What?! Karl Marx?!
Yes, today, March 14, we commemorate the passing of the most polarizing figures in history: Karl Marx.
Though he died on this date in 1883, few can claim such a lofty place in history–and not simply because he founded Communism. As you’ll see by the end of this post, his ideas and theories echo through the ages, continuing to inspire society today.
Background
Marx may not have been a very good political thinker. But he was an excellent socioeconomic thinker. That’s the key to understanding Marx and why his legacy is so contested.
But first, an overview of his life:
Early Life and Education
Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, Prussia (now Germany). He was the third of nine children in a middle-class Jewish family. His father, Heinrich Marx, was a lawyer and a man of the Enlightenment, who converted to Lutheranism to escape anti-Semitic laws. Marx’s mother, Henriette Pressburg, came from a Dutch Jewish family. Marx received a classical education at the Trier High School and later studied law and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin.
Intellectual Development and Influences
During his university years, Marx was influenced by the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and became involved in the Young Hegelians, a group of radical thinkers who sought to apply Hegelian ideas to social and political issues. Marx’s early writings were influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach’s materialism and critique of religion. However, Marx soon developed his own ideas, emphasizing the role of material conditions in shaping human consciousness and society.
Journalism and Early Political Activism
After completing his studies, Marx turned to journalism to support himself and express his increasingly radical ideas. He became the editor of the Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal newspaper in Cologne, but the publication was soon suppressed by the Prussian government due to its revolutionary content. Marx then moved to Paris, where he continued his journalistic work and deepened his engagement with socialist and communist thought. It was in Paris that Marx met Friedrich Engels, who would become his lifelong friend and collaborator.
Exile and The Development of Marxist Theory
Due to his revolutionary activities, Marx was expelled from France in 1845 and moved to Brussels, Belgium. During his time in Brussels, Marx, along with Engels, developed the foundations of what would later be known as Marxist theory. They co-authored “The German Ideology,” which outlined their materialist conception of history, and “The Communist Manifesto,” a political pamphlet that called for the overthrow of capitalist societies and the establishment of communism.
London Years and Major Works
In 1849, Marx settled in London, where he would spend the rest of his life in exile. Despite facing financial hardships and personal tragedies, including the death of several children, Marx devoted himself to his scholarly work. He conducted extensive research at the British Museum and wrote some of his most important works during this period. His magnum opus, Das Kapital (Capital), was published in multiple volumes, with the first volume appearing in 1867. In this work, Marx analyzed the capitalist system, its dynