Why The Ideas Of Karl Marx Were So Radical To Society

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Why The Ideas Of Karl Marx Were So Radical To Society

The Communist Manifesto, written in 1848, provided the views of Karl Marx on humans and nature. For the time in which the document was written, the ideas of Marx were very radical to society. The ongoing struggle between the Proletarians( the working class) and the Bourgeois( the owners) prompted Marx to develop a solution to this social problem. His solution to this historical problem was to create a capitalist nation, which in the end would result in a Communist nation. He wanted to help the social status of the working class, because he felt that they were being taken advantage of by the owners. The document also discusses the role of humans and their interaction with nature.

Marx believed that society was beginning to break away from nature as a source of economical support. In the past, humans had relied heavily on agriculture to support themselves but with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, new technology began to replace old farming techniques and created new factory jobs in cities. Marx had rather extreme views on the extent to which nature in his time had become humanized as a result of human labor.[1] He commented that, “ Even the objects of the simplest “ sensuous certainty” are only given him through social development, industry and commercial intercourse.”[2] "Throughout their labor, humans shape their own material environment, thereby transforming the very nature of human existence in the process.”[3]

One had always seemed to know their role in society. It was Marx who believed that this was true due to a capitalistic economy. One’s wants and needs were different from society to society. For instance, a person with a higher social status would not have the same needs as a peasant living on a farm would. Marx felt that human nature could not be changed in contrast to what many economists believed. In a capitalistic economy, men were the ones who received the wages while women earned little to nothing.

To put an end to the ongoing struggle between social classes, Marx believed that a new form of government would have to be established, this he called Socialism. 4 He wanted to see the working class join together to fight the owners, for in order for a society to grow, people would need to begin working together.

Marx recognized the struggles of the classes, especially those of the middle class.

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