Karl Marx To Socialism example essay topic

Marx was the best hated and most calumniated man of his time. Governments, both absolutist and republican, deported him from their territories. Bourgeois, whether conservative or ultra-democratic, vied with one another in heaping slanders upon him. All this he brushed aside as though it were a cobweb, ignoring it, answering only when extreme necessity compelled him. And he died beloved, revered and mourned by millions of revolutionary fellow workers -- from the mines of Siberia to California, in all parts of Europe and America -- and I make bold to say that, though he may have had many opponents, he had hardly one personal enemy. His name will endure through the ages, and so also will his work.

-Friedrich Engles (Marx's eulogy) A LITTLE BACKGROUND INFORMATION Karl Marx has been described as a philosopher, social scientist, historian, and revolutionary. His Socialist beliefs have come to be regarded as some of the most influential and radical theories that continue to be vigorously studied to this day. On May 15, 1818, Karl Heinrich Marx was born in Trier, Germany to Hirschel and Henrietta Marx. Karl's family lived a comfortable middle-class life because of Hirschel's career as a lawyer. Due to his profession, Hirschel decided to convert from his Jewish beliefs to the Protestant religion in order to avoid anti-Semantism and protect his family. In fact, Hirschel also changed his name to Heinrich.

Karl Marx attended school in Trier from 1830 to 1835 before beginning his law studies at Bonn University. Marx, however, spent more time socializing than studying, so his father insisted that he transfer to Berlin University. Here, the absence of distractions led Marx to change his attitude. He buckled down and took his studies more seriously.

In 1838, Karl's father passed away leaving a young Marx on his own to earn a living. Karl became a university lecturer and completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Jena in philosophy in 1841. In 1843, Karl Marx married his true love, Jenny von Westphalen, daughter of Baron von Westphalen, a prominent member of Trier society. Throughout their lives, Jenny and Karl had 6 children, but only 3 survived. Marx's radical beliefs resulted in the family being forced to move from country to country. They suffered much hardship due to Karl's inconsistent income and lived much of their life in poverty.

In 1852, a Prussian police officer visited the family and reported that they did not own a single piece of furniture. Despite the adversity, Jenny loved her husband. She said the happiest times of her life were spent helping her husband with his work by copying his articles in their little study. MARX'S PHILOSOPHIES Karl Marx defined the Communist movement. Marx believed the Capitalist class exploited the proletariat (working class) and that these oppressed individuals would eventually be the "emancipators of society". He thought it necessary for the workers to grab hold of political power by force and obliterate the Capitalist status.

Marx believed society was in need of a revolutionary transformation and dedicated his life to the pursuit of this dream. He alleged that private property was the scourge of society and needed to be eliminated at all costs. Marx stated that private property was dehumanizing and caused people to work only for themselves, as opposed to for the good of society as a whole. Marx also had a Labor Theory of Value, in which he stated that the laws of Capitalism would bring about its own demise. This theory will be more thoroughly discussed in the later analysis of Marx's Das Kapital. INFLUENCES When Karl Marx studied at Berlin University, he met Bruno Bauer, a man who radically altered his ways of thinking.

Bauer introduced Marx to the philosophies of G.W.F. Hegel. Hegel had a theory that a thing could not be separated from its opposite. He argued that unity could be achieved by the equalizing of all opposites i.e. the rulers and the oppressed. Marx joined a radical group known as the Young Hegelians. Members applied Hegelian ideals to a movement against the Prussian despotism and organized religion. Through his study of Hegelian Dialects, Marx developed his theories about the importance of history and its circumstances in the creation of new ideas.

Another influence, Moses Hess introduced Karl Marx to Socialism. He enlightened Marx as to the sufferings of the working class and how Socialism could bring their misery to an end. Hess's beliefs sparked something inside of Marx and inspired him to explore them further. Perhaps the most important influence in Marx's life, Friedrich Engels, contributed greatly to Marx's success.

Both shared the same beliefs and became life long friends. They were a perfect pair. Engels had an ability to write for a mass audience whereas Marx had a profound understanding of difficult abstract concepts. They worked together on publications and Engels financially supported Marx and his family during rough times.

