karl marx and his influence on government

8/4/2019 KARL MARX and his influence on government

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Karl Marx and His influence on Government

Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany in 1818 to a Hirschel and Henrietta Marx. Due to

much anti-Semitism, Hirschel changed his name to Heinrich and left his Jewish faith to become

Protestant. Later on, while Marx attended Bonn University to study Law, he mainly socialized

and increased his debts. When Heinrich found out about Marxs debt, he agreed to pay off his

debt on the condition that he transfers to Berlin University. After Marx transferred to Berlin

University he became serious and dedicated to working hard on his studies. A lecturer known as

Brno Bauer, a strong atheist whose radical political ideas made him a well-known figure with

the police. Bauer first introduced Marx to G.W.F. Hegel, a well-known author and philosopher at the University of Berlin. Marx inevitably became infatuated with Hegels theories thus,

becoming radically political. After Heinrich passed, Marx had to become independent and earn

his own living by becoming a university lecturer. When Marx finished his doctoral thesis at the

University of Jena, he hoped Brno Bauer would be able to aid him in obtaining a teaching post;

however, Bauer was dismissed in 1842 for being an outspoken atheist and couldnt help Marx.

When Marx tried journalism, many editors didnt want to employ or publish his work due

to his radical political views. After moving to Cologne, Marx took part in a group called the

Cologne Circle, which had its own newspaper, The Rhenish Gazette. After the newspaper

published Marxs article on him defending the freedom of the press, Marx was appointed editor

of the newspaper in the fall of 1842. Later on, Marx met a man by the name of Moses Hess, a

socialist who had his own socialist meetings. Marx decided to attend the socialist meetings only

to learn of the adversity the German working-class faced and was cogently informed that the

only way for the adverse issues were end was by socialism. After Marx was well-informed, he

wrote an article on the poverty faced by the Mosel wine-farmers and The Rhenish Gazette


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published his article, but it was ultimately banned by the Prussian government. Out of haste of

being indicted, Marx married his current girlfriend, Jenny Von Westphalen, they both decided to

move to France and as they did, Marx was offered to be the post of editor of a political journal,

Fr anco-Ge rm an Annals , where Marx applied Hegels dialect theory.

While working in Paris, Marx was astounded by the poverty of the working-class

Parisians, but also admired their comradeship. Marx now declared himself as a communist,

argued that the working-class Parisians would eventually come to be the emancipators of society.

After Marx published for Fr anco-Ge rm an Annals in the winter of 1844, the journal was

immediately banned in Germany. Later Marx identified the three types of alienation in acapitalistic society; he believed the only solution was communism. When Marx was in Paris he

became close friends with Friedrich Engels, an author who shared Marxs view on capitalism.

Engels decided to help Marx and his family financially which enabled Marx to concentrate on

his economic and political theories. In January of 1846, Marx established the Communist

Correspondence Committee which was created to intertwine socialist leaders of Europe. Swayed

by the influence of Marx, socialist dignitaries in London established an organization known as

the Communist League. Later in Brussels, Marx wrote The Co mmu nist Manifesto based on

Engels draft, The P r inciples of Co mmu nism . After six weeks, The Co mmu nist Manifesto was

finished and ready to be published. The following quote really expresses how timely The

Commu nist Manifesto became revealed to the public and basically, how modern socialism came

to be.

Spargos (2003) documentation of the following:

The first copies were received from the press upon the same day that revolution

broke out in Paris, February 24. Thus the greatest political pamphlet in history


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was born amid the stirrings of revolution. The birth cry of modern socialism,

Workingmen of all countries, unite! was scarcely heard by reason of the

thundering of revolution across the English Channel. (p. 104)

When beginning to read The Co mmu nist Manifesto , The history of all hitherto existing

society is the history of class struggles (Marx, Engels, & , 1999, p. 6) Which means that you

shouldnt see social classes, but rather view Marxs way, Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. This is

where bourgeoisie are the owners of the factories and the proletariats are the owners of

practically limited to nothing thus, in order to survive, they must sell their services and products

to the capitalistic society. Marx was trying to convey to the public the point of social classes andhow they clashed. After Marx and Engels published The Co mmu nist Manifesto in March of

1848, the Belgian government expelled them both and they both ended up in Cologne, but before

leaving Paris to move to Cologne, they established a new radical news source, The New Rhenish

Gazette. This was founded to promote change and radical influence amid a revolution that

occurred in Paris. While Marx was residing in France, the French authorities ordered for his exile

and this is when Marx realized that the only country that was left for him to influence was

England. When he became established in London, the Prussian authorities wanted him exiled and

proposed this to the Prime Minister of England, John Russell, but he refused as he believed in the

freedom of expression.

Soon after Jenny Marx gave birth to her fourth child, the Marx family became destitute

and evicted from their apartment sometime in March 1850. In 1852, Marx was offered many jobs

at newspaper companies such as New Yo rk Daily T r ibu ne and the New Am er ican Cyclopedia. In

1850, Ferdinand LaSalle, a wealthy socialist offered Marx a job at a newspaper in Germany, but

Marx out of resentment of his homeland declined the offer. The first volume of Das Kapital is


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published in 1867 which included ideas such as surplus, division of labor, and the industrial

reserve army. Marx believed that the laws of capitalism would bring about its destruction which

he defended in his final part of Das Kapital. This book illustrated the problems the capitalists

and oppression. The second volume of Das Kapital came about in 1871 with the help of Eleanor

Marx, Marxs seventeen year old daughter.

Marxs (2009) Das Kapital and Marx himself experienced the following issues:

The learned and unlearned spokesman of the German bourgeoisie tried at first to

kill Das Kapital by silence, as they had managed to do with my earlier writings.

As soon as they found these tactics no longer fitted in with the conditions of thetime, they wrote, under pretence of criticizing my book (p. 20)

In 1881, Marx now had a swollen liver, but survived while his wife, Jenny, died in early

December of 1881. On March 14 th, 1883, Marx died.

Political Beliefs

Marx viewed government as another form of oppression and he felt it should be removed.

Based on his writing, he strongly believed that the bourgeoisies would form a revolution against

the government; that they would create a brief bourgeoisie run nation that would endure until it

became obsolete. Marx was very anti-capitalist due to observing the conditions of the

bourgeoisies and felt that all social classes should be equal thus, the invention of communism.

Marx believed that the only way for a nation to operate is if the government controls everything;

the government chooses your job, the government grants all citizens the same amount of pay,

and that everyone works for the good of the state. Because Marx was weary or more so, ignorant

of capitalism, he came to believe that communism would be the ultimate political, economical,

and social situation for the people. Since many of the foreign governments exiled Marx due to


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his radical concepts and publishing; they didnt agree with his view and because the German

bourgeoisie attacked Marx and his work, they didnt agree with him either.

Conclusion

Marx had a very rough life from having his work attacked to the death of his children and

wife and experiencing poverty. Even though he brought brilliant insight and concepts to

economics, politics and social classes, he ultimately felt like a failure. He wasnt an Adam

Smith, but he is the father of Communism and because of him, we understand an economical,

political and social system that wouldve been dismissed by many people and nations in the 21st

century. Thanks to Marx questioning and criticizing capitalism, hes helped many capitalist

reevaluate the system of capitalism and build upon it. Marx also illustrated that even though

people may criticize and dismiss your work; perseverance goes a long way and along the road

lays the possibility of becoming an important historical figure.

Personal Opinion

I think that the reason that Marxs communism didnt work was because nations that

considered themselves communist were in some degree communist, but are also market and

traditional economies simultaneously thus, the world has yet to experience an absolute rule of

communism or any other type of economy in fact. Ideal communism may be too ideal so this

is why Socialism is practiced; because its the closest to Communism. I think the only way for a

nation or country to work is by mixing different economies at different levels, but more so in a

balanced sense and the outcome is a nation that works even though its not an absolute

economical function. If the United States were an absolute market economy, we most probably


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Bibliography

Karl Marx. (2011). B iog r aphy.co m . Retrieved 09:20, Aug 23 2011 from

http://www.biography.com/articles/Karl-Marx-9401219

Kreis, Steven. (2003). H isto r yg u ide.co m . Retrieved 09:14, Aug 23 2011 from

http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/marx.html

Marx, Karl. (2009). Capital, a c r itiqu e of political econo m y; the p r ocess of capitalist p r od u ction .

Berlin: General Books.

Marx, Karl, Engels, Friedrich, & , . (1999). The Co mmu nist Manifesto: with r elated doc um ents .

Berlin: Bedford and St. Martins.

Spargo, John. (2003). Ka r l Ma rx : his life and wo rk . New York City:

University of Press of the Pacific.

karl marx and his influence on government

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