MARXISM
Back to Goals of the Communists
Back to Tactics (Ridicule)
Back to Tactics (The Removal of the Religious Heritage)
Main Menu - Communism
This update to this website was added on February 11, 2008.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx was a German Socialist who was born in Treves on May 5, 1818, and died in London on March 14, 1883. He was educated at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin. In 1842, he took up journalism and eventually became the editor of the Cologne Rheinische Zeitung. He focused on socialist articles to the extent that the paper was suppressed in 1843. Marx then moved to Paris to become one the editors of the Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher to which he contributed articles on the "Hegelian Philosophy of Right".
In 1845, he was expelled from France and retired to Brussels where he assisted in organizing the German Workingmen's Association. He was also active in the organization of the Communist League, and with Engels issued the famous Communist Manifesto in 1848, which was the first public declaration of international socialism.
Between 1848 and 1869, Marx became active in revolutionary movements in Germany, and in political writing for newspapers and periodicals. In 1873, he devoted his time to completing a work on capitalism, Das Kapital.
Marx is considered the founder of the modern socialist school. Das Kapital is a tribute to his acute reasoning and extensive reading, although it is long, obscure, and filled with tortuous meanings. In it, Marx analyzes his theory of value, which is the measure of the amount of labor required to produce a commodity. He explains how the laborer, under capitalism, is exploited.
His theories were not new and Marx succeeded in confusing rather then elucidating them. He also traces the development of capitalistic production, the growth of the working class (proletariat), and how this revolutionizes society. He lays down the principle that the fundamental factor in the development of society is the method of production and exchange.
Marxism
Marxism is the name given to the theory developed by Kark Marx. In essence, he states that the measure of of the value of a commodity is the amount of labor "socially necessary" to produce it. Under the capitalistic system the laborers are exploited of what they produce over and above their wages (known as surplus value). The working class is known as the proletariat, and will ultimately transform society. The fundamental factor in the development of society is the method of production and exchange. The socialist movement merely assists in the inevitable.
The Tenets of Marxism
1. The prevailing techniques and systems employed in the production and distribution of wealth determine the accompanying social and political institutions.
2. Labor produces all value.
3. The surplus value is the difference between total social income and the value received by labor. This is exploited by capitalists.
4. There is an inevitable and irreconcilable struggle between the proletariat and the capitalists.
5. This struggle can only terminate in the overthrow of the capitalists by the proletariat - because the proletariat will form unions and become more powerful and thus take over the government.
6. The proletariat will institute a regime of social and economic democracy.
Marx believed that the legislative process would allow peaceful revolution. However, this is not possible in some countries like czarist Russia - so violence will be necessary. Marx did not speculate upon the details of the coming reforms.
An Evaluation of Marxism
The first tenet does take into account other factors such as prejudices, religious dogma, tradition, tastes in the arts, the educational level of the people, and other variables.
Labor is not the only value involved in total social income and this means that other people than the laborers must be compensated for their efforts.
There may be a struggle between labor and management that is likely to go on forever. When labor gets the upper hand to too great a degree, the company will go out of business - and labor often attempts to get out of hand in this regard - but in several cases, labor has chosen to back down so that the company can remain competitive and the laborers can keep their jobs. On the other hand, when management becomes to oppressive, the laborer is stifled and either leaves, goes on strike, or reduces production. There must always be a reasonable balance between the wages and conditions of labor and the ability of the company to survive. Furthermore, unions create another level of management which hamstrings the ability of the company to compete in the market, and generally is often taken over by organized crime. When the additional cost of supporting union management is added, the laborer pays union dues and the consumer pays more for the product - and eventually, the laborer is the consumer - so he loses. Unions have been necessary in the past because of the stupidity of management, and perhaps they are still needed in certain cases and may be needed in some future cases, but they can be worse for the laborer in the long run. In the case of communism where the there is one party which is the owner of all the businesses, the same holds true except that the party dictatorship creates extreme problems and things become worse for the laborer.
There have been companies which give stock options to the laborers so that they own the company along with management. Other companies have been formed with the laborers being the owners. This is an acceptable form of proletariat take-over that seems to work.
Violent revolution has not worked satisfactorily, as it always seems to result in some other dictator taking over and conditions either not improving for the worker or becoming worse. Click on Communism below for more details.
Author John A. Stormer had this to say about Marx and communism in his book None Dare Call It Treason, copyrighted in 1964. Marx was a self-proclaimed scientist. His "Scientific" theories explained the entire history of man and determined his future. [His theories] are to be used to transform man's nature. Being "scientists", communists have certain basic "scientific" laws which underlie their beliefs and teachings. They include: There is no God.
When communists deny God, they simultaneously deny every virtue and every value which originates with God [according to most religions]. There are no moral absolutes, no right and wrong. The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are invalid.
Accepting this concept of "morality", the communists teach that all is right which advances the cause of socialism. All is wrong which impedes its progress. For the communist, to lie, cheat, steal, or even murder, is perfectly moral if it advances communism. Conversely, a communist who would refuse to lie, cheat, steal, or murder to aid the socialist movement is immoral. In the words of Lenin:
We do not believe in eternal morality - our morality is entirely subordinated to the interests of the class struggle.
The second "scientific" law of communism follows the first. Man is simply matter in motion. As such, he is without soul, spirit, or free will - and is not responsible for his own acts. Marx taught that man was entirely an evolutionary animal, the highest animal form, without significant individual value or eternal life. Man is a body completely describable in terms of the laws of chemistry and physics.
The third "scientific" law, economic determinism, is to be the means for transforming man. It states: Man is an economically determined animal. Qualities of human intelligence, personality, emotional and religious life merely reflect man's economic environment. The evil a man does is just a reflection of his environment.
After coming to this conclusion, Marx taught that the only way man could be improved or changed would be to change or eliminate the evil-producing elements in man's environment. He reasoned that the one common influence in man's life was the economic environment. Mid-nineteenth-century Europe's predominant economic system was a... combination of feudalism, mercantilism, and free-enterprise. Marx called it capitalism and blamed it for all the evil in man and the world. He concluded that the only way to eliminate evil and improve man was to destroy capitalism. Marx taught that this was both desirable and historically inevitable because the continued conflict between the classes had to produce change.
The inevitable outcome of the class war, according to Marx, was the triumph of the proletariat in a revolution which would destroy a decaying capitalism and replace it with socialism. Under socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat (Communist Party) would work toward the establishment of communism.
Marx was born of scholarly Jewish parents in a Germany which was just becoming a nation. Early in his life, his family left the Jewish faith and turned toward more accepted protestantism. His radical ideas as a student, caused his expulsion from several universities. The Communist Manifesto was essentially composed by both Marx and Engels and published before Marx was thirty. Dos Kapital was published before Marx was fifty.
Marx sired six children. However, he was so busy formulating his theories that he never accepted a job to support them. Three of his children died of starvation in infancy. Two others committed suicide. One lived to maturity. At one point, Marx was so concerned with "humanity" that when a gift of 160 pounds (about $500) arrived from a rich uncle, he used the money for two-month drinking spree with continental intellectuals. His wife was left penniless in London and was evicted from their apartment with the infant children.
During those years, Marx' ideas and philosophy were accepted only by the radical fringe groups and his friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels. Engels, a rich man's son, was Marx' chief source of income. When Marx died, only six persons attended his funeral.
Some people within society have no conscience and justify their existence with rationalizations as they find ways to literally raise hell and take down our society to the level of unprincipled animals. Marx was one of those, a cancer in society, who stated that killing was all right - to further the cause of communism. In my opinion, execution (killing) of communist traitors is a requirement to which we must adhere if we are to rid our society of this cancer.
See Psychopathic Personalities for more information.
Back to Goals of the Communists
Back to Tactics (Ridicule)
Back to Tactics (The Removal of the Religious Heritage)
Main Menu - Communism