Communism Term paper
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Communism-The Ideal Society? Society is flawed. There are critical imbalances in it that
are causing much of the humanity to suffer. An essential part of having an unflawed society
would be having a perfect government. Throughout history, we have always strived to find
different types of governments that would work more efficiently and more fairly for the greater
good of masses. Needless to say, communism is not often revered as an ideal form of
government. There is almost a unanimous sense of hatred that is emitted from all non-
communist countries when the topic of communism is brought up. Many countries and societies
have enacted communism and some still uphold it to this day. This very controversial issue of
communism strikes a major chord in people who have lived under it.
In, The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx is reacting to the quest for an ideal society by
describing his vision of a perfectly balanced society, a communist society. Simply put, a
communist society is one where all property is held in common. No one person has more than the
other, but rather everyone shares in the fruits of their labors. Marx is writing of this society
because, he believes it to be the best form of society possible. He believes that communism
creates the correct balance between the needs of the individual, and the needs of society. He
also believes that sometimes violence is necessary to reach the state of communism. It is
important to realize that in everything, humans view things from their own cultural perspective,
thereby possibly distorting or misinterpreting work or idea. Marx mentions that, "Your very
ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois
property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into a law for all, a will,
whose essential character and direction are determined by the economical conditions of
existence of your class" (Marx 37). With this in mind, some perspective on the society of that
time is vital.
During Marx s time the industrial revolution was taking place. There was a massive
movement away from small farms, businesses operated out of homes, and small shops on the
corner. Instead, machines were mass-producing products in giant factories, with underpaid
workers. No longer did people need to have individual skills. It was only necessary that they could
keep the machines going, and do small, repetitive work. The lower working class could no longer
search for a tolerable existence in their own pursuits. They were lowered to working inhumane
hours in these factories. This widened the rift between the upper and lower class-called
bourgeois and proletariat, respectively-until they were essentially two different worlds. The
bourgeois, a tiny portion of the population, has the majority of the wealth.
Meanwhile the proletariat, the huge majority, has nothing. It is with this background that
Marx begins. The flaws with the "current" system in respect to the bourgeois and proletariat will
be shown, thereby revealing the problems in the relationship between individual and society.
Secondly, the way that communism addresses these issues, and the rights of the individual, as
seen through the manifesto. Quite clearly, Marx is concerned with the organization of society.
He sees that the majority of society, that is, the proletariat, exist in sub-human conditions.
Marx also sees that the bourgeoisie has a disproportionate abundance of property and power,
and that because of what they are, they abuse it. He writes of how the current situation with
the bourgeoisie and proletariat developed. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the
history of class struggles" (Marx 41). There have always been struggles between two classes, an
upper and lower class. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile
camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat" (Marx
42). The very nature of the bourgeoisie causes it to grow in size and power while the proletariat
shrinks. Therefore the rift between the two is increased. Marx goes on to describe how this
situation came about, with the industrial revolution and other factors.
Modern industry has established the world-market, for which the discovery of America
paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, navigation, and
communication by land. This development has, in its turn, reacted on the extension of industry;
and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion
the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class
handed down from the Middle Ages. We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the
product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production
and of exchange (Heilbroner 56). With these thoughts in mind, a more defined view of the
individual classes can be attained. First, the proletariat: in several places Marx speaks of how
the proletariat is oppressed. He speaks of past societies and the current society when he says,
"Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a
word, oppressor and oppressed " (Marx 41). Bourgeoisie and proletariat could quite
comfortably be added to this list of oppressor and oppressed. In every way the proletariat is
oppressed, with no hope of improving the lot they have been given, or of raising themselves up.
Rather, they are forced to march on hopelessly, knowing that they will not be released from their
labors till death. Marx also writes of the relationship between the proletariat and the machines,
which is a result of the split between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. "He [proletariat] becomes
an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simply, most monotonous, and most easily
acquired knack, that is required of him Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and
of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and,
above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself" (Marx 55). Marx draws a picture of
how the majority of the population is in an oppressed situation of slavery. The lot of the
proletariat is not to be envied. From here, Marx moves on to describe the oppressor, the
bourgeois. The bourgeois, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal,
patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound
man to his natural superiors,' and has left to remain no other...
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