Freedom

I have been reading a speech by Lenin on the virtues of communism.  I guess it is a moot point when we see what the fruit of this belief was, but I did find what he had to say interesting. 
If there was a debate on what is the best form of government, communism or capitalism, I can image running down capitalism like he did.  It did seem to me he had his head buried in the sand.  He saw no good in capitalism and espoused communism as the answer for everyone.
He said things like, “the capitalists have always called freedom, the freedom to make money for the rich, and the freedom to die of hunger for workmen.” “Actual freedom and equality will exist only in the order established by the Communists.” “…the dictatorship of the proletariat is the forceable suppression of the resistance of the exploiters.”  Communism was a failure.  Now we succumb to dictatorship by a more subtle means.
It is easy to say in hindsight, but I saw the incredible disincentive of communism.  It seems to me, why work hard, why try to get ahead if I know that whatever I do will be absorbed into a central fund and evenly distributed to all.  I ask myself “why bother when the government will look after me no matter what.”
The sad thing to me was the government did not do a very good job of it anyway.  There were major food shortages, major starvations and shelves were often almost empty.  What little money many had was spent on self-abuse anyway.   Self-abuse though is not confined to communism.  It seems to be universal to all political systems.
I have said before what I feel are the virtues and flaws of communism.  I like that at the centre of the system was a caring for the downtrodden.   There was a desire that they were not exploited.  The trouble was, they ended up being exploited anyway by a different set of rulers.    People ended up being like sheep following each other, totally unaware that where they were headed was the slaughterhouse.
To me any form of government that needs to build a wall to keep its people in, is flawed.  It is as though the rulers know that if people had the choice they would leave.  The wall is not only physical.  There are places I would never go back to if I was a citizen of that place.  I may not know it, but I am seen as an enemy of the state.
There seems to have been a belief that all mankind needed was a different type of government and all problems would be solved.  Unfortunately, even the best government cannot solve all problems.  It is to me a human dilemma thing. The problem is humans.
I do have a hope, but it is not built on the belief that man will solve his problems.  I consider myself a fairly open individual.  I am great at cherry picking. Good ideas can be found in the most unlikely places.  I have read a number of speeches now, and there are very few I found to have no redeeming features.  However, the speech by Lenin was one of them.