The "True" Communist

Bernstein's situation and particularly his response to being blacklisted are truly fascinating because of how they are framed in light of true Communism. In a pure Communist society, citizens are not the owners of their work, and yield all their decision-making power to the government. The government tells you what to do for a living, where, when, how much you'll be paid, everything. And you have to do it, because they decide what is in the collective interests of society; what's in your individual self-interest is irrelevant, even (or especially) if your individual interest is to transition to a centrally-planned, collectively-interested society. Collective rights trump individual rights, and all members of society accept (or are forced to accept) the collective will.

So now we return to Bernstein. He held certain beliefs about what society and government should be. An outside source tried to silence him, under the pretense that not allowing him to keep writing would be better for society (all of society would be better off if we all just believed in democracy and capitalism, etc.). Yet he kept writing, using various different methods to keep doing what he wanted to do, in spite of the collective will to silence him. In doing so, I believe he violated his pure Communist beliefs. If he were a true Communist, he would have accepted the collective will of the blacklist writers, and ceased his writing. I find it ironic that a Communist, advocating Communist principles, had to use the capitalist ideas of free speech and an individual right to earn a living in whatever manner he wanted in order to maintain his way of life. By the same token, it is just as ironic that the U.S. government, representing a democratic and capitalist society, tried to protect the collective by silencing the individual(s) advocating Communism. A community advocating free speech should allow for even those forms of speech which condone limiting speech, such as Communist writings.