At one point, Engels sent postal orders of notes cut in half to Marx's family in order to help them survive. PUBLICATIONS Shortly after college, in 1842, Marx began writing for The Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne. In his first article, he defended the freedom of the press. This article was so impressive that Marx was soon named the editor of the newspaper.

Although, the paper was viewed as liberal, Marx's increasingly radical articles proved to be too extremist even for them. Marx wrote a piece on the persecution and extreme poverty of winegrowers in the Mosel district of France. This article was critical of the government and resulted in the closing of The Rheinische Zeitung in January 1843 by Prussian officials. Rumors began to spread of the possible arrest of Marx due to the article, so he and his new wife moved to France. In France, Marx became the editor of Franco-German Annals, a new political journal. In one article, Marx applied Hegel's Dialectic Theory to his observations of Paris.

The publication of this article in February 1844 led to the journal being banned in Germany. The owner of the journal also disagreed with the article's attack on Capitalism and Marx was once again out of work. In 1844, Marx wrote a work that developed his theory of alienation. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts identified three types of alienation in a Capitalist system. The first is that the worker is alienated from that which he produces. The second states that the worker is alienated from himself because he is only truly himself when he is not working.

The third type is the alienation of people from each other. Capitalism is competitive and people are set against one another. Marx believed that Communism was the only way man would be able to fulfill "his potentialities as a human". He stated that in a Communist society, people could freely develop their nature in cooperative production. This work remained unpublished until the 1930's, as most of Marx's works were released posthumously. Once again, Marx was expelled.

He was forced to leave Paris at the end of 1844 and relocated to Brussels. At the time, Belgium permitted far greater freedom of expression that any other European country. In 1845, Marx collaborated with long time friend Friedrich Engels on a book. The Holy Family criticized the rage of the times, The Young Hegelians, for their emphasis on alienation. Marx's next work, The German Ideology, stemmed from some notes he took on the Theses on Feuerbach.

He expanded his observations into a book in which Marx developed his materialistic conception of history. This theory was based on human activity. He argued that social and economic forces determined human thought especially in regards to production. A method of investigation known as Dialectical Materialism came to light in this work. It stated that changes in society would occur due to a clash of historical forces. In this book, Marx predicted the replacement of industrial Capitalism by Communism.

The German Ideology was also published posthumously. During the composition of The German Ideology, Marx wrote The Poverty of Philosophy, a polemic that refuted P.J. Prouden's idealistic Socialism. One of Karl Marx's most famous publications is undoubtedly The Communist Manifesto. Marx was a member of the Communist League and he and Engels wrote the manifesto at the request of the organization. This work was to be a declaration of principles for the Communist League.

Engels was involved in the drafting of the document, but insisted that "the actual composition was the work of Marx alone, and his readiness to put Engels's name also on the title page was a remarkable example of intellectual generosity". Marx finished the 12,000-word pamphlet in 6 weeks. Unlike Marx's other works, The Communist Manifesto was written for a mass audience. It was a more clear-cut account of Communist theory. The Communist Manifesto predicted a revolution in which the proletariat would come to represent Communist society.

The opening line of the manifesto states, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles". Marx emphasized the importance of examining clashes between the ruling and oppressed social classes. Marx believed that if the bourgeoisie were to be eliminated, the existence of a class society would also disappear along with private property. The Communist Manifesto was published in February 1984 and shortly after its release, Marx was exiled from Belgium. Marx returned to Cologne where he and Engels founded their own radical newspaper, the Neu Rheinische Zeitung, with a goal of encouraging revolutionary activity. Soon after, Marx was arrested for incitement to armed insurrection and the paper was banned.

Marx was acquitted but he was expelled from Germany. Later that year, Marx was exiled from France leaving him no choice but to move to England. Marx spent the rest of his life in London. In London, Marx began working on volumes of Das Kapital, thought to be his most scientific and economic publication. The first volume was published in 1867. Das Kapital dealt with surplus value, division of labor, and the industrial reserve army.

