What was the reason of extreme anti-Communism in the first half of 20th century?
score:6
I think you have mostly answered your own question here. Your answer seems to presuppose a sort of "binary logic", a belief that only one of your theories can be completely correct or is completely incorrect. I would also note that the only difference between the first half of the 20th century and the second half are the relative power of the actors involved and the ensuing history. In the second half of the 20th century the Soviet Union was able to protect an encourage those that preached its so-called "communism", likewise those who opposed the Soviets could point to any number of logical inconsistencies and fallacies that Soviet actions spawned. Prior to this socialists of all stripes were an embattled minority, on the rise in Europe and whose growing popularity increased social, economic, and ethnic divides. Not only was there less protecting this group, but the social uncertainty lead to increased fear of this group, and stronger counter-reactions than in the comparatively more stable second half of the 20th century. At that point there were two well defined "poles", the communist east and capitalist west, and thus a lot less uncertainty than the tumultuous and very uncertain beginning of the century.
Much of the anti-communist sentiment came from various places. Members of the monarchy and the status-quo in numerous European powers saw the communists as a threat to their wealth and status, although they might not have been entirely conscious of this, and may have likely been motivated by religious sentiment as well. In addition, members of the traditionalist elements of the proletariat and the peasantry definitely joined ranks with the bourgeois against the communists on religious grounds. The petty-bourgeois, which ranged in wealth from powerful merchants to small family run businesses, had both influences working on them and it did lead a number of that group into the reactionary ranks.
Classic socialist theory would say that the ideology of the ruling class (ie. religion, morals, world-views, etc.) are formed by the bourgeois to form the "superstructure", essentially the justification of their control over the "basis" element of society (ie. control of the means of production and capital accumulation). The traditional Marxist would say that your theories are not conflicting, but actually working in tandem.
Upvote:-1
I have one more answer. All communistm, anticommunist and others hartreds were not reasons or consequences of each other. They all were consequences of the same common reason.
Mass Cruelty
The level of inner agression and cruelty in the European society increased during the first half of the XX century. It started by the Britain concentration camps and blockposts in the South Africa. After that - The Great War. Practice of sterilization of socially weak people in "civilized countries".
"The improvement of the British breed is my aim in life," - Winston Churchill wrote to his cousin Ivor Guest on 19 January 1899 http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour-online/594-churchill-and-eugenics
Reasons of Mass Cruelty of 1900-1956
Psychohistorians think that this crazy mass cruelty was the result of cruel style of pedagogics during these years. I am not against it, but the cruel style of pedagogics needs its own reason, too. And I don't believe that it is a sole reason.
I think that cruelty came from the previous times. In XVIII century the cruelty was simply the norm. During the XIX century it was considered less and less acceptable in "the society", but didn't disappeared, People mostly didn't manage really become less cruel. The cruelty merely moved to concealed places and cases: family, socially weaker stratas and colonies. I am not sure that the citation is exact, but the sense remains:
"The true gentlemen won't notice what another gentelman is doing on his backyard".
The result
And at the end of the XIX century this moral relativismus struck back, lowered the visible moral level of the society (the real one was the same) and the cruelty returned back and empowered the society, that was unprepaired and had no mechanisms against it. And it continued until some social and politicals mechanisms appeared.
Upvote:0
The first, and "weak" dictatorship was in Italy. 5 years after devastating start of the communist regime in Russia and pairs of them in Germany and Hungaria. So, some people wanted to protect themselves. And further - agression calls for aggression, evil bears evil.
Upvote:5
Communism was an extremely polarizing influence in the first half of the 20th century, precisely because it claimed to produce equality between people (while failing to actually do so). Hence many "reactions" to Communism (e.g. Nazism), were equally polarizing and extreme.
A lord, newly converted to "socialism," said to his butler, "that means that you and I are equal, and you and the footman are equal." Whereupon the butler replied, "I am not your equal, sir, and the footman is certainly not my equal."
The "butler" (lower middle) class, was "more royalist than the king, more Catholic than the Pope." The anti-Communist doctrines were most popular among this lower middle class, because they felt that the had more to lose by being leveled "down" to people below them, that they had to gain by being made "equal" to the lord.
Upvote:5
Communism advocated worldwide revolution, and the abolishment of private property. That seems to be sufficient reason to oppose the movement. I can't answer whether that qualifies me as an extremist or not.
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