Karl Marx And Marxism

Karl Marx and Marxism


     Karl Marx set the wheels of modern Communism and Socialism in motion

with his writings in the late nineteenth century.  In collaboration with his

friend, Heinrich Engels, he produced the The Communist Manifesto, written in

1848. Many failed countries' political and socio-economic structures have been

based on Marx's theories, for example the USSR, East Germany etc.  Many people

believe that Marxism is not applicable to today's society, as Karl Marx put

forward his ideas not anticipating the type of society we have today.  The

welfare state system has effectively nullified Marx's arguments, and made them

irrelevant.


     Karl Marx, born on May 5, 1818, died on March 14, 1883, was a German

economist, philosopher and revolutionist whose writings form the basis of the

body of ideas known as Marxism. In his youth he was deeply affected by the

philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel, and joined a rebel group called the Young Hegelians,

which contributed ideas towards the movement against organized religion and the

Prussian Autocracy.  Later on in life, he was influenced by the writings of

Ludwig Feuerbach, who wrote that God was invented by humans as a projection of

their own ideals, and that in creating such a 'perfect' being, in contrast to

themselves, mankind lowered themselves to lowly, evil creatures who needed

guidance from the church and government.  He said that, in creating God in their

own image, humans had 'alienated themselves from themselves.'


     Karl Marx applied this alienation theory to private property, which he

said caused humans to work only for themselves, not for the good of their

species.  The idea is further explained in the following sentences.  The people

who do the work in a capitalistic society own none of the means of production,

(ie.  machines, raw produce etc.)  that they use in their work.  These are owned

by the capitalists, to whom the workers must sell their 'labour power', or

ability to do work, in return for a wage.  The capitalists, owning the factories,

automatically have ownership rights to everything produced by it, and can do

with it what the will.  Because of this, the worker is
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