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Marx's pragmatism is also very appealing to me. Emotive appeals not only do not make much sense to me, they also do not tend to affect great policy change or sway societies. Marx argues for the same things that many of the humanist philosophers of the Enlightenment argues for, but he determines that this is the correct course not due to emotive arguments, but the cool, rational logic of money, which always speaks to people in power.
This is not to suggest that Marx was always -- or even often -- successful in implementing his ideas. Indeed, the Russian Revolution whose early leaders claimed so much attachment to Marx's ideas fairly well butchered the humanist philosophy at the core of Marx's economic and political ideals. He even got into disputes with others that were ostensibly of his view: "Marx had refused to join forces with the Londoners [...] until they reconstituted themselves as a Communist League [...] They were not willing to meet his demands" (Wheen, 112). Marx was a true maverick, committed to his principles and his thoughts and unwilling to compromise his vision of revolutionary change. Though he never fully succeeded, neither did he completely fail. His perseverance is another reason I respect him. Too many philosophers sit back and let government happen as they analyze and comment on it; others are corrupted when they are pulled into the system. Marx remained true to his beliefs no matter how unpopular they were with the wealthy, ruling classes -- and they were never very popular.
Another of Marx's comments is strangely resonant in the current climate of home foreclosures: "We have seen that the expropriation of the mass of the people from the soil forms...
Not that the reclaiming of property by banks and the government is exactly helping capitalism, but it is interesting how the capitalist method both comes from and, in this case at least, leads to the reclamation of property by corporations from individuals. Though he was an optimist and an idealist, Marx was also essentially a realist. He realized that money and power are and will be the things that move the world as long as we live in monetary systems. The system has not changed drastically since Marx's time; the problems are simply more hidden under layers of false equality and the empty promise of the American Dream. But Marx also knew that change would not come quickly; that it was worth fighting for and worth waiting for. Towards the very end of his Communist Manifesto, he makes this commitment to the future very clear: "The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement" (Marx, Sec. IV). I wouldn't mind keeping the struggle going.
Works Cited
Marx, Karl. Capital. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1999. First Published 1887. Accessed online 10 November 2008. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/
Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. 2008. First Published 1848. Accessed online 10 November 2008. http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
Wheen, Francis. Karl Marx: A Life. New York: Norton & Co, 2001.
Wood, Allen. Karl Marx. New York: Routledge, 2004
Works Cited
Marx, Karl. Capital. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1999. First Published 1887. Accessed online 10 November 2008. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/
Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. 2008. First Published 1848. Accessed online 10 November 2008. http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
Wheen, Francis. Karl Marx: A Life. New York: Norton & Co, 2001.
Wood, Allen. Karl Marx. New York: Routledge, 2004
His Impact The impact of Marx's theories was not as significant during his lifetime as in the 20th century after his death. Nevertheless, his ideas about class struggle were considered so dangerous by the governments dominated by the elite class that he was repeatedly prosecuted and exiled from major European countries such as France and Germany for propagating revolution. Besides his writings, he formed the Communist League and the First International
Cambridge; Cambridge, MA: Polity Press Devine, F. (ed.) (2004). Rethinking class: culture, identities and lifestyles. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Joyce, P. (ed.) (1995). Class. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press Reid, I. (1989). Social class differences in Britain: life-chances and life-styles. London: Fontana [Franklin-Wilkins HN400.S6 REI] Rose, D and K. O'Reilly (eds.) (1997). Constructing classes: towards a new social classification in the UK. Swindon: ESRC/ONS Wright, E. (1997) Classes. London: Verso Zbigniew, a. (1972). Karl
Wheen (1999), in his biography of Marx's life, argued that Engels had greater knowledge and understanding of capitalism and its dynamics than Marx, thereby making the very concept of alienation as an idea that originated from and was put forth by Engels, and was only expounded upon theoretically by Marx (75): Though he had already decided that abstract idealism was so much hot air, and that the engine of history
Both of them also realized the necessity of fighting poverty and economic want and did not believe that the mythical 'invisible hand' of the free market economy would do so on its own. They were also common critics of at least some of the aspects of 'Classical Economics' such as the Say's Law. There, perhaps, the similarity between the two ends. Being a conscious opponent of Trotskyism, Keynes was by
Karl Marx on the German Ideology: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels collaborated to produce The German Ideology, which was one of the classic texts generated by the two. Even though The German Ideology stands our as one of the major texts produced by the two, it was never published during Marx's lifetime. This was a clear expression of the theory of history by Marx and its associated materialist metaphysics. One of
The idea is that, eventually, as standards of living rise in Mexico, Mexican consumers will be able to buy all of the same kinds of goods now regularly purchased by their neighbors to the north. In the meantime, in addition to lower labor costs, the agreement also gives American and Canadian concerns access to cheaper raw materials, and an additional, migrant or resident, labor force of Mexicans, upon which