The Irrelevance Of Widely-Adopted Ideologies When Competing With Greed

Vietnam is, and will remain for probably some time, an outwardly Communist country. But for many of us who were doctrined in school back in the day, we wouldn't recognize it as a Communist country as it somehow does not follow the stereotypical model printed in our brains of what a Communist country is like. But perhaps this is because, it's not really a Communist country any more, only that the ruling - and only - party is Communist.

Supposedly under the Communist doctrine, all land is belongs to the state and thus nobody owns private land. This obviously isn't the case. Private enterprise (and trade) is not allowed under Communism, but this isn't the case either. And the more controversial - yet mistaken - aspect of Communism, its atheism, may be more similar to Western secularism - where the state does not interfere with religious affairs. A minority of Vietnamese still go to church or the mosque, a majority pray at some sort of temple or provide offerings to the gods. And Communism, becomes more like a doctrine or principle for the ruling party.

I can't even find reference to atheism on the Wikipedia entry.

And what has this done for Vietnam? The country is stable, growth is steady, development is planned (albeit slightly chaotically), people have jobs, people have enough to eat, and they're catching up with the rest of South East Asia (and even, I dare say, actually pulling ahead from the pack in some fields).

Does this have anything to do with Communism? Nope, I don't think so. It definitely does not have anything to do with the religions that the Vietnamese believe in, either.

But it has a lot to do with a smart and firm leadership of the country. Whatever principle, doctrine or religion you follow - as perfect or imperfect as they can be - it comes down to the people leading the country to make a difference. Evil and greed can overcome anyone in power, whatever path they claim to follow.

I am not saying what is bad or good, I am just saying that there are more pressing things we need to think about rather than a war of ideology.

 

Flame on!