Communes are silly, right?

Day 1,012, 05:50 • Published in USA USA • by Socialist Freedom Org



The following article is reprinted from Better Tomorrow. It is written by Konrad Neumann, a long-time eRep player and former two-term President of eGermany.


Stereotype of what communes are?

When we think of a commune, what comes to mind? eCOMMIES!!!!!!! Hippies!!!! Fringe leftist, and loonies. How so? In my past article about this topic, eCommunist Delusion, we explored that eCommunism is not RL communism. Some aspects of eCommunism use some philosophy of communist/ socialist theorists. But then again, capitalist use ideas from Freedman etc. for their theory so it really does not say much. Despite this we still have many people (either they did not read the article or did not understand the article) who commented on the real life horrors of RL communism. From the KGB to the MfS of the DDR, confusion of eCommunism continues to be a constant occurrence. This article hopes to talk more about the communes in eRepublik.

What is the commune exactly? It is an organization of companies where the members work for minimum wages or very low wages but they get goods like food in return. It is a self sustaining society that is focused on equality. The members work and the goods are distributed equally among the members. While it might be "unprofitable" for more experienced players, it is a valuable asset for newer players / members.



I talked with Radu von Schmotz, an eGerman member of the eGerman Commune and it is very interesting. According to him, it is a great system which has 45 members. While they work for minimum wages, they get Q4 food every day. For those who want to fight, they can request for a tank which the commune will provide (Q4). Does this sound like something which is very familiar?

Many nations, from eGermany to the eNetherlands, have state companies for the military. Especially in wartime, soldiers work for almost nothing to produce weapons, gifts (in V1) and food etc. for the war effort. The function is exactly the same in which service from the members are exchanged for weapons and food etc. For those who are not a part of the Bundeswehr of eGermany or the SAS of the eUK, most if not all militias function this way too in eRep. From the now defunct Camelot to the now very influential FSK (even with political connection in eGerman politics and possible support from Brazil and Serbia etc.) all in all it is a commune for militarists. On paper the difference between an army community militia and a commune is paper thin; however, there are differences.

The function of armies and militias is militaristic in nature. It fights and functions on the banner of its state or alliance. The goal of militias and armies is to win battles for the state. The goal of the commune is a lot more humane. The goal is to help the newer players with a means of survival and it is not about conquest or aggression etc. In the economic sense, you are either left or right, but regardless of disagreements on social and economic philosophy etc, I think it is very evident that communes are peaceful in nature and they promote construction instead of destruction.

In a way, the commune is more like a leftist political think tank that is sponsored by communistic parties like the PCP (Peoples Communist Party - UK) and the KPeD (Communist Party of eGermany). I think our CPNL (Communist Party of the Netherlands) also has a commune system up and running and if not, really soon. The communes are independent of each other but since their parties are in the Internationale, there are strong bonds with each other.

The commune is a political think tank so their politics might be different from that of many others. For example, most leftists regardless of your political allegiance, are against wars of imperialism. Many of them are not fans of either PHX or EDEN. Influential eCommunist like Radu said that they are against the eGerman war efforts in eSweden. They are willing to even help the Swedes just to prevent imperialism. Many eCommunist Swedes fought against Sweden in their imperialistic aggression on eGermany. So I do not see that the Communes or the eCommies in general are traitors like many people see them to be, but people with different focus.



I would argue that most people who play eRep view the state / alliance as the top goal to achieve. The state's goal is my goal etc. People fight for their alliance and their state.

Nationalism is very strong in eRep especially during wartime. From trolling like the eSwedish president on eGerman media etc the ultimate purpose for many players is foucsed on the state or alliance. To eCommunists and to the members of the communes, I would argue that the state is not the main focus at all. Rather it is their ideals. I am not saying the eCommunist and members of communes do not care about their nations etc for to say so it is a lie, but their views of success, victory, and ideal situation greatly differs from the more simplistic view of just "Hail PHX" or "Hail EDEN" etc. In their own way, they try to provide social justice and at times attempt to deal with ethics. That is why it is understandable that states and government do not really like the communist but like I said in eCommunist Delusion, they have a different view and a different goal.

So what is the "madness" of communes? Commune themselves are really non-radical in nature. As stated above, governments and militias use them. When states and militias use communes, it is called duty, but when the eCommunist do them, it is silly eCommies or fringelike. There is a definite double standards in this regard. All in all, the structure of commune by the state and commune by the parties are the same. They only have different goals and purpose. That is politics or ideas only. The structure itself is almost if not always a constant.

The main disagreement I would say is a philosophical one in which there is no right or wrong answer. What is the purpose of life? What does van Gogh's painting mean to you etc...


The goals of the individual or entities are subjective in nature and there is no absolute definite answer to such questions. Therefore, people can agree to disagree on the goals of the state, commune etc, but to say communes are stupid, fringelike, hippies, etc etc etc, in a way is making fun of the military industrial establishment of their state itself. Unless this person is willing to say their gov's military industrial establishment is crap then s/he is a hypocrite.

As stated in "eCommunist Delusion", this is eRep and not real life. eCommunes are not where bra burning nudists hang out and so forth. It is not the meeting room where they plan to burn down department stores or smoke weed. People really need to leave the real life stuff out the door and to really see what eRep institutions are as they really are. Real life might be a total failure, but in eRep I think the eCommunes and eCommunism is quite strong. They are definitely not for everyone, but it is really interesting to study them and a lot more intelligent and complex than what most people give credit to. It is definitely worth the effort to understand them.

Perhaps then you too will see the eWorld in a new light or at least understand the issues in a new perspective. Regardless, the eCommunes are not radical or stupid as most people tend to believe.



Konrad Neumann
Former eGerman President x2
Current Congressman of Northern Netherlands
eGerman Congressman x6
Party President of Open Minded Germany x5
Former eGerman MoFA from Aug-Jan 2010




Thanks to Konrad N. for permission to reprint this article!