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Marx's view of capitalism and communism
Karl marx theory on communism
Karl marx theory on communism
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George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara stands as a response to some of the different aspects of Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto. Shaw’s drama includes a deal made by Andrew Undershaft and his daughter, Barbara, to see which of their professions do the most good for society; a munitions factory or the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army and its outreach programs can be criticized for being socialist, utopian, and unreasonable, etc., but overall, their main goal is to save souls through the expansion of Christian religion. On the other hand, before her visit to her father’s factory, Barbara expects to see a number of sad, poor, overworked workers living and working in terrible dystopian conditions, but upon her arrival, she learned that she …show more content…
At one point in the Manifesto, Marx names and describes the various types of Socialism, and ends up listing one that sounds very similar to the socialist utopia present in Andrew Undershaft’s factory. Critical Utopian Socialism shares great similarities in its core values with the society existing within the factory. To begin, “In the formation of their plans they are conscious of caring chiefly for the interests of the working class, as being the most suffering class” (The Communist Manifesto 106). This act of caring for the interests of the working class is clear within the Undershaft factory as Undershaft provides different conveniences and benefits for his workers, which make up the working, suffering class. Next is the topic of class antagonism, which does not seem to be an issue within the factory setting. The Communist Manifesto reads, “...all these proposals point solely to the disappearance of class antagonisms...These proposals, therefore are of purely utopian character” (The Communist Manifesto 107). Within the factory, there is a lack of class conflict, and rather a social hierarchy in which each man knows his place and obeys orders from the man above him. This being said, The Communist Manifesto would argue that this is a “purely utopian” …show more content…
When asked if the workers obeyed his orders, Undershaft replies that, “‘I never give them any orders’” (Major Barbara 143). Later, he goes on to say that they keep discipline amongst themselves, and he does not have to intervene to provide disciplinary action. Amongst the men there is a social hierarchy in which there is no bullying, and order is kept because all workers will drive those who are below them on the hierarchy. (Major Barbara 143). This idea of a social hierarchy and the driving of one group of workers by the worker above them without being ultimately ruled by a tyrant seems to resonate with the idea of Utopian Socialism put forth in Marx’s Manifesto, “...the proclamation of social harmony...These proposals, therefore, are of purely utopian character” (The Communist Manifesto 107). Overall, Undershaft’s management system seems to keep the peace between workers, keep morale high, but also provide him with a very high
In The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the two German philosophers saw history as the struggle between the working class and the Bourgeois, or middle class (textbook 708). The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848, during the peak of the Industrial Revolution, a time when the Bourgeois made huge profits in manufacturing at the expense of the working class. According to Marx and Engels, the fruits of the Industrial Revolution created a new class of the oppressed modern working class, the Proletariat, which had never before existed because it was neither like serfdom or slave hood in that it was dependent on the Bourgeois to hire them for wage labor. This was the class the two philosophers envisioned would set off a revolution that would overthrow capitalism to end the perpetual class struggle and create a fair society known as Communism.
Modern industry has replaced the privately owned workshop with the corporate factory. Laborers file into factories like soldiers. Throughout the day they are under the strict supervision of a hierarchy of seemingly militant command. Not only are their actions controlled by the government, they are controlled by the machines they are operating or working with, the bourgeois supervisors, and the bourgeois manufacturer. The more open the bourgeois are in professing gain as their ultimate goal, the more it condemns the proletariat.
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.
Marx believes there is a true human nature, that of a free species being, but our social environment can alienate us from it. To describe this nature, he first describes the class conflict between the bourgeois and the proletariats. Coined by Marx, the bourgeois are “the exploiting and ruling class.”, and the proletariats are “the exploited and oppressed class” (Marx, 207). These two classes are separated because of the machine we call capitalism. Capitalism arises from private property, specialization of labor, wage labor, and inevitably causes competition.
Socialism as defined by the parameters of the post revolution into the pre industrial period was the nearly universally marked by the race to empower the working class. Yet, within this broad definition of socialism, Karl Marx, Gracchus Babeuf, and Robert Owen differ in their views of a utopian society and how it should be formed. It was to be their difference in tradition that caused their break from it to manifest in different forms. Although they had their differences in procedure and motive, these three thinkers formed a paradigm shift that would ignite class struggle and set in motion historical revolutions into the present. Within their views of a utopian community, these men grappled with the very virtues of humanity: greed versus optimism.
