What did you learn from Marx? What questions do you still have? Is he right about his critique of capitalism? To what degree? What examples from our society can you give to show he is on track? What can you give to show he was off-track?
For the past three years of learning about Marx, I feel like I have completely misunderstood the "Father of Communism". After hearing that title, I falsely assumed that Marx was a huge supporter and implementer of communism throughout the world. This is just not the case. Yes, he did predict and explain the nature of communism but it was never his goal to implement it. I believe that Marx gets a very bad reputation from this due to the naïve stigma regarding the word communism. I judged Marx as well; however, when you realize his rational for predicting communism you can have more respect for his intellect and character. He seemed to have a very eye opening critique about capitalism and to an extent he was right. The dominating upper class which would lead to more corrupt ends can easily be seen in our culture today. I believe that labeling Marx as some off centered communist is unfair and an insult to such a great philosopher. Just because he is the father of communism doesn't mean he agrees or supports it, he just saw it as the unavoidable end in a string of events.
I agree completely, Marx is one of the most misunderstood men in history. His so called "followers" have warped his teachings, something that happens all to often with philosophers. Unfortunately in our society most people don't look deeper into people and issues. Hopefully, soon people will move past this and begin to explore and seek understanding of people and ideas.
I also was quick to judge Marx. He is often so embedded in the relationship to communism that people often do not take the time to look into what he was saying. I was very surprised that he never intended to implement communism and that it was just a plan and observations. Maybe if people knew this fact and understood Marx better, then he would not get as much heat and judgement as he does.
I have studied Marx for a while now and I have realized he had very accurate observations on the effects of capitalism on society. I'm not saying communism is the perfect system, or that it is right or wrong. I am saying the Marx made observations that were correct because we see them today. He correctly predicted the vast inequality of rich and poor and the harm that is the result. Today the gap has become larger than ever and people are miserable and are suffering. Look at the loss of jobs because companies are concerned with profit. The cities, such as Detroit, that collapsed when an industry did. However, Marx was wrong in thinking that it is economics that will cause this social change. At least, economics is only one part of the move to communism, there are a multitude of reasons for the move. Marx has been warped by men who use his ideas to gain power for themselves. It is unfair to judge Marx because of men like Stalin, Lenin, Castro, Mao, and others. I often wonder how he would react if he learned how his teachings were being used.
Robbie, I find it interesting that you wonder how Marx would feel if he saw how his teachings were being used today. Perhaps he would be disappointed because his goal was not to make communism a bad thing. I also would find it interesting if we could see how he felt today in the ways of religion and how he thinks the world is evolving. I'm sure he wouldn't be surprised to see that there is a greater rift in the socio-economic classes. Perhaps he would offer an solution or maybe he would lay out another plan based on the observations he would make on our current society.
Some of Marx's observations were right about society. I agreed that the gap between the rich and poor class has continued to grow more vast. Also, in today's society the rich continue to abuse the system and find ways that continue to benefit them, even when they they should not benefit. I also would have to agree (to an extent) with Marx on his view of religion on economics. Religion has kind of served as a pacifier to the poor. They can write off being poor and come to terms with it because they believe that they will be rewarded for their suffering in heaven. Now it is my belief that religion does do this, and that disappoints me. I think that religion should be an inspiration to do well and succeed and have drive and motivation to achieve greater things in life. They should become money hungry and lust over power and money, but they should still drive to do and be better and do their best to achieve this. But often this is not the case and, I find that Marx was right that some people use religion to pacify themsleves for their poor economic status.
Tonya, you bring up a really good point regarding religion and the poor. As the gap between the rich and the poor has only continued to grow over the past decades religion has been an escape or something to blame. Religion should be something that is transcendent and allows humanity to reach outside themselves for a greater purpose. As you said in a different post I think Marx would be disappointed with the way the world has turned out seemingly just as he predicted it.
After learning more about Marx, I feel that he was right about some aspects of the way in which our society is so pyramidal with all the poor at the bottom and only a few rich at the top (at the expense of the poor). However, his ideas about how to rectify this situation go a bit too far. Though I think to even up the playing field a little could be a good thing, starting a revolution and making everyone equal doesn’t seem to be the best way to do this. If everyone is equal and everything is communal, what is there to work for and strive for? What is there to give life meaning and give you the will to be better than someone else or work harder than someone else? To me, this does not sound like a Utopia at all. Capitalism is definitely flawed, but this goes too far in my opinion. There is a gap between the rich and poor in capitalist societies such as ours, but even in a perfectly equal communist society, there will still be people who hunger for power or money and throw the system out the window until it comes crashing down.
To some degree I can agree with some of Marx's observations particularly those on the inequality between the rich and poor. In some regards he was very accurate in judging that the gap between the rich and poor would grow as time goes on. However I have a big problem with Marx's views on religion. Calling religion the, "Opiate of the masses", truly shows how little he really understood it. To think that people use religion only to give them hope to get through a life of living in poverty and being exploited is ridiculous. It completely disregards all the other aspects of the religion and reduces it only to focusing on the after life. Yes, most Western religions do place great emphasis on the after life but they also have many concerns with the present life. Marx's views on religion really have problems when looking at religions that are particularly concerned with social justice issues. Why would a religion be concerned with war, famine, or immigration issues if their only purpose was to pacify the people by telling them that because of their suffering they will be rewarded in the after life? Marx seems to completely miss the point of a religion being a system of beliefs that a person adheres to and shapes their life around. Marx seems to view religion as being equivalent to a person being told that there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and then trekking through perilous terrain for years just to get it.
For the past three years of learning about Marx, I feel like I have completely misunderstood the "Father of Communism". After hearing that title, I falsely assumed that Marx was a huge supporter and implementer of communism throughout the world. This is just not the case. Yes, he did predict and explain the nature of communism but it was never his goal to implement it. I believe that Marx gets a very bad reputation from this due to the naïve stigma regarding the word communism. I judged Marx as well; however, when you realize his rational for predicting communism you can have more respect for his intellect and character. He seemed to have a very eye opening critique about capitalism and to an extent he was right. The dominating upper class which would lead to more corrupt ends can easily be seen in our culture today. I believe that labeling Marx as some off centered communist is unfair and an insult to such a great philosopher. Just because he is the father of communism doesn't mean he agrees or supports it, he just saw it as the unavoidable end in a string of events.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely, Marx is one of the most misunderstood men in history. His so called "followers" have warped his teachings, something that happens all to often with philosophers. Unfortunately in our society most people don't look deeper into people and issues. Hopefully, soon people will move past this and begin to explore and seek understanding of people and ideas.
DeleteI also was quick to judge Marx. He is often so embedded in the relationship to communism that people often do not take the time to look into what he was saying. I was very surprised that he never intended to implement communism and that it was just a plan and observations. Maybe if people knew this fact and understood Marx better, then he would not get as much heat and judgement as he does.
DeleteI have studied Marx for a while now and I have realized he had very accurate observations on the effects of capitalism on society. I'm not saying communism is the perfect system, or that it is right or wrong. I am saying the Marx made observations that were correct because we see them today. He correctly predicted the vast inequality of rich and poor and the harm that is the result. Today the gap has become larger than ever and people are miserable and are suffering. Look at the loss of jobs because companies are concerned with profit. The cities, such as Detroit, that collapsed when an industry did. However, Marx was wrong in thinking that it is economics that will cause this social change. At least, economics is only one part of the move to communism, there are a multitude of reasons for the move. Marx has been warped by men who use his ideas to gain power for themselves. It is unfair to judge Marx because of men like Stalin, Lenin, Castro, Mao, and others. I often wonder how he would react if he learned how his teachings were being used.
ReplyDeleteRobbie,
DeleteI find it interesting that you wonder how Marx would feel if he saw how his teachings were being used today. Perhaps he would be disappointed because his goal was not to make communism a bad thing. I also would find it interesting if we could see how he felt today in the ways of religion and how he thinks the world is evolving. I'm sure he wouldn't be surprised to see that there is a greater rift in the socio-economic classes. Perhaps he would offer an solution or maybe he would lay out another plan based on the observations he would make on our current society.
Some of Marx's observations were right about society. I agreed that the gap between the rich and poor class has continued to grow more vast. Also, in today's society the rich continue to abuse the system and find ways that continue to benefit them, even when they they should not benefit. I also would have to agree (to an extent) with Marx on his view of religion on economics. Religion has kind of served as a pacifier to the poor. They can write off being poor and come to terms with it because they believe that they will be rewarded for their suffering in heaven. Now it is my belief that religion does do this, and that disappoints me. I think that religion should be an inspiration to do well and succeed and have drive and motivation to achieve greater things in life. They should become money hungry and lust over power and money, but they should still drive to do and be better and do their best to achieve this. But often this is not the case and, I find that Marx was right that some people use religion to pacify themsleves for their poor economic status.
ReplyDeleteTonya, you bring up a really good point regarding religion and the poor. As the gap between the rich and the poor has only continued to grow over the past decades religion has been an escape or something to blame. Religion should be something that is transcendent and allows humanity to reach outside themselves for a greater purpose. As you said in a different post I think Marx would be disappointed with the way the world has turned out seemingly just as he predicted it.
ReplyDeleteAfter learning more about Marx, I feel that he was right about some aspects of the way in which our society is so pyramidal with all the poor at the bottom and only a few rich at the top (at the expense of the poor). However, his ideas about how to rectify this situation go a bit too far. Though I think to even up the playing field a little could be a good thing, starting a revolution and making everyone equal doesn’t seem to be the best way to do this. If everyone is equal and everything is communal, what is there to work for and strive for? What is there to give life meaning and give you the will to be better than someone else or work harder than someone else? To me, this does not sound like a Utopia at all. Capitalism is definitely flawed, but this goes too far in my opinion. There is a gap between the rich and poor in capitalist societies such as ours, but even in a perfectly equal communist society, there will still be people who hunger for power or money and throw the system out the window until it comes crashing down.
ReplyDeleteTo some degree I can agree with some of Marx's observations particularly those on the inequality between the rich and poor. In some regards he was very accurate in judging that the gap between the rich and poor would grow as time goes on. However I have a big problem with Marx's views on religion. Calling religion the, "Opiate of the masses", truly shows how little he really understood it. To think that people use religion only to give them hope to get through a life of living in poverty and being exploited is ridiculous. It completely disregards all the other aspects of the religion and reduces it only to focusing on the after life. Yes, most Western religions do place great emphasis on the after life but they also have many concerns with the present life. Marx's views on religion really have problems when looking at religions that are particularly concerned with social justice issues. Why would a religion be concerned with war, famine, or immigration issues if their only purpose was to pacify the people by telling them that because of their suffering they will be rewarded in the after life? Marx seems to completely miss the point of a religion being a system of beliefs that a person adheres to and shapes their life around. Marx seems to view religion as being equivalent to a person being told that there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and then trekking through perilous terrain for years just to get it.
ReplyDelete