Manifesto of the Communist Part, Essay Example

Marx / Engels on class conflict |

Marx looked at class through the lens of communism.  He viewed that society was made up of different class structures.  Class in the general sense was not defined by income or status but by the ownership of property.  As such this became a relationship between individuals.  In the maturity of society capital and land ownership merge and equally this unifies the interests of the landowners and the bourgeoisie. It is this merging that starts to widen the division between the classes and causes a conflict as the social fabric of society starts to become destroyed.  This in turn creates a proletarian revolution with the workers rising up and over time obtaining property through public ownership and means of production.  Hence over time the class stricture is eroded and ultimately erased into a classless society and political power will disappear.  Marx also considered that the status of women would improve over time with the advancement of socialism and this would ultimately lead to the dissolution of the patriarchal family.

Engels held similar views to Marx. He saw human history as a struggle between the social classes and as such this structure had changed over time. He identified the Bourgeoisies and the Proletariat as the two main classes/ Like Marx he maintained both classes had very different interests and over time this would lead to conflict and revolution whereby the Proletariat would win over the Bourgeoisies. This in turn would eliminate the class of the bourgeoisies and society would no longer be based on class.

Bourgeoisie and change from social to money relations |

Both Engels and Marx had maintained that the bourgeoisies had themselves maintained a form of revolution.  This in terms of creating a feudal relationship that made the proletariat subservient and dominated by the power of their masters. It was no respecter of the professions and converted even Priests, Doctors, Scientists, Poets and Lawyers into that of paid wage labourers.  This had the impact of tearing individuals away from family values and as such reduced the family relationship purely to that of a monetary relationship.

Evidence of this was seen in the way that the Bourgeoisies had been instrumental in the revolutionizing of production. They owned the land and the factories which in turn dominated the relationship between the workers.  This made the proletariat simply that of wage paid labourers doing the will of their masters. They had little opportunity for self-advancement and personal creativity.  They were merely looked upon as serfs doing the bidding of their masters.  This was particularly evident in the English Industrial Revolution where the Bourgeoisies owned the land and the mills / factories using the proletariat as paid labour to drive the industrial machine.

Increasing Consumerism in the United States |

In many senses the US is a consumer based society. The first wave of consumerism happened between 1910-1920. The second wave came after the end of WW2 owing to growing productivity and rising incomes. People moved into home ownership and acquisition of property. The third wave came between 1970-2008 and this increased the wealth gap creating inequalities in the class structure. It increased consumer credit and increased indebtedness in the middle classes. It created a disconnect in the class structure by increased materialistic values.

Consumerism tends to make people more greedy and less tolerant of other members of society. It creates a disconnect between the working and middle classes in terms of inequalities in incomes and standards of living. It also creates an environment where the wealthy increase their money and investments and the poor are driven down more into the poverty class.