He hypothesized that the laws of Capitalism would actually bring about its annihilation. Marx believed that the proletariat would slowly become "disciplined, united, and organized by the very mechanism of the process of Capitalist production" and eventually overthrow the Capitalist system. Marx formulated the Labor Theory of Value. It states that workers are paid enough to buy the bare necessities and keep a constant population, but they work more hours than necessary to achieve these wages.

The surplus value of the worker's production is accrued by the Capitalists who refuse to use it to increase wages. As Marx's health began to fade, his work on further volumes of Das Kapital slowed. Volumes two and three were posthumously edited and published by Engels. While in London, Marx also published The Civil War in France, an analysis of the government during the Franco-Prussian War.

In his publication, Critique of the Gotha Program, he hailed the Commune as "the finally discovered political form under which the economic emancipation of labor could take place". Marx also worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune. Marx published 487 articles for this newspaper although 125 of them are rumored to have actually been written by Engels. He also wrote a number of articles for the New American Cyclopaedia. After Marx's death, notes for a fourth volume of Das Kapital were found. Karl Johann Kautsky edited these doctrines and published them under the title Theories of Surplus Value.

The Death of a Genius The final years of Karl Marx's life were plagued by sickness and depression. In 1881, Marx's daughter Eleanor returned home to care for her ill parents. Karl had a swollen liver, but survived. His wife, however, could not endure and passed away December 2.

Soon after, in January, Karl's eldest daughter Jenny died from cancer of the bladder. These losses brought great pain to Karl during the final years of his life. March 14, 1883 Karl Marx passed away. He was buried at the Highgate Cemetery in North London and his closest comrade, Freidrich Engles delivered the eulogy. "On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think.

He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep - but forever". Marx's Cultural Impact In Marx's eulogy it was stated that, "His name will endure through the ages, and so also will his work". Little did Friedrich Engels realize how true this declaration would become. Marx's findings on the importance of the economic factor in society and evaluations of class structure and conflicts have had a tremendous impact on studies of history, sociology, and human culture.

Even those who do not share in his political beliefs have great respect for his writings and have been significantly influenced by his thinking. Although well known during his life, Marx's true fame came after his death. His theories became known as Marxism, a study that has become a major staple in contemporary political philosophy. Karl Marx's views are the basis of today's Socialist dogma. In fact, countries such as Laos, China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam continue to practice Communism today.

Even Genius is fallible: A Critique of Marx's Communism Although Marx's conjectures about Communism are good in theory, they fail to live up to expectations in practice. Many countries have tried to mimic Marx's Communism, but none have achieved "Pure Marxism". Perhaps the most considerable problem with Communism is its attractiveness to fanatics. Many leaders claimed to be Marxists, but in reality they were forming military dictatorships in the name of Communism. Many associate Communism with murder.

The Communist death toll is over 100 million as a result of Communist fanatics. Hundreds of thousands of Cossacks were killed under Lenin's orders. Under the rule of the Sandinista's, numerous Miskito Indians were killed in Nicaragua. Over 2 million peasants were executed during Mao Zedong's "land reform" in China. In the Ukraine, over 7 million were starved to death, an order made under Kremlin's rule. Mengistu Haile Mariam's "Red Terror" led to the murder of tens of thousands in Ethiopia.

In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh ordered the annihilation of his Nationalist rivals. In the wrong hands, Communism is a dangerous weapon. Another problem with Marx's Communism is that it bans freedom and religion. There are many who do not wish to give up these rights. Marx's theories were also formulated using too little data and too many assumptions. Marx assumed the rich would always act like the rich and the poor would always act like the poor.

He assumed that society would benefit if the proletariat took over, but this theory assumed that the proletariat would not be corrupted by the rapid acquisition of power. I believe bourgeois is not a characteristic of the people in charge, but of the position of being in charge. Sources There were a number of helpful resources that aided in the composition of this paper. Websites such as web web web and the Museum of Communism's web page were quite informative. I also used the links provided on the Econ 306 class web page.

The Anti-Communism Page along with various online message board posts helped me to critically evaluate Marx's Communism. I also found it helpful to read Marx's Communist Manifesto and notes on Das Kapital.