The mental cancer predates capitalism, and has also brutally manifested itself in parallel in socialist nations.

Stalin, Mao, the Gang Of Four, Honecker, Hoxha, Kim Il-Sung, Ceauçescu, Pol Pot... the list is dismayingly long; so many tyrants as fucked up as anything one could come up with in capitalist nations, and even more. They tapped into the bloodlust of the oppressed, to build a new apparatus of oppression, their generals covered in a hundred solemn yet worthless medals, those bastards sure loved the status and pomp, displays and parades.

These nations build walls not so much to keep a potential enemy out, but to keep their own people in. That should tell you enough you need to know about how life was in those places.