Lesson 1: The Journalist: Marx
To understand communism you have to understand the person
Karl Marx asked the question:
How does a society protect human flourishing?
He believed that socialism as the humane ideal:
-system desires to give them a good life and no poverty
-break the trend of what he perceived as oppression and inequality
Broken, Failure, and Lies:
-altruistic goal doesn’t make a political system just
-the claim of communism that all people will flourish is a lie
-the marxist utopian schemes are an utter failure
-Marx saw this as wealth inequality when a business owner thrived
Ex. Andrew Carnagie obtained great wealth
America History:
-1789 George Washington was elected the first president of the United States
-Washington created three departments: the State led by Thomas Jefferson, the Treasury led by Alexander Hamilton, and the War led by Henry Knox
-the Constitution came into existence and has served as the basis of the United States Government
-late 18th-19th century during the industrial revolution which was built on people building private businesses
-Cities drew workers as owners became the center of life in the U.S. influential in politics
-factories
History: French Revolution
-On July 14, 1789, fears that King Louis XVI was about to arrest France’s newly constituted National Assembly led a crowd of Parisians to successfully besiege the Bastille fortress that had been used since 1659 as a state prison. This brought down the Monarchy that resulted in the beheading of King Louis XVI and his famous wife, Marie Antoinette.
What influenced Marx:
-social tension in the United Kingdom in 1818
-strikes: protested for higher wages, especially the cotton industry
-unions: workers organized a national union to support each other disputes
-wage cuts and unemployment: second wave of protests for parliamentary reform
-long working hours: people working up to 14 hours a day
-use of women and children: often used for less skilled operations
Karl Heinrich Marx:
-born on May 5, 1818 in western Germany
-He was the son of a successful Jewish lawyer and of German descent
-In 1841, he received a doctorate in philosophy
-In Paris, he was entrenched in radical thought
-This is when he became a revolutionary communist and where he teamed up with Friedrich Engels
-Marx came from a Jewish background and of German descent but separated by rights
-lived under the same laws-but not applied the same by class, race, distinctions, and differences between the rich and poor
Freidrich introduced Marx to factory life:
-found the class struggles as hostile camps: Proletariat (working class/collective) vs. bourgeoisie (people who control the means of production in a capitalist society)
-They co-authored the pamphlet “The Communist Manifesto” which was published in 1848
-it is asserted that all human history had been based on class struggles
-as a radical journalist-he focused on the injustices of of the Western world at the time
-took up socialist causes so he tried to be part to the revolutions, but ended up fleeing London
Late 19th century into the 20th century:
-Marxism faded away as the people viewed the communist movement negatively
-socialism was changing not need full communism with a dictatorship rule of the proletariat
-rise of progressive socialist movements
-Marxism would have failed, but then WWI happened
Marx Influence on the Western World:
Marx’s labor theory of value:
-the value of a particular product is determined the amount of labor put into that product
-this meant that capital didn't play any role in the value and that only workers created value so if they made a profit then they were exploiting their workers
-Marx believed that capital even though that capital is the machines workers use to a manufacture that are useful but doesn't add value
-capitalists take the value from workers for themselves
-there is a conflict between the capitalist and the working class
-critique that capitalism is morally profane with no value or deeper meaning into existence
-Marx also thought marriage was a form of ownership as wss prostitution
-social relations are inseparable from the mode of production
-he believed that capitalism lead to impoverishment of the masses-the richer get richer and poorer get poorer
-workers are exploited and alienated from the products they produce as the capitalists get richer
Manifesto:
-Part 1-economic production history materialistic-Darwin-classes in society-abolish human poverty-oppressive relations be put off-utopia-no longer work all day but has spontaneous creations-feel at home as human species as we create the world
-Part 2-abolish the family-no woman will be with a partner-instead all men and woman will be one community-you won’t have anything of your own-you won’t have kids of your own
-if you disagree with this no family then Marx would say that is a moral thing that has no place in my economic science
-marxism is a comprehensive answer to to resolving and eliminating all the injustices of political systems that don't allow for popular participation, economic systems that maldistributed wealth, and keeps workers in permanent state of deprivation
-Marx tackling fundamental questions of the human condition, equality being a huge, and inequality of souls
-he drew on another western tradition that is equally powerful again related to Christianity which is the notion of eschatology
-he pulled from the final judgment-ends times
Appealed or Rejected:
-the impoverished did not buy into his theories, but the well educated and wealthy group
-manifesto of the communist party found a place on the leftist side, has been in print since 1848 to today
-attracted people like mar-wealthy disenfranchise-not gain traction with the actual workers- appealed more to the university students
-working class rejected the utopian vision as their lives were improving due to being able to work, afford to provide for their families under the capitalist system
-upperclass marxist bought into the revolution and started their own revolution by violently imposing marxism onto the common man
Can you have marxism without violence?
-One side says that if you let capitalism play out it will naturally lead to marxism
-Other side is there must be violence. THere must be forced submission. People need to be fearful and terrorized, you need the oppressive dictatorship of the protariot guided by the part to get rid of the old society
-Lennon led a violent revolution
-he developed a secret police to oppress or take out his political opponents
-overthrow all social conditions
Results:
-freedom is to liberate ourselves from our own individuality and see ourselves as a larger community,
-communal freedom is a type of collective freedom
-requires the abolition of private liberty
-freedom means freedom from religion so we have to abolish religion for there to be true freedom so there must be a radical transformation of the human condition who must
-not just our views but scientific truths-fascism and Marxism is a profane liberal society-vs. natural laws, God's laws, Christianity
-full removal of fundamental teachings of the natural law, natural rights, Christianity, and the republican government
-promotion of democracy by removal of U.S. being a republic
-moral foundations profane and that there is nothing sacred-the society is profane
-stop thinking of ourselves as individuals and start thinking of ourselves as part of a larger picture that will usher in communism in its fullness
***what used to be called natural laws have become the science of wealth creation or distribution of wealth or circulation of money in an economy