Karl Marx: a Highly Controversial Theorist

Karl Marx: a Highly Controversial Theorist

Karl Marx was born in 1818. Influenced by Hegel, Marx was a highly controversial theorist who believed that communism was the purest and most effective way of life. Hegel focused on the thought and intellectual aspects, while Marx was most concerned with the work and production side of the human essence. Marx was a supporter of the common worker and felt that it was unfair that the workers, who were laboring for long hours under harsh conditions, reaped meager benefit and had very little of their own. The wealthy business owners did non-labor duties and had everything and anything at their disposal. Marx felt that the benefits and wealth should be worked for and that hands-on labor was the only way to truly deserve riches. These wealthy businessmen, also called bourgeoisie, had the power to exploit the poor laborers, which were called proletariats. The bourgeoisie kept a docile workforce via hegemony and spread ideology that misrepresented reality. The communistic ideas that Marx believed in would give the proletariats a sense of class- consciousness and the means to organize against the bourgeoisie. Marx also believed that in a communistic society, a man could do what he truly enjoyed and would contribute to society in anyway he could. There would be no more long hours doing hard labor unless that was what you desired.

I agree, in theory, with much of Marx’s ideas. In a perfect world, this would be a nice situation for everyone. Unfortunately, the world we live in is not perfect and there are jobs in which no one would choose to perform. Not many people would want to collect garbage or clean sewage drains. In a communist society, who would do these jobs? I also feel that we as humans are instinctively self-centered and greedy. Communism puts everyone on an even playing field and reduces class disparity. However, because of our human instincts, there would be those who would take advantage and would prey on the weakest. Communism is a...

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