The Communist Manifesto responded to the situation and created a vision of an equal communist society. The Communist Manifesto was defined by the abolishment of the bourgeois sovereign rule that followed a revolution against capitalism to create communism. This is because it allowed for the emergence of the powerful Bourgeoise, "In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.” As Marx explained, the Bourgeois exploited the Proletariats through the means of the long hours the laborers had to endure to receive very low wages, which maximized Bourgeois profits.
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...
The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848, a period of political turmoil in Europe. Its meaning in today’s capitalistic world is a very controversial issue. Some people, such as the American government, consider socialism taboo and thus disregard the manifesto. They believe that capitalism, and the world itself, has changed greatly from the one Marx was describing in the Manifesto and, therefore, that Marx’s ideas cannot be used to comprehend today’s economy. Others find that the Manifesto highlights issues that are still problematic today. Marx’s predicative notions in the Communist Manifesto are the key to understanding modern day capitalism.
Marx expressed many views about the over empowerment of the bourgeoisies in The Communists Manifesto. Marx believed that the working class was not getting paid what they deserved for the quality of work that they were producing. Marx thought that the all workers should be paid the same rather than by social position. For instance, Marx thought that a mineworker should be paid as much as a doctor. Marx states, ?The average price of w...
Karl Marx noted that society was highly stratified in that most of the individuals in society, those who worked the hardest, were also the ones who received the least from the benefits of their labor. In reaction to this observation, Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto where he described a new society, a more perfect society, a communist society. Marx envisioned a society, in which all property is held in common, that is a society in which one individual did not receive more than another, but in which all individuals shared in the benefits of collective labor (Marx #11, p. 262). In order to accomplish such a task Marx needed to find a relationship between the individual and society that accounted for social change. For Marx such relationship was from the historical mode of production, through the exploits of wage labor, and thus the individual’s relationship to the mode of production (Marx #11, p. 256).
Despite their different approaches, both theories conclude in universal equality, a real equality between humans that has never before been observed in any lasting civilization. While both theories operate on reason and seem to be sound, they remain unproven due to their contingency on various factors of time and place, but mainly on their prerequisite of incorruptibility. Now, while both theories may very well have the odds dramatically stacked against their favor, I believe they must be thoroughly dissected for their content before attempting to condemn them to utopianism. 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 relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, Marx is able to outline a repeating variable....
The second section of The Communist Manifesto is the section in which Karl Marx attempts to offer rebuttals to popular criticisms of his theory of governance. These explanations are based upon the supposition that capitalists cannot make informed observations upon communism as they are unable to look past their capitalist upbringing and that capitalists only seek to exploit others. Though the logic behind these suppositions are flawed, Marx does make some valid points concerning the uprising of the proletariat.
The first section of the Communist Manifesto describes the history of all society as the history of class conflicts. Claiming, that every society is essentially divided into, the oppressors and the oppressed. Furthermore, Marx adds, in the past, societies were organized in more complex combinations and hierarchies, but modern society is being split into two ‘hostile camps’. There has always been a continuous conflict between the different classes; the end result of these conflicts is always, either the total suppression of the oppressed classes, or a revolution, which leads to an overhaul of society. He blames the cause for the separation of modern society into only two groups, on the fall of feudalism. These new class antagonisms are between the proletariat, and the bourgeoisie.
Andrew Undershaft and Alfred Doolittle, two characters from Bernard Shaw's plays Major Barbara and Pygmalion, have a similar nature but strikingly different views of morality and poverty. Undershaft is an "unashamed" capitalist, and nothing clouds his view of his business plans. Doolittle is a man who would much rather have a life of poverty than be troubled with the responsibility of being well-off. Although their perspectives differ, they both live for themselves.
Marx explained how employers can exploit and alienate their workers; this is described in more detail and is known as ‘the labour’. theory of value’. Marx also goes on to explain how in a business. falling rate of profit can lead to an inevitable crisis, revolutions. can emerge and then finally lead to the socialist state.