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Karl Marx2

Karl Marx2 No thinker in the nineteenth century has perhaps had so direct, deliberate and powerful influence upon mankind as Karl Heinrich Marx. He was born on May 5, 1818 in the city of Trier in Rheinish Prussia. His family was Jewish, but converted to Protestanism in 1824. Marx was educated at the universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Jena. At the University of Berlin, Marx was influenced by the philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel and by a radical group called Young Hegelians. In 1841, Marx received a doctorate in philosophy. In 1842, shortly after contributing his first article to the Cologne newspaper, he became editor of the paper. His writings in the paper were criticizing contemporary political and social conditions, which embroiled him in controversy with the authorities. Because of this the publication of the paper had to be discontinued and Marx went to Paris. In Paris, Marx adopted communist beliefs and was ordered to leave Paris in 1845 because of his revolutionary activities. Marx then settled in Brussels and began organizing and directing a network of revolutionary groups called Communist Correspondence Committees. In 1847, these committees were consolidated to form the Communist League, and Marx and Engels (another philosopher who was Marx’s close collaborator) were commissioned to formulate a statement of principles. The program they submitted was called the Communist Manifesto. A manifesto is a document which proclaims publicly the central ideas of a group or individual (Brians 2). The opening words of the Manifesto are famous. “Marx taunts his adversaries, saying they are terrified of communism without understanding in the slightest what it is. Since communism is such a threat, it must be important, and worth understanding. Hence the Manifesto” (Brians 3). The Manifesto’s propositions are that: In every historical epoch the prevailing economic system by which the necessities of life are produced determines the form of societal organization and the political and intellectual history of the epoch; and that the history of society is a history of struggles between exploiting and exploited, that is, between ruling and oppressed, social classes. (Marx 2 2) In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels declared that all history was a class struggle. “Under capitalism, the struggle between the working class and the business class would end in a new society, a communist one” (Marx 1 4). This document also analyses the realm of social life, the tasks of the Communists, and the revolutionary role of the proletariat- the creators of a new communist society. From this Marx drew the conclusion that the capitalist class would be overthrown and that it would be eliminated by a worldwide working-class revolution and replaced by a classless society. The Manifesto has been translated into many different languages and published in hundreds of millions of copies. In 1849, Marx settled in London and rejoined the Communist League and wrote two lengthy pamphlets; one called The Class Struggles in France and the other called The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. He was soon convinced that ‘a new revolution is possible only in consequence of a new crisis’ (Kreis 3). During the early part of the 1850's, Marx and his family lived in poverty in a three room flat in London. His major source of income was his friend Engels who was getting his income from a small family business. Most of Marx’s spare time was spent in a Bristish museum studying economics and social history and writing many theories. 1864 was the year that Marx’s theories started to take the interest of other people. One major group included a group of workers and German emigres who established the International Workingmen’s Association. In 1867, Marx published his first volume of Das Kapital and continued to write “treatises on socialism, urging that his followers disdain softhearted bourgeois tendencies” (Hewett 4). Many of Marx’s theories and ideas became known as Marxism or scientific socialism; yet Marx claims that he is ‘not a Marxist’ (Marx 3 1). The terms “socialist” and “communist” have been defined in a bewildering variety of ways. For Marx socialism was the more comprehensive term and communism was an advanced stage of socialism. Socialism would prepare the way by nationalizing the mean of production which were factories, farms, mines, transportation, etc. and putting them under the control of those he viewed as the sole producers of wealth: the workers. He felt that political equality was incomplete without economic equality. So Marx’s redistribution of economic power was aimed at extending democracy far beyond limits ever imagined. Social services like health, education and housing would be provided free, but people would still be paid wages according to their work. When all nations had developed socialist economies, they would begin to evolve their international communist society. This began to show signs of anarchism, which is a stateless government in which the central government had withered way. It is a system full of chaos with no order or ruled. Marx quickly rejected the belief that such a society could be set up immediately as utopian. People would need a long period of reeducation under socialism to condition them away from the selfish orientation produced by the capitalism. Many of Marx’s socialists argued that it was impossible to achieve communism by passing through a state which retained and even strengthened the centralized state government. Of course Marx did not agree and had his own philosophy. He felt that it was impossible to leap directly into communism from socialism. This statements are both somewhat true because when one gets accustomed to a specific form of government and the way things are done, it is very hard to switch to a totally different form of government. “The most common reply is that both are impossible because ‘you can’t change human nature’” (Brians 2). In many of Marx’s theories, he tried to prove that human nature had changes many times over the years and there is no such thing as a “static human nature” (Brians 2). He said that we are products of our environment and the economic system in which we live. “People living under feudalism are motivated by feudal motives and think them natural and fixed, just as people living under capitalism are motivated by capitalist motives and think those natural and fixed” (Brians 2). Marx says that sometimes people go through what is now called a “paradigm shift” in values, based on an economic transformation (Brians 3). This process Marx tries to sketch in the first part of his Manifesto. He said that if people’s values have changed radically in the past, they are certain to change again in the future. He felt that in a socialist society, it is very unlikely that people would always naturally become owners of factories because that is saying the same thing as to say that one can become owner of the moon. Although Marx does not address this in his Manifesto, it is important for one to understand why Marx believed that an armed revolution would be necessary to establish socialism. Because of the many things that had happened in Europe, he was convinced that the democratic revolutions had substituted one tyrant for another. The bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production) had replaced the old aristocracy as the rulers in the law as well as the rulers in fact. He felt that their slogans for freedom and equality for all concealed a determination to remain supreme over the proletariat or industrial laborers, which made up the vast majority of the society. Marx still felt that economic power was the ultimate guarantee of political power Bourgeois society was the result of those laws of social development which mad it inevitable that a certain stage of historical development one social class pursuing its own interests, should dispossess and exploit another social class. (Kreis 3) As a class Marx felt that the bourgeoisie are doomed to disappear without even knowing it because they had dug their own graves and had set themselves up for failure. Marx was sure of this because when he speaks, he does not speak in the name of human beings but of universal laws. “He seeks not to rescue, nor to improve, but to warn and condemn, to reveal the truth and to refute falsehood” (Kreis 3). The most important political event during the existence of the International was the Paris Commune of 1871. This came about right when the citizens of Paris rebelled against their government and held the city for two months. During this bloody suppression, Marx wrote one of his most famous pamphlets, The Civil War in France, which was an enthusiastic defense of the Commune. The manifesto is meant to achieve two major goals: to convert the proletarians and their allies to Marx’s version of socialism and to put the ruling class with the intentions of the revolutionaries. There are both good and bad sides of the manifesto. It portrays both hopes and threats. During the last decade of his life Marx’s health declined and he was incapable of giving the sustained effort that had always characterized his work. Over the years Marx’s traveled to European spas and even Algeria in search of recuperation. During these times that he was really ill, his eldest daughter and wife passed and this clouded the last years of his life. Marx’s wife died on December 2, 1881. On the fourteenth of March in 1883, the greatest living thinker ceased to think anymore because Karl Heinrich Marx had passed. He passed away peacefully in his armchair. He is buried next to his wife at Highgate Cemetery in London. Marx’s influence during his life was not great His influence increased after his death with the increase of the labor movement “His analysis of capitalist economy and his theories of historical materialism, the class struggle, and surplus value have become the basis of modern social doctrine” (Marx 4 5). Marx contribution to our understanding of society has been enormous. His stress on the economic factor in society and his analysis of the class structure in class conflict have had an enormous influence on history, sociology and the study of human culture. Because of Marx’s ways, ideas, thoughts and philosophies, he was the most hated and calumniated man of his time. Although everyone had there own opinions about Marx, his ideals, philosophies and works, both him and his works will most definitely endure through the ages. He is a well-respected man whom will never be forgotten. Brians, Paul. “The Communist Manifesto” The Internet. 1999. 1-3. Kreis, Steven. “Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History” The Internet. Marx, Karl 1. “Karl Marx” The Internet. 1999. 1. Marx, Karl 2. “Karl Marx” The Internet. 1999. 1-2 Marx, Karl 3. “Karl Marx” The Internet. 1999. 1. Marx, Karl 4. “Karl Marx” Encarta Encyclopedia 1993-1998. Microsoft Bibliography:

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