Idea is how people perceive the world around them. It is a very powerful tool, because it decides how people will live their lives. Some people even think that idea is what separates human beings from animals, because human can think rationally. People often regard their ideas as their own creation. They believe they can think for themselves. Yet, it is not difficult to find out that people who share the same background, such as nationality, age, class, and religion, often have very similar ideas on certain issues. Why is that? Now, people really need to think again about the origin of their own ideas, because some ideas are clearly not created by people themselves. More interestingly, as history moves forward, ideas change too. Just before
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For Marx, idea is not the force that drives the course of history. It only follows from economic events in order to legitimate and sustain them. Instead, history is driven by class struggle and economic processes that eventually leads to monopoly capitalism. Marx believes that societies are found by the relations of economic production, which is how people have organized social relations to realize a certain mode of production. Up until now, every society has an exchange system that benefits the ruling class, which is the small minority of people, and exploits the ruled class, which is the large majority of people. And this is a result of the ideas that produced by the relations of production. So, all of our ideas, value, theories, even some of our own human natures are created by the relations of production, and justify and reinforce the unequal exchange system that only benefits the ruling class. Marx states this idea by arguing that, “Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property” (The Communist Manifesto, 87). Private property is a very common idea of capitalist society. Today, almost every country in the world has certain cultures, laws, and moral values that emphasize the importance of private property as well as provide protection for private property. Why? Because private property is the foundation of capitalist society. The power of the bourgeoisie comes from their capital. But, in order to accumulate capital, they have to make sure their wealth is well protected. It is very important not only for bourgeoisie, but also for every ruling class before the bourgeoisie. Therefore, one of the commandments in the bible states that stealing is forbidden. And, that was written in thousands of years ago. Moreover, people should notice that certain religions, such as Christianity and Islam, have stricter
For Marx, idea is not the force that drives the course of history. It only follows from economic events in order to legitimate and sustain them. Instead, history is driven by class struggle and economic processes that eventually leads to monopoly capitalism. Marx believes that societies are found by the relations of economic production, which is how people have organized social relations to realize a certain mode of production. Up until now, every society has an exchange system that benefits the ruling class, which is the small minority of people, and exploits the ruled class, which is the large majority of people. And this is a result of the ideas that produced by the relations of production. So, all of our ideas, value, theories, even some of our own human natures are created by the relations of production, and justify and reinforce the unequal exchange system that only benefits the ruling class. Marx states this idea by arguing that, “Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property” (The Communist Manifesto, 87). Private property is a very common idea of capitalist society. Today, almost every country in the world has certain cultures, laws, and moral values that emphasize the importance of private property as well as provide protection for private property. Why? Because private property is the foundation of capitalist society. The power of the bourgeoisie comes from their capital. But, in order to accumulate capital, they have to make sure their wealth is well protected. It is very important not only for bourgeoisie, but also for every ruling class before the bourgeoisie. Therefore, one of the commandments in the bible states that stealing is forbidden. And, that was written in thousands of years ago. Moreover, people should notice that certain religions, such as Christianity and Islam, have stricter