Marxism
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[Karl Marx's Grave] 

Marxism

The base of Marxism is taken from the writings and beliefs of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, who together wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party.  Marxism is also known as the "working-class socialism" and shares most of the ideas of socialism and communism (Marx and Engels).  Marxists believe that capitalism does not allow the people to be as free as they could be under socialism.  Capitalism allows unemployment to rise and is a system of "savage inhumanity" according to some pro-socialist groups. Socialism is about all workers being equal and united and the workers are the group who should control the government (Kuhn).

As I see it, Marxists want a government based on the beliefs of one man, with a few ideas thrown in from a couple other sources, instead of a government that can change and evolve as people evolve and change.  Of course, there are not only two governments to choose from, but as I read through many Pro-Marxism articles and publications the most common governments that were referred to as a, "system of waste, irrationality and savage inhumanity" (Matgamma) were capitalistic ones.  This is probably because of the large percentage of major capitalistic governments in operation today.

Communism, Socialism, and Marxism are very similar and share many of the same ideas towards government.  Communism says that all property is common property owned by the state, where all people are a part of the state.  Socialism is where the government has total control over distribution and production of goods and, according to Marxist theory, is the middle stage of the transition from capitalism to communism.  Marxism is the ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels where capitalism will evolve into a social order and classless society.  These three theories of government seem to be on a plane with all the theories and ideas of government; only they are closely connected in a line, with capitalism at one end and Marxism at the other.

These theories have good intentions and are well thought out, but human nature is something that cannot be predicted or even explained sometimes.  Since the human population cannot be treated as a standard and often people have no care for the rest of the human population, I feel that there are some faults to the theories.  These theories are based on a similar idea of people working together for the greater cause, but humans don't naturally come together and work for everyone.  Most people are comparatively independent and work to support themselves and close kin, rather than working so other people can live and prosper.  Most people should care about helping other people, but people live on their instincts: instincts that all creatures have: to get food, find shelter, reproduce, and protect one's kin.  Instincts can be ignored, but often people don't know that they are following their instincts.  Natural instincts are a powerful force; for example, brown bears will travel hundreds of miles if they know one spot where they found food before.  That's power.

I think that over time, people could learn to ignore their instincts, but they would have to be brainwashed at a very young age.  This would interfere with basic human rights; a person's right to live a free life, think about anything, talk about anything, and most importantly, the right to be ignorant and reclusive.  Trying to conform a group of people so everyone is working for the same goals is not being free; people have the right to be lazy and poor or working for a mediocre living or very hard working and rich.  As a great man (and one of the most influential skateboarders in history, Steve Caballero) once said, "We are created equal to become unequal."  Although I feel that one person could not be called "better" than any other person, people have the ability to make decisions that separate them from other people.  This is something that cannot be controlled, and we shouldn't try to control it.

Works Cited

Kuhn, Rick.  "Where We Stand."  Dec. 1994.  Australian Natinoal U. 26 Feb.2001 <http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/contemp/pamsetc/whatwhere/ stand.html>.

Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels.  Manifesto of the Communist Party.  Trans.  Samuel Moore.  1988.

Matgamma, Sean.  "How Solidarity Can Change the World."  Worker's Liberty.  Apr. 1998.  <http://www.workersliberty.org/wlmags/ solid/intro.html>.

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