The Communist Manifesto: ENGL 300 - Scalar Project

Page 9

            An important aspect of Marx’s work is that he proposes that there is an insidious and subtle way in which the economic system influences the sort of idea we end up having (Joseph, 2006). A capitalist society is one where most people rich and poor believe all sorts of things that are really just valued judgment that relate back to the economic system (Joseph, 2006). For example, a person who does not work is worthless, leisure beyond a few weeks a year is sinful, more belongings will make us happier, and that worthwhile things and people will invariably make money (Joseph, 2006). In short, one of the biggest evils of capitalism is not that there are corrupt people at the top, but that capitalist ideas teach all of us to be anxious, competitive, conformist, and politically complacent (Joseph 2006).
            Marx did not only outline what is wrong with capitalism; he also illustrated ideas of how he wanted his ideology to be implemented. In “The Communist Manifesto,” he describes a world without private property or inherited wealth, with a steeply graduated income tax, and centralized control of the banking, communication, and transport industries, and free public education (Marx et al., 1992). Marx also expected a communist society would allow people to develop various different sides of their natures. In a communist society he wrote, it is “possible to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic” (Marx, 1845). 
 

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