Democracy and Communism

Our class discussion on democracy and communism got me thinking about a television show that I feel exhibits similar ideas. The Colony on the Discovery Channel is a sort of reality/survivor type show where they took ten volunteers and stranded them for ten weeks. The show was meant to create a scenario of what the world would be like after a global viral outbreak that eradicated most of the population and destroyed modern technology. These ten “survivors” of the global disaster are confined to an abandoned warehouse for shelter. The point of the show is to see if they are able to basically rebuild civilization and the necessities of the world we currently live in. They have no technology apart from a few working tools and are also given a small food supply, without running water, electricity, or communication to the outside world; the colonists are tasked with building such necessities as a shower, water-filtration system, and a solar cooker.

In the episode that I remember watching, the colonists are faced with a pair of outsiders who come into their warehouse and consider joining the colony. This challenge to their system really enforced their strong sense of self-governance. What I found most interesting is that it appears as though human beings, when left in such dismal circumstances where survival is the biggest issue, seem to resort to some form of democracy and communism to rule themselves. In class we debated whether or not communism and democracy could co-exist and I feel as though this show proves the point that they could and do in fact work well together.

The colonists on this show have varied backgrounds. For example, one man is a computer engineer and one of the women is a martial arts instructor. Now, in the episode I saw, the computer engineer worked on constructing a basic battery and sensory system that would work the solar panels the colonists had built so that they turned to follow the sunlight as the sun moved and also stored the energy gathered from the sun. This task was much more difficult than anything the martial arts instructor could have done for the colony. But when they sat down to dinner that night, each colonist was given the same amount of food and water. Each colonist got the same amount of time in the shower they had built. While the computer engineer was doing things far more beneficial then anything the martial arts instructor had been able to do for the group, he was not given anymore than the rest of the group, although some might argue he earned more.

In this sense, the colonists showed their dependence on a communistic society. Each one got the same amount of food and shared everything with the others. When they were challenged by the two outsiders who wanted to join the colony, each member of the colony got a vote in the decision which was a very democratic approach. However, instead of joining the colony, the outsiders wasted all their water in the shower and tried to steal some of their food; when this happened, the colonists banded together to stop them and forced them out of the warehouse. This show exhibited the perfect combination of communism and democracy in my opinion, but maybe such collaboration between the two would only work on such a small scale and in such dismal circumstances as these. The combination worked well for them because each one had a voice and vote and also did not want to be valued less than any of the others. In order to survive on their own, each one had to work for the good of the group, had to help in any way they could.

For more information on The Colony, video clips, or how to apply for season 2, check out here: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/colony/colony.html