists are plainly tribal (collectivist). Once, and there are echoes of it still today, Christianity was tribal. See the Thirty Years’ War. Yet, monotheism is also the way out: recognition of one, unclaimable truth. This, with free will, enables rationality.
Wikipedia – The Thirty Years’ War,[h] fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease, with parts of Germany reporting population declines of more than 50%.
Solve the rationality problem, and the misery ends. Hint: it’s free will and monotheism.
