According to Osho, there is no real difference: socialism is a diluted, first-stage communism—the same collectivist disease under a softer name. Both aim to erase individuality and freedom, abolish private property, and centralize life in the hands of the state. Renaming cannot heal it; state control breeds inefficiency, lethargy, and poverty, undermining human incentive and creativity.
Osho says socialism and communism are basically the same: putting everything under the government, which crushes personal freedom and kills the desire to work, even if one sounds nicer.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Another friend has asked; he has asked that... Osho, what difference do you see between socialism and communism?
I see the same difference as between the first stage of tuberculosis and the third—no other difference. Socialism is a somewhat pale, diluted communism; it is the first stage of the disease. And in the first stage the disease is not clearly visible, so it is easier to be taken in by it. That is why, all over the world, communism has started using the word “socialism.” The word “communism” has become notorious. And because of what communism has done to the world in the last fifty years, its respect has withered. In these fifty years, communism’s prestige has been dragged into the dust. So now communism has begun to use the word “socialism.” Now it talks of socialism and may even try to say it is different from communism. But there is no fundamental difference between socialism and communism—only a difference of words. Yet by changing the word we…
One sannyasin has asked: what is the difference between communism and socialism?
The next day, nearabout fifteen minutes before eleven, he became fidgety -- not knowing why. I asked, "What is the problem? Why do you look so tense?" He said, "I don't know, but something seems to be happening inside me." I said, "Nothing is happening." I took his pillow -- he watched -- and I put the pillow in my suitcase and locked it. He became more and more troubled. Exactly as it was coming to be eleven, he looked at the clock and he asked me, "Please give me the key." I said, "Why?" He said, "I want my pillow back." I said, "What are you going to do with it at eleven o'clock? In the night I will give it to you." He said, "No! Just give me the key!" I gave him the key, he opened the suitcase. It was exactly eleven; the clock was striking the…
Question: OSHO, WHY ARE YOU AGAINST COMMUNISM? I am not saying that somebody is superior to you and somebody is inferior to you. Remember it! I am simply saying that you are not comparable to anybody: You are you and the other is the other. You don't compare a rose with a lotus, you simply say that they are two different things. Two different individuals, although they are both human beings, are unique individuals -- incomparable. Marx gives this idiotic idea -- and it has been purchased by everybody all over the world: communists, anti-communists, everybody has purchased it; even the capitalists have purchased the idea that all men are equal. Why has nobody criticized it and fought it?for the simple reason that it looks very humanitarian. My God! Has something to be true or untrue -- does its validity have to be judged by logic or by humanitarianism?
A: They are not basically different. The capitalists and the communists are in the same relationship as father and son. Capitalism is the father, communism is the angry son, a son who has turned hippie. It is a by-product of capitalism. So first, they are not as antagonistic as it appears. Communism is a state capitalism, that's the only difference. Capitalism allows people to have capital separately, individually. In fact, that too is more of a show than a reality. For example, half of Oregon's land belongs to the federal government of America. Now what kind of capitalism is this? And they are making efforts to have the federal government own all the land in Oregon. The politicians' fear of our being here is basically rooted in this point. Other things are not real.
Osho, you have been speaking on several occasions against socialism, and yet I feel that in this commune the first experiment of an alive socialism is happening. Is this another of your contradictions?
THE REAL SOCIALISM can only be the fragrance of a commune deep in meditation. It has nothing to do with the social structure or the economy. Real socialism is not a revolution in the society, it is not social: it is the revolution in the individual consciousness. If many people who are going through an inner revolution live together, then there is bound to be a new quality. You can call it socialism; the better word will be "communism", out of "commune". Only a commune can have communism, but a commune exists only once in a while. When Buddha was alive a commune grew around him; he called it sangha, another name for commune. The meaning of sangha is: where the initiates have dropped their egos and are no more functioning like islands but have become one with each other, where a communion is happening. Communication is between the heads;…