fication; a society succeeded in his mind when it could be viewed by future generations as correct and justifiable. Fate has treated the memory or Karl Marx with a certain irony; he has been decried by major world religions and many governments as completely not correct or justifiable (McLellan x).Marx's life and writings can primarily be viewed as a struggle between socialism, Communism, Marxism, or any other embodiment of his thoughts, and capitalism, such as that which is practiced in America today. In viewing this struggle, and in questioning which theory is correct, several important factors must be considered. First, the times in which Marx wrote were notably different from those times we now live in. Marx saw a definitively oppressed lower class of workers and a definitively oppressive bourgeois; at least, he painted them thus. In today's world, in capitalist, laissez-faire America, we see not even nearly the horrible oppression the likes of which Marx wrote about. In a country where capitalism is almost universally embraced, the levels of unemployment and poverty are nearly nonexistent. Capitalism has continually succeeded where Marxist thought has failed; except in the horrible working conditions in this country before the establishment of labor unions, Marxism has found little or no acceptance. This is simply because people are relatively happy with their situation. Capitalist society leaves room for improvement; the closest thing in today's society to an oppressed, degraded worker would probably be a fast food employee, and even that occupation is easily a stepping-stone to a better one. Marx's society, in all its glory, gives no such chance for improvement.Another reason for the supremacy of capitalism over Marxism lies in human nature itself. In Marxist society, ever concerned with the just and equitable treatment of every man as another's equal, no thought is given to that fact that people are not equal. A...
