Marx Concept and Philosophy, Essay Example

How Marx concept and philosophy adopt or not adopt to correct U.S.

The work you did in “The Manifesto of the Communist Party” was intended to play a crucial role in transformation of the economic system in the United States.  Unfortunately, many people have been wondering how your concept and philosophy apply or does not apply to the life in the current U.S. Modern people in the United States are still arguing has helped in the transformation of life. Based on the manifesto, the disparity between the wealth and the poverty is not welcomed which is attributed to more emphasis on private property ownership. One of the reasons behind your thought is that you could see stark inequity between the class struggle: bourgeoisie and proletariat. The class struggle had simplified since the earlier epochs of history and caused a negative spiral. During the 1940s, under the private property system, the proletariats, who did not have means of production, only worked to make the products. They were not allowed to have the products they made. On the contrary, the products and profits belonged to the bourgeoisie. Thereby, the Proletariats live making on products on lower wages. They were regarded as commodity. This situation had made humanand labor alienation of the proletariats. My observation is that, the major concern of the manifesto to the society was a transformation of the capitalist society that existed at that time to socialism. How far has this objective been achieved in the contemporary society?

The Manifesto gives a summarized account of theories postulated by you pertaining to the societal and political nature in the U S. Based on your propositions, the history of the contemporary society of that time translated to the history that was allied to class struggle. The mainstream sociologists and economists continue to take advantage of the Manifesto in explanation of recurrent economic crisis, wars, and hunger that afflict a huge number of people on one hand, while on the other; some few people continue to flourish in overproduction. Was this the ultimate objective behind the manifesto?  Locke says that, “We have been ruled by men who live by illusions” (40).  Therefore, it can be prudent to argue that, the Manifesto does not fully apply to life in the current United States.

You says, “Modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonism, on the exploitation of the many by the few” (156). Are modern upper class people, capitalists, investors, and CEO today managing their employees as well as the bourgeoisies did during the industrial revolution? Do all the people struggle like proletariats? The answer is “No”. Modern people often misunderstand this surrounding circumstance between modern society and the society of 19^thcentury because of your statements. During the 19^th century, proletarians lived on the basis of the production. They were merely means of labor; cogs of a huge wheel called production. According to Fisher,  “leaders may have a great deal of hierarchical influence” (135). Their life was devoted to make productions. They were supposed to work for more than 12 hours to make a living. It might not be exaggeration to say that they had lapsed into human alienation and felt as if they were slaves. However, in today’s society, there are many examples how laborers who are in modern society are defended through law. What we primary have is the Labor Standards Act. This was made to protect the people from illegal labor practices by their employees. For example, the limitation of working hours must be under 40 hours in a week. Minimum wage is set at approximately $8 to $9, though it varies depending on which states you are live in. Moreover, laborers have an employee book, which is made to prevent a conflict between employees and employer. There are countless laws by which employees are protected so that they become comfortable in modern society.

You says, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (145). This statement is true in today’s society. What was the greatest misfortune for the proletariats? Their subsistence is not guaranteed, and they do not have the means of production. You expected that the class dilemma is extremely hard to eliminate. Indeed, we are still having the class struggles. Perhaps, the form of class struggles is different but it still exists. For example, people with high education formed the upper class continues to accumulate more wealth in terms of acquired properties and capital, while the less fortunate and lower class in society continues to experience the vagaries of stagnating earnings in terms of their wages. At the same time, the cost of living is on the rise as a result of escalating cost of goods and services. The wealthy consequently continue to accumulate more wealth while the poor continue to be deprived the resources hence becoming poorer because they believe that “that capitalism recognizes and protects” (Locke, 38) and this leads to a situation that “We have been ruled by men who live by illusions” (Locke, 40). This leads us to a dilemma since you had prophesized the effects of great depression in contemporary United States. What achievements have been made in bridging the socioeconomic gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the United States? The proletariats class represented the people in the working class while the bourgeoisies represented the capitalist class as a result of their high education. The bourgeoisie were the most important classes of people in society because they had the full control of the means of wealth creation as well as the forces of production. The communist manifesto explains why the capitalist mode of production eroded feudalism and the importance of the process leading to globalization. The bourgeoisie have therefore continued to promote capitalistic market that defeats the spirits of the socialist economy which was the original intention of this manifesto. The manifesto has promoted capitalism which has resulted to some crisis directed to the poor while the bourgeoisie comfortably evade the crises. The bourgeoisie have so far been able to sustain their objectives through dominating the new and major markets that further worsens the crises

Conclusion

It is therefore warranted to conclude that, the primary objective of the Manifesto was to address the concerns of people in the form of a global mass party in aspirations of terminating capitalism for so that the standard of the working class can be uplifted. However, the manifesto did not accurately predict the potential for the future collapse in the leadership of workers parties that consequently translated to the betrayal of the efforts of the workers to fight for their rights. Instead, the implication of the manifesto in the modern society is a state of ideological confusion, division and subsequent decline in the intended goals of the manifesto.

Works cited

Locke, Edwin A. “What Is Capitalism? Some Comments on Kasser, Cohn, Kanner, and Ryan.” Psychological Inquiry 18.1 38-42, 2007.

Marx, Karl. Friedrich, Engels. “Manifesto of the Communist Party.” Manifesto of the Communist Party. Andy Blunden, 2004. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/>.

Fisher, Len. Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life. New York: Basic, 2008.