This very short essay, from the much longer “Critique of the Gotha Program,” highlights some of the key concepts of Marx’ ideas about the situation society would be in directly following the dissolution of capitalism. This is where the concepts of each according to his ability, to each according to his work, and “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” are formulated. These two concepts lay the foundation for the Marxist transition from capitalism, to a socialist society, and then culminate in the Marxist utopia of Communism. From a…
Marx thought it only a matter of time before the working class as a whole rose up and over threw the rich. That the line would eventually be pushed too far, that the workers would reach the end of what they were willing to endure. Bourgeois and proletarians, or the rich and the poor were in a constant struggle for control and that the proletarians would eventually rise up and take control of what was rightfully theirs. That the workers could and would take being ground into the dirt for the gain of others for only so long. Once the proletarians had taken control, the means of production would be distributed among publically owned corporations.…
Caitlyn Jenner herself was quoted saying that “the hardest part about being a woman is figuring out what to wear.” Many consider it stunning progress that we have successfully integrated transgender women into the pages of our largest magazines and onto our television screens. However, an identity for transgender women was never established outside of the traditional female archetypes that support the perpetuation of Capitalism. Dozens of transgender women, especially transgender women of color, have been murdered in the past year.…
This German philosopher was in the midst of many revolutions throughout his time. At one point, he was known as the spokesman of the ‘Communist Party’ in 1848, which signifies the kind of involvement he was intervened within at the time. Although Marx was a member of a wealthy family in which he utilized to acquire good education, he was a philosopher who critiqued capitalism. Marx attacks the bourgeoisie families and individuals who happened to be property owners or factory occupants, and critiqued these families and individuals because he believed as property owners; they would need to hire people in order to operate the property. His idea of discarding the middle class was revealed in the third idea of his book The Communist Manifesto.…
The Communist Manifesto states that she struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie always results in a revolution and eventual “ruin of the contending classes” (1). Marx clearly states that the…
Workers in a capitalistic society are destined to ultimately be destroyed and no longer viewed as a human with equal rights under God’s law (Marx, p. 23-24, 1844). Then and now people are reduced to being seen only as a tool that goes to the repair shop (Cortes, 9 Sept., 2016). The idea that the rich owe nothing more to the poor but the agreed upon wages, no more and no less just like paying for a calculator (Carlyle, p.146-147, 1843). That even their impending death does not entitle them to some kind of help beyond a contract (Carlyle p. 150, 1843).…
Imagine living in a world where no human oppresses another. Imagine living in a world where no one is poor and no one is rich. Imagine living in a world where the social class system is non-existent. Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, foresaw the image of this apparent communist utopia forming in every society; he expected the maltreated working classes to fight back against those who have immense, misused power. He believed that material possessions have a powerful enough influence on our lives to be considered the sole reason of historical change.…
In this essay, I address how Karl Marx in The Critique of Capitalism and Louis Althusser in the Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses demonstrate that institutional forces within capitalist societies have upheld the power dynamics central to capitalism, and the main driving force that allows this upholding to persist is reproduction. Marx explains that in order for capitalism to continue the reproduction of the character of the worker and reproduction of worker needs to exist. The feudal system, in Marx’ eyes, persisted only when feudalism was widely accepted and endorsed by society. For capitalism it is the same. Capitalism is in the very fabric of society which is why the reproduction of the character of the worker has persisted.…
The Horizontalist Movement in Argentina, Sabotage in the American Workplace, and the Occupy Movement in the United States can all prove Marx’s predictions to be authentic. Marx breaks society down into three important structures: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The thesis is the dominant class, antithesis the challenger, and the synthesis branches off to form a new stage of society. An example of this is back in the slavery era.…
Wetbacks followed people from south America and Mexico trying to illegally enter the United States. Due to their social location or, the group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society, they are subjected to conditions here in America we would never experience. Ana’s father could no longer afford to pay for tuition for her schooling so she had to be pulled from the 7th grade. In the US, school up through high school is free because with federal and state taxes we can afford to pay for free and universal primary education.…
Introduction When Corporations Rule the World expounds on how economic globalization has focused the influence to manage global organizations and economic markets and disconnect them from responsibility to the social interest of individuals. The novel notates the overwhelming human and conservational values of the struggles of these establishments to renovate morals and foundations universally to assist their own businesses. It also exposes how and why millions of individuals are acting to retrieve their civil and financial authority from this discriminatory potency and offers a plan for reestablishing fairness and delving economic influence in the general public and communities. The book outlines the damage that corporations have caused universally to our economic system, and the complexities of the structuring issues in corporate organizations.…
Capitalism, according to Marx, is a mode of production based on private ownership of the means of production. It is a system of social relations in which labour-power is commodified and the driving force of society is the accumulation of capital. Marx theorized that economic systems result in two social classes, one of which holds the power and uses it to oppress the other. In capitalism, this is the bourgeoisie, the capitalists, who own the means of production, and the proletariat who’s labour allows the system to function and is the source of the bourgeoisie’s power. As such, the social relations of production are antagonistic.…
Karl Marx presented Marxism as a way of understanding class divisions in the world that were based on the emphasis on materialism. Marx proposed a society without money or class divisions, diminishing the idea of materialism and capitalism, instead offering that equality in a society is based on how a society is run. Marx’s claims stemmed from an ideological perspective that individuals are more inclined to their wants instead of their needs, he offers that a society must work in a way where not just one individual but an entire society must give what they can to their state or government and take what they need not what they want. Doing this, Marx argues, will remove class conflict and monetary disparities. Marx idealized a utopia of equality for all, not just a certain few.…
The film, “The Edukators,” by Hans Weingartner is a drama about three young activists who believed that something needed to be done to bring awareness of the growing disparity in wealth between the rich and the poor. Similar to Karl Marx’s analysis of class struggle in capitalism, Jan, Peter, and Jules blamed their poor living conditions, and those of the lower class, on a greedy and exploitative capitalist system controlled by the wealthy; where low-wage labor is used to produce products that reap high profits for wealthy corporations, while the workers continue to struggle financially in meeting their basic needs and providing for their families. This exploitative social relationship that Marx and the three activists describe is in proportion…
The most fundamental and important of these conflicts is that between the Bourgeoisie (those who own and control the means of production in society) and the Proletariat (those who simply sell their labor power in the market place of Capitalism)”. (Theories, 2009) One of the reasons that the philosophy of Karl Marx and Marxism is so misunderstood is the connection that society makes to…