whats the deal with karl marx?

Question

i had a professor who is karl marx fan, i understand that marx's ideology of communism. China, Russia is a communist country and sociologist probably apply marx's theories in the issues their having.....

Answer 1

This is not a biography.

Marx was a philosopher, first and foremost. His political economic and political ideas were secondary to his thinking, although it did consume most of his energies later in life.

China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba are/weren't ever real communist countries. This does not disprove Marxism, although there are other ways to chip away at orthodox Marxism and Leninism.

What Marx tried to inspire was a future where private property didn't exist, or at least didn't have priority over human rights. Note that I said private property, and not personal property.

It's too much to get into now, but three (3) of Marx's main points can be summed up this way:

1. Things are never what they seem. There are hidden connections to everything. Sort of like the Matrix movies. His concept of the "fetishism of the commodity" is only an example of this.

2. When something happen (anything in the world), who makes money? Who dies? How did they get power?

3. At all times, the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas. Even "common sense" is "common sense" for the benefit of the rulers. For example, we think that humans are competitive and territorial "by nature." It's only common sense, right?

However, the archaeological/anthropological and historical records are beginning to show that humans/primates are actually more cooperative than previously thought, despite the competitive streak most animals have. Furthermore, anyone who says that there is a human "nature" is assuming a lot, and want you to accept their assumptions, which is actually more like a tautological assertion than fact.

This is only the peak of the tip of the iceberg...

Answer 2

Elaborate a little and people might give you an answer. [edit] Frederick M: Claiming that modern scholars dimiss Marx is more than a little disingenuous. Marx may have had little faith in liberal democratic amelioration, but no-one could say he was entirely wrong about that. What has liberal capitalism 'really' achieved? More output, more consumerism, more waste. At the very least Marx helped capitalism by shaking it awake with the warning that people would sooner or later no longer put up with its ways. In that way they have devised 1001 methods to tinker and pacify people. It's easy to call people who don't like the orthodox system a malcontent.

Answer 3

I am not surpised to hear that you are a proffessor. I bet you are probably a 70s baby boomer too. If so, you fit the profile to a T. Whats scary too me is people like you are teaching America's future. You are planting the seeds of Marxism in the minds of our youth, and it shows. So many students are begininng to hate America first, and its people like you, the media, our celebs, and the liberal left that is fueling it.

Nothing wrong with marxism, except it has proved itself to be a failure. Even China is moving away from Communism, economically. They realize it doesnt work too, but change there is slow. N. Korea is a shining example of the gloriousness of Communism.

BTW, did lenin really read a book on marx, while the quartet practiced in the park?

Answer 4

Marx Simplified, Rich, middle class, working class. The middleclass rule. Quote from Karl Marx, "I am not a Marxist"

Answer 5

Marxian thought rests on the fundamental assumption that it is human nature to transform nature, and he calls this process of transformation "labour " and the capacity to transform nature labour power. For Marx, this is a natural capacity for a physical activity, but it is intimately tied to the active role of human consciousness:

A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality. (Capital, Vol. I, Chap. 7, Pt. 1)
Marx did not believe that all people worked the same way, or that how one works is entirely personal and individual. Instead, he argued that work is a social activity and that the conditions and forms under and through which people work are socially determined and change over time.

Marx's analysis of history is based on his distinction between the means / forces of production, literally those things, such as land, natural resources, and technology, that are necessary for the production of material goods, and the relations of production, in other words, the social and technical relationships people enter into as they acquire and use the means of production. Together these comprise the mode of production; Marx observed that within any given society the mode of production changes, and that European societies had progressed from a feudal mode of production to a capitalist mode of production. In general, Marx believed that the means of production change more rapidly than the relations of production (for example, we develop a new technology, such as the Internet, and only later do we develop laws to regulate that technology). For Marx this mismatch between (economic) base and (social) superstructure is a major source of social disruption and conflict.

Marx understood the "social relations of production" to comprise not only relations among individuals, but between or among groups of people, or classes. As a scientist and materialist, Marx did not understand classes as purely subjective (in other words, groups of people who consciously identified with one another). He sought to define classes in terms of objective criteria, such as their access to resources. For Marx, different classes have divergent interests, which is another source of social disruption and conflict. Conflict between social classes being something which is inherent in all human history:

There are few thinkers in modern history whose thought has been so badly misrepresented, by Marxists and anti-Marxists alike.

Answer 6

The Reds never make a deal so your question is out of question

Answer 7

I couldn't tell you...
I really liked Groucho, & Harpo was pretty cool too.

Answer 8

He is dead so now you can get a life.