Individualism and the Cold War
The main reason for the cold war was because the Americans could not accept the lifestyle that the Soviet Union decided to live as communists. The cold war was heavily routed in American individualism and trying to impose our values on the Soviets. Americans value individualism. They believe in a society that associated with capitalism, and a thriving economy. They also believe that everything is possible and attainable with hard work and determination. The main priority is being individualistic. This is to make sure that everyone is in control of the way their own life will turn out. Soviets that followed communist believed in “social organization.” They believe in equality and liberty through force. All property is public domain and each person works and is paid based on abilities and needs. Americans were not willing to tolerate other people having to live like this. Aside from the cold war overseas, Americans also had internal fears that fellow citizens were turning communist. The fear during the 1920s became known as the Red Scare. Marxism, created by philosopher Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is an economic system that criticizes capitalism. Many often think of Marxism as a type of socialism. Marxism is the foundation that communism is built on which says that one should live in a “socialist, classless society” (Marxism). Marx and Engels wrote a book entitle “The Communist Manifesto,” which encourages the working class to overthrow the upper class. He makes a point of saying that Marxism is against capitalism because it is an exploitation of the working class. He believed that a socialist economy would work far better with a big population than would a capitalist economy. Another important idea of Marxism is historical materialism. Marx believed that history was shaped by people’s materialistic ways of living. A person’s will to survive is shown by their want to acquire things to keep on living. Marx and Engels were the first to predict that industrial