5 Things The Communist Manifesto Gets Right
Communism is the next stage of humanity
Hello Comrades.
I got back from a 50-mile ultramarathon run last weekend; needed some recovery, so I missed a post last week and will be making up for it soon!
What better topic to talk about after the Fourth of July?
Hi again, Comrades.
When did you realize communism made the most sense?
Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, "The Communist Manifesto" was seen as an ideal way of organizing society. It is a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
The village owns the production and operates together as a commune.
Communism is on the rise, far faster than any other ideology. Nearly half of Zoomers and Millennials embrace socialism.
So, this week I decided to revisit Marx's Manifesto. And while he has his moments, boy, does he miss the mark on many things.
1.Proletariat vs. the Bourgeoisie
Marx argues there are two classes: the working class or proletariat and the ruling class or bourgeoisie. The idea is that a small group of wealthy capitalists control the resources while suppressing the working class.
The bourgeoisie and the "petty bourgeoisie" (small business owners) have stolen your wages, your land, your factories, and your future. What does the bourgeoisie have to offer but misery and exploitation?
It sounds revolutionary.
But it's quite myopic and simplistic.
Marx was right that capitalism is plagued with big autocratic banks, lazy people who do nothing for work but day trade, and exploitative labor conditions, but the bourgeoisie aren't all bad guys. Every business owner isn't an exploiter. Every CEO isn't a robber baron. The world is a lot more complicated than that.
2. Are You a Bourgeoisie?
Plus, how do you determine who's bourgeoisie or not?
It doesn't seem obvious to me.
"It's absolutely foolish to make the presumption that you can identify someone's moral worth with their economic standing."
~Dr. Jordan Peterson
Is the dude who has five acres of land after truck driving for two decades bourgeoisie? What about the lady who makes and sells handmade jewelry on Etsy?
Does becoming wealthy turn you evil?
3. The Communist State
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too - John Lennon
Socialists believe in borders but communists are internationalists by default. They don’t believe in nations or borders. Marx touched on Irish immigrants depressing wages in England but never believed in closing the borders: he wanted to strengthen national organizations by making them international.
To give Marx his due, some of the best utopian works of fiction like Star Trek work like this — no borders, global cooperation.
Beam me up, Marxy!
But in the current age, mass immigration hurts the working class the most and only benefits the bourgeoisie. So… something to work out.
4. Money, Money, Money
Communists believe more than just money drives humans:
Survival
Creative pursuits
Bettering another person's life
They're right. Everything isn't about money. But a capitalist would argue you could do all that better in a competitive free market system.
Today we know this as the universal basic income debate: Will people work if they don’t have to? Idk. In communist countries, people behave similarly, but with the added burden of government oppression and starvation.
5. Bloody Revolution
"The Communist Manifesto" is a call to revolution, making it quite unique.
I don't read Stephen King and think I need to become a vampire hunter. Marx advocated a proletariat revolt against the ruling class, like the French Revolution or the American Revolution. As he puts it, "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!"
...probably your lives, too.
We're certainly on the brink of a revolutionary moment. We all feel it. But we must thoroughly debate and discuss the core ideas behind it.
In Conclusion
Marx makes some valid points about the inequity of profits being taken by a small class of people. There are some valid critiques to be made about the growing gap between rich and poor, especially in a globalized economy.
But I'm not sure his solutions make sense.
It's as if a twenty-something stoner, brimming with intelligence, believes that their treatise on economics and social justice holds the key to solving all of humanity's woes. Alas, they lack the wisdom to see the bigger picture. It strangely reminds me of Greta Thunberg, don't you think?
We can all get behind the idea of fairness, but Marx’s solutions ignore history, context and nuance.
It's a fun topic to think about, but ultimately it isn't the answer.
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“It strangely reminds me of Greta Thunberg, don't you think?”
Comparing Marx to Thunberg is a hot take I didn’t know I needed in my life until right now. Great piece!