First off, I must thank you for your response to my post. Then, I'd seek your permission to ask you: Are you a communist ? If you say yes, I'd like you to clarify why you claim to be a communist. I believe I'm a communist because I'm all for communism. And I'm all for communism because I'm persuaded that It's communism, and communism alone, that can create a social environment that harmonises with the Principle of and is conducive to healthy and meaningful living, and because I want to lead a healthy and meaningful existence. I believe communism that's aimed at ' a classless, stateless, moneyless, communist (socialist) society ' is also for the Principle of healthy and meaningful living. If you're for leading an unhealthy and meaningless existence, you should find nothing wrong with squandering your money and time on silly and useless things like smoking, drinking, gambling, drugs, and the luxury of family life, none of which has got anything meaningful to give in return to all those addicted to these things. Then, what good reason justifies your objection to classes, private property, exploitation, deprivation, corruption, the commodity economy, the concentration of huge wealth at one pole leading to the creation of swarms of the poor and the penniless at the other, the greatest and gravest social injustice, namely the disgusting fact that the fact that in an unequal, class-ridden society, millions come into the world as poor and penniless to work hard and to be exploited by the rich and the super-rich few that lead a sumptuous lifestyle before the silly eyes of the former that in reality sweat blood to produce all wealth and luxuries but lead a hard and humble existence themselves throughout their life is NOT attributable to any faults or failings of theirs while the fact that the rich and the super-rich are born rich and super-rich is NOT attributable to any creditable acts or achievements of theirs, et cetera, et cetera ? Do you think you're truly opposed to the exploitation of man by man ? And are you aware of why you should be against the exploitation of man by man or the concentration of wealth in a few hands ? According to Marx's analysis, the capitalist, the owner of capital, who buys labour-power, a special commodity owned by the labourer, happens to be the legitimate owner of all the products of labour ( the use-value of labour-power ). ( chapter VII, section 2, Capital Volume I, P 188 ) Therefore, you cannot say that the capitalist mode of production is wrong, or that the labouring people are legitimate owners of wealth they produce in the capitalist mode of production. Nor can you claim that the concentration of wealth at one pole leading to the impoverishment of millions at the other, which reflects the very fundamental law of the commodity economy, is unjust. Further, the welfare capitalism ( i.e. democratic socialism ) has proved successful in preventing starvation deaths, and the working people in the developed First World enjoy far better standard of living than their counterparts in the backward Third World. So, what's wrong with welfare capitalism or democratic socialism ? You seem to have bracketed smoking, drinking, narcotics, etc, together with matrimony. But I view matrimony as far more obnoxious than drinking, gambling, etc, for the simple reason that supposing you're single,it's only you that suffers all consequences of your addiction to drinking, etc, but in matrimony, it's an innocent lot ( the wife and children of a married guy ) that suffer for NO faults or failings of theirs but for all faults and failings of someone else ( the guy that indulges in the luxury of matrimony or a travesty in its name ), RIGHT ? I do not know how much money you earn. But, I'd like to know whether you've ever thought over the fact that globally, well over 95 per cent of wage slaves do NOT earn so much money as to claim that they deserve the luxury of squandering their hard-earned money on drinking, gambling, matrimony, and similar other stuff. You must be aware that by the Oxfam's wealth data, there exist as few as 80 guys called the SUPER-RICH that possess as much wealth as 3.5 billion-strong crowd of the poor together do or that according to the Oxfam's study, we're NOT far off the day when 1 per cent of the total global population will own more wealth than the remaining 99 per cent will own together. Do you really think a true communist party ought to view drinking, gambling, etc as ' a personal choice ' and approve of spending money like water on such silly things by some members of the party in a world where millions, as you all know, are born poor to toil like beasts of burden and lead a hard and humble existence, an existence full of poverty, privation, and deprivation ? And what about giving and taking bribes and abusing power ? Should the SPGB view such acts as ' a personal choice ' too ? The point is COMMUNISM is FUNDAMENTALLY opposed to matrimony. For this reason, your indulgence in the luxury of matrimony is as much unethical as your indulgence in drinking, gambling, giving and taking bribes, et cetera is. Therefore, as I see it, there's really NO good reason for the disapproval of silly things like squandering money on drinking and gambling, receiving bribes, etc, if you approve of things as obnoxious and silly as matrimony, RIGHT ? A vegetarian or non-vegetarian dish does NOT belong, just because it happens to be food, i.e. something indispensable for life, to the same category as gambling, drinking, drugs, or matrimony ( none of which are needed in life ) do. A true communist party is NOT just any political party. and I feel I should bring it to your notice that there exists a basic distinction between a communist party and any other political party as well as between a communist and a non-communist. Could you tell me what you believe they are ? I'd also like to know why someone addicted to drinking, gambling, or matrimony should fancy themselves communist, and why the communist party should oblige them.