I agree. Though firstly, I realize my views aren't often shared here, and might not be welcomed by some, but I'd like to state I mean no offense to anybody and this isn't an intentional attack on anybody's ideologies or beliefs.

However, it does seem to be that the word 'communism' is so often thrashed around, misused so flippantly... even by those that profess to subscribe to it.

Communism. To many people the word alone evokes images of oppression and misery, gulags and famines. They're wrong, absolutely and completely. But on the other hand you've got your Stalinists and your Maoists, those who hear communism and are so determined to reject the popular notion of its definition, to defy the majority of peoples' warped conceptions about it, that they themselves might go so far as to dismiss Marxism's most profound... most defining principles.

Isn't Marxism about destroying the state; the Masses rising up and taking control, establishing a dictatorship of a proletariat and from then mutually working toward full communism? Isn't Marxism about forging an egalitarian society? Distributing equally wealth and supplies? Spreading power over industry among the entire populace; not concentrating it in the hands of the few?

By these criteria, neither Mao nor Stalin nor any other leader professing to subscribe to theirs or similar ideologies are actually communist. The proletariat never took control for themselves, a new state took the place of the old one. To mutually work toward establishing full communism was never a possibility in these places because each subscribed to Stalin's policy of 'Socialism in One State'. Let me elaborate on that, and as a warning, this may touch on a few nerves, so bear in mind that this is only my personal opinion:

Socialism in one state inevitably leads to stagnation of one state. So it was with the Soviet Union, Kampuchea, North Korea, etc. After all, it's clear that communism will never be achieved as long as the people remain divided. You can not have communism in a state and as such it's not only idealistic to assume you can but downright ignorant of the nature of communism.