Karl Marx Essay, Research Paper
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Karl Marx: The Man Behind Communism
Were Karl Marx ideas on communism moral? It is quite obvious that some societies do or did believe that communism was a good way of life. Even though there are many drawbacks to communism there are still some advantages. Karl Marx is a man of intrigue he only did what he wanted to and not what others wanted him to do. Upon completion of my research I feel that Marx was a very bright man. His ideas may not be all together but a man that can introduce communism to the world and actually get people to follow Marx ideas is powerful to me. In my research paper I would like to tell you a little about the life and times of Karl Marx, and how is ideas effect the economy today.
Karl Marx was born at 2 am on May 5, 1818. Marx was one of eight children he had two brothers and five sisters. His mother Henriette Prockmon called Karl, Gluckskind meaning child of fortune. She loved Karl and his sibling all the same and felt fortunate to have children. But Karl’s father thought that Marx was “possessed by a demon” (Padover 22) it was probably since Karl always never did what his father expected of him. Karl’s siblings even saw him as a tyrant he would use his siblings as a horse and ridicule them all for being slow intellectually since he was gifted at learning compared to them. Marx’s childhood was not all peachy he had two brothers and one sister die of tuberculosis, which ran in the family and kept Marx out of military service (Padover 38). Karl was raised as a Jewish man but in 1824 a Prussian government decree conformed a long-
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standing practice that Non-Christians could not attend schools. So in August 1824 he was baptized in the Trier Evangelical church. Therefore he had his road to college paved for him by being able to go to school for lower education. Marx started college at Bonn University where his father wanted him to learn law and continue the family business. Marx on the other hand wanted to go for philosophy. He switched to Berlin University after his first year so that he could get a better education. Marx disappointed his father by not studying law and told his father “I did not read works on jurisprudence primarily to become a lawyer, but rather to find metaphysical answers.” (Padover 49). Marx got a doctorate in philosophy from Berlin with financial help from his mom whom was not well off financially and lived in a lower-middle class neighborhood. In 1842 Karl Marx started writing for a liberal democratic newspaper called Rheinische Zietung in Cologne, and at the end of 1842 Marx became the editor for the paper (Padover 29). In the beginning of 1843 Marx was told by the ministry that at the end of the quarter the paper must cease publication, causing Karl to resign immediately. The summer of 1843 before heading to Paris to devote his time to studying political economy and the history of the great French Revolution, he married the daughter of Privey Councillor Von Westphalen in trier named Jenny Von Westphalen. Marx liked to speak his mind in writings, which caused him to be expelled from France by Guizot in 1845 (Carver 208). Upon leaving France he went to Brussels and stayed there, pursuing the same studies, until the outbreak of the February Revolution. Marx still could not keep his ideas to himself and was asked to leave Brussels, He was asked to return to France by the French Provisional
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Government to help with the uprising there (Appelbaum 119). Marx lived a poor life; his long time friend Fredrick Engles asked Marx and his family to move to London where he was. By doing so Engles helped Marx with food and shelter for him and his family. While in London Marx and Engles worked on papers and books together, Marx wrote article for the New York Times at that time also. Even with all of the writings that Marx did he still never made a lot of money. In Karl Marx’s later years he was always sick with different ailments causing him not to write much so he had no extra money to pay to see a doctor (Padover 323). Marx died March 14 1883 but his ideas are still alive today in different countries to day. Marx’s most famous writings include The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital for major works. He was well known for his time and his name still pops up in today’s society. Karl Marx was a very smart man in history even though his views may not have been the right road.
The times of Karl Marx were nothing to brag about either. Imagine living in his time there was no advanced medicine and living without the technology that we have today. To some it may not be to bad but you still had to eat, provide shelter for your family and medical help for your family when they need. Since the medical care for Marx was to expensive and not as advanced as today he lost a lot of people dear to him that he would not have lost today. When Marx was a child he lost a sister and a brother to tuberculosis, in today’s society. Marx was also the support for revolutions. He would put his ideas on paper and let the public read them. A lot of times what he spoke of was truth that would lead to a revolution (Cameron 421). In 1840 the industrial revolution began in England
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and France had brought into being a new social force that was pressed for widespread change in society. This force was the industrial working class, a class of wage labourers concentrated in small factories and work places and increasingly inclined to resort to collective action, such as strikes, and collective organization, in the form of trade unions. Between the years 1830 and 1848, which mark two separate revolutionary uprisings in France, the industrial working class changed the shape of European politics. Karl Marx had a name for himself as a rebel but he did not directly fight the battle he brought the idea to society and the people would take it to the government or the labor leaders (Rigby 529).
Karl Marx did leave economic contributions to free countries except for the idea to stand up for what you believe in. He did help communist counties set their rules and a guideline to live by. I think Karl Marx’s ideas on communism were wrong. Karl Marx’s ideas on communism are incorrect based on his ideas of economics. Marx believed that labor would be free (Cameron 124). Few if any people would work for free, if they get bored, they could go to the movies, theme parks, and other entertainment but where would they get the money from. His ideas that there would be no currency in the future are also wrong. Humans have lived for thousands of years, we have gone through time periods where barter was the only trade. They all eventually took up currency, Karl’s idea of concentration of wealth is faulty. Karl’s idea was that people who are rich, are rich because they get ideas on how to make something better than the next guy does. Poor
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people many times come up with million dollar ideas. Money keeps being transferred from rich to poor, poor to rich. These ideas of Marx’s are wrong about economics and do not work. Look at counties like the former Soviet Union they are falling apart. The money they have they feel is safer in their home and in their pocket than in their banks. People are waiting in long lines for items such as food, all things that take some adjustment to get used to so that they can become a Democracy instead of communism. Karl Marx lived in a time a lot of us probably would not have wanted to. We would not have the convenience of our cars or an air conditioner on a hot summer day. Karl Marx did not live a life of luxury. He was far from a millionaire and the most important thing to him was his writings and ideas. His family was important too but he never had a job that could support them instead he wanted a job as a rebel. He enjoyed his freelance writing styles and causing uprising in different countries, he likes to be heard. He would write for anyone whom would print he did not do it for the money but the money did feed his family. Marx had a rough child hood being ridiculed by his dad for not following what his dad felt was best. Karl is best known for writing the highly subjective Communist Manifesto, which even today some private schools still will not let a copy through the door. Finally we talked about Karl’s contributions today and we can best say that his ideas are still alive today in countries like Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam. Karl Marx was a very smart man whoms ideas are still around today in a more modern society and he has a name that will be around for many more years as the man behind communism.
Bibliography
Karl Marx: The Man Behind Communism 7
References
Appelbaum, Richard P. Karl Marx. Vol 7
Newbury Park: Sage, 1988. 7 vols.
Cameron, Kenneth Neill. Marxism: The Science of Society an Introduction.
Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey, 1985.
Carver, Terrell. Marx & Engles. Bloomington: Indiana University press,
1983.
Linklater, Andrew. Beyond Realism and Marxism. St. Martin’s Press:
New York, 1990.
Marx, Karl. Wage – Labor and Capital. csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/Archive/1849-
WLC/wlc9.txt, 11 November 98.
Padover, Saul K. Karl Marx: an intimate Biography. Abridged ed.
Canada: Meridian, 1980.
Rigby, S.H. Engles and the Formation of Marxism. New York:
Manchester, 1992.
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