Welcome to CHSBS! | Central Michigan University. Karl Marx. Retrieved January 27, 2014, from http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/fattah/COURSES/modernthought/marx.htm
"SOCY 151 - Lecture 12 - Marx's Theory of History." Open Yale Courses. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
...nt the works of Marx. The result became a system where emotion triumphed over practicality, and the central message was blurred by the overthrow of the old regime. Thus, Lenin followed Marx in the general ideas of socialism, where everyone was equal under the law, and worked for each other and the common good. While Lenin’s system did manage to create a proletariat class, it also evoked the formation of the corrupt and power hungry Bolshevik Party. With regard to the Populists and Anarchists, Lenin was transformed into a revolutionary who would not stop at anything in the pursuit of Communism. Furthermore, Lenin followed to a lesser extent the Social Democrats and their views on the threat of the peasantry if they were not properly maintained. It is clearly evident that in following other philosophies, Lenin mutated Communism into a form unrecognizable to true Marxism
Karl Marx is most often recognized as a radical who wanted to overthrow capitalism. Marx’s ideals came about at the start of the English Industrial Revolution and many believe that he was an evil radical who did not contribute to society. Marx’s most important contribution, however, was his analysis and critique of capitalism. Karl Marx was a man seeking justice, even though he ultimately created chaos in the process. He believed that in order to understand a society we must understand the society’s industry and structure of employment. In other words, Marx believed that all aspects of any society grew out of its economic base.
Karl Marx is often called the father of communism, but his life entailed so much more. He was a political economist, philosopher, and idea revolutionist. He was a scholar that believed that capitalism was going to undercut itself as he stated in the Communist Manifesto. While he was relatively ambiguous in his lifetime, his works had tremendous influence after his death. Some of the world’s most powerful and most populace countries follow his ideas to this day. Many of history’s most eventful times were persuaded by his thoughts. Karl Marx was one of the most influential persons in the history of the world, and a brief history of his life will show how he was able to attain many of his attitudes.
Karl Marx was a German philosopher who had an idea of revolution in the context of society. The purpose of these changes would be the ultimate creation of an ideal society in his mind. However, his ideas were not well received by his home country and he was forced to leave. Marx defined his ideas by examining mankind’s historical power struggle between those who hold wealth and power and those who do not.
Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Robert C. Tucker. The Marx-Engels reader . 2d ed. New York: Norton, 1978. Print.
Marx’s ideas of communism grew from a time of turmoil and change such as had not been experienced previously in the world. The industrial revolution saw mass produced low quality work and a disconnection from both life and the natural beauty in the world. There were numerous responses to the societal upheaval, from the realist painters who unapologetically painted the harsh realties of the time, to Ruskin and Morris who worried people were becoming machine like themselves and pushed for a return to the traditional trades and held a nostalgic desire for the past, to Karl Marx who looked for a better society as a whole. The main ideas of communism, that everyone should share equally in labor and the fruits of the labor, as well as share in the decisions, were of a different world than that of the industrialized world of the 18th century.
Did you know that while Karl Marx popularized and became the face of European Socialism and thus Marxism through his books and propaganda pieces, he was not and did not think of himself as a Marxist? This is stated in a letter Marx wrote to a friend in which he clarified, "I know only one thing, I am not a Marxist." Karl Marx was a profoundly outspoken writer and activist for socialism and soon became the face of socialism through his bold critiques of economy that would unfortunately lead him to being expelled from both Paris and Belgium. What really elevated him to becoming the poster child of the socialism movement was the book cowritten by him and one of his closest colleagues Friedrich Engels.
Karl Marx was an idealist. He observed the cruelties and injustices that the poor working class endured during the period of industrial revolution, and was inspired to write of a society in which no oppression existed for any class of people. Marx believed in a revolution that would end socialism and capitalism, and focus on communist principles. The Manifesto of the Communist Party, written by Karl Marx and edited by Frederick Engels, describes the goals of the communist party for ending exploitation of the working class and creating a society in which there is equality in society without social classes.1
Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Robert C. Tucker. The Marx-Engels reader. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1978. Print.
Wherever Karl Marx went, he fought for what he believed in. He would organize workers’ movements as well as edit radical, communist newspapers. Marx and his family would get kicked out of the places he lived because of these things, but they never stopped him. Marx spent several years writing Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto, which were about how capitalism will fall and why communism will be successful. Marx’s society was separated into two main groups, the capitalists and the proletariats. And he said that, in a capitalist society, workers would be making subsistence level wages while the capitalists would be receiving a majority of the income. Another one of Marx’s ideas is that the greedy capitalists will do anything they can to
Although it at first had little impact on the varied revolutionary movements of the mid-19th century Europe, the Communist Manifesto was to become one of the most widely read and discussed documents of the 20th century. Marx sought to differentiate his brand of socialism from others by insisting that it was scientifically based in the objective study of history, which he saw as being a continuous process of change and transformation. Just as feudalism had naturally evolved into mercantilism and then capitalism, so capitalism would inevitably give way to its logical successor, socialism as the necessary result of class struggle. Marx's insistence that tough-minded realism should replace the utopian idealism of earlier socialists had profound consequences: it enabled revolutionaries like Lenin to be put it into action, but it also tended to encourage its followers to accept ruthless means to justify what they believed were historically necessary ends. Radical politics were being much more widely discussed than the small number of radicals justified; but Marx uses this fact to his advantage by proclaiming that any ideology so feared must be important and worth explaining clearly. In the notes, "Marx" is used as shorthand for both Marx and Engels. The Manifesto was originally issued in several languages, including an English version.
In the modern industrial age of Karl Marx, the bourgeoisie perpetually revolutionize the instruments of production, altering relations of production, and most importantly, the relationship of human beings to the rest of society. In this revolutionizing, the bourgeoisie produce greater surpluses, but also their own grave-diggers, alienating the class that will revolt to reclaim their individual identities as human beings. For Marx, this change requires only time, and as the proletariat begin to realize the injustices of their positions in society, they will begin to recognize the necessity for revolution. The victory of the proletariat and the fall of the bourgeoisie are equally inevitable.
Marx, Karl, and David McLellan. Karl Marx: selected writings. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.