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The political ideas of Karl Marx
Concepts proposed by Karl Marx
Marxism and its theories
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Bernie Sanders is a Marxist. Although Bernie Sanders is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, it seems that his platform and where he stands on current issues follows a Marxist ideology. His belief that there should be a classless America with a redistributed wealth not only undermines capitalism, but solidifies his stance as a Marxist. 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. …show more content…
Problems emerge when capitalists pay the working classes extremely low wages while keeping the profits for themselves. This system allowed the rich to become richer and the poor to become poorer. This situation would lead to the working class becoming enraged and fed up, finally coming to a head in the form of an uprising. This revolution would be called “Communism.” Furthermore, Marx believed that his perfect society is one that is both stateless and classless. Marx’s main idea was to free the lower class from poverty and create a classless society. Marx believed that in order to liberate the poor, the government would have control over the production so that the citizens would be equal, with no class distinction. Historically, this has proven to be easier said than done in practice. In the communist society that Marx described, the government has supreme authority through its total control of land and means of production. Because the government distributes land and property among the people, it …show more content…
However, fast forward to modern day and Bernie Sanders is exploiting the same problems that were happening during Karl Marx’s time except Sanders is trying transform this capitalistic environment into something else with the help of implementing programs and raising taxes to America to lower working hours and higher wages to even the playing field to give the proletariat the ability of financial freedom after some years have
Marx believed in socialism and that communism would eventually follow. He argued that social theorists and underprivileged people should topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change. This is the ‘change we can believe in’ touted by Obama.
Marx speaks of a life to be free from working for someone who receives far more from a group of laborer’s who are part of a lower class party. However, there is more to it. What Marx promotes is a take over of all industrial factories, or businesses. A literal revolution of the lower class, so that instead of the business owners reaping all the benefits by the “proletariat” doing all laboring earning little, they need to gain total control of businesses of production and share amongst themselves equally everything. Sounds good to the ear that there could be no more struggles for the little people who are doing all the work, making someone else rich, but Marx...
Karl Marx was a nineteenth century, German philosopher, economist, a revolutionary socialist whose philosophy known as Marxism became the foundation of communism. ”Despite Karl Marx stating social classes are the
Karl Marx, a German philosopher, saw this inequality growing between what he called "the bourgeoisie" and "the proletariat" classes. The bourgeoisie was the middle/upper class which was growing in due to the industrial revolution, and the proletariats were the working class, the poor. These two classes set themselves apart by many different factors. Marx saw five big problems that set the proletariat and the bourgeoisie aside from each other. These five problems were: The dominance of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat, the ownership of private property, the set-up of the family, the level of education, and their influence in government. Marx, in The Communist Manifesto, exposes these five factors which the bourgeoisie had against the communist, and deals with each one fairly. As for the proletariat class, Marx proposes a different economic system where inequality between social classes would not exist.
Although they bear some superficial similarities, the differences between Bernie Sanders and Karl Marx are striking. Both men are documented as socialist, however Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist while Karl Marx is the founder of scientific socialism yet both men strive to create the “perfect society” in which everyone is equal and class struggle is nonexistent.
In Marx’s opinion, the cause of poverty has always been due to the struggle between social classes, with one class keeping its power by suppressing the other classes. He claims the opposing forces of the Industrial Age are the bourgeois and the proletarians. Marx describes the bourgeois as a middle class drunk on power. The bourgeois are the controllers of industrialization, the owners of the factories that abuse their workers and strip all human dignity away from them for pennies. Industry, Marx says, has made the proletariat working class only a tool for increasing the wealth of the bourgeoisie. Because the aim of the bourgeoisie is to increase their trade and wealth, it is necessary to exploit the worker to maximize profit. This, according to Marx, is why the labor of the proletariat continued to steadily increase while the wages of the proletariat continued to steadily decrease.
In his Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx created a radical theory revolving not around the man made institution of government itself, but around the ever present guiding vice of man that is materialism and the economic classes that stemmed from it. By unfolding the relat...
In the Communist Manifesto it is very clear that Marx is concerned with the organization of society. He sees that the majority individuals in society, the proletariat, live in sub-standard living conditions while the minority of society, the bourgeoisie, have all that life has to offer. However, his most acute observation was that the bourgeoisie control the means of production that separate the two classes (Marx #11 p. 250). Marx notes that this is not just a recent development rather a historical process between the two classes and the individuals that compose it. “It [the bourgeois] has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, and new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie ...
The political philosopher believed that communism could only thrive in a society distressed by “the political and economic circumstances created by a fully developed capitalism”. With industry and capitalism growing, a working class develops and begins to be exploited. According to Marx, the exploiting class essentially is at fault for their demise, and the exploited class eventually comes to power through the failure of capitalism.... ... middle of paper ...
While Karl Marx developed the communistic doctrine that is still alive today, he took great inspiration from certain significant concepts during the time. Consequently, Marx’s doctrine was made up of ideas from influential people, such as Charles Darwin and G.W.F. Hegel (“Constitutional Government and Free Enterprise: A Biblical Christian Worldview Approach and Emphasis,” 2014, p. 117-21). When Marx passed, his legacy was continued by Fabian Socialism. Eventually, this type of socialism found itself in American politics, especially in the Democratic Party, where the numerous organizations influenced the party’s platform. Marx's communistic ideas infiltrated America mainly through the political platform of the Democratic party, thus resulting
Marx helps us to understand capitalism and the system in which we live in today. He argued that capitalism is prone to regular crisis and uprisings, and we see that when we observe meltdowns around the globe currently. We will, of course continue to live in a capitalist society, as opposed to a communist one, but with the knowledge that it is a system that requires intervention from time to time of political institutions. That is evident just recently when bailouts were needed to keep such institutions going during the economic recession of 2008, and which Marx predicted would be an outcome of this type of society. Marx is considered one of the most important social theorists of all time.
Karl Marx was a German philosopher and political theorist. He developed the socio-political theory of Marxism. One of his most famous works is The Communist Manifesto that he co-wrote with Friedrich Engels. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx discusses his theories on society, economics and politics. He believed that “all societies progress through the dialectic of class struggle”. He criticized capitalism, and referred to it as the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie". Marx believed that capitalism was unfair because the rich middle and upper class people manipulated the system and used it for their own benefit while we get the short end of the stick. We, being average Americans— like myself— who go to college full-time, juggle a job, and yet are constantly struggling just to make ends meet: the unappreciated, exploited and underpaid every day h...
Marx thought of a society that would create equality and bring power to the people. He didn 't expect society to be totally equal but a society with distributed justice. According to Marx, a good society is when there is no exploitation. To get rid of exploitation, we have to get rid of surplus values and make everyone equal. But Marx also knows that no good society can exist as long as exploitation is allowed. That is why some societies will want a Marx type of living and some will not. A society that has used and embodied the Marxist tradition is Russia. They have used Marx ideas and lived by the communist manifesto. This way of life worked for many years and to the people of Russia, it made a good society. But to people outside of Russia, people who lived in a democratic state or country, they looked at it as a failed society. A type of society that should not be allowed to exist in the world of democracy. But like Marx said, some societies will be able to live in a Marxist environment and some won’t. Marx also states, “ In a communist society, the working class will be more important than the capital class”(M 10-25-2016). By having everyone equal, this allows for class conflict to be no more and exploitation not exist. Marx knows there can be no good society but a Marxist society will do its best to form a ideal
He is known worldwide for his numerous theories and ideas in regards to society, economics and politics. His outlook on these subjects is known as Marxism. Marxism focuses on the imbalance and struggle between classes and society. Marx’s theories stem from the concept of materialism based society and the implications thereof. These concepts leads to the Marxist theory of the failure of capitalism. Marx had a number of specific reasons for the downfall of capitalism yet capitalism remains very real and successful. Marxism covers a wide range of topics and theories, but an in depth analysis of his criticism to capitalism and how it is not relevant to modern day will be explored.
Karl Marx was a philosopher, a sociologist, economist, and a journalist. His work in economics laid a foundation for the modern understanding of distribution of labor, and its relation to wealth generation. His theories about the society, economic structure and politics, which is known as Marxism led to him developing social classes. He later on showed how social classes were determined by an individual’s position in relation to the production process, and how they determine his or her political views. According to Karl Marx, capitalism was a result of the industrial revolution. Capitalism is a system that has been founded on the production of commodities for the purpose of sale. Marx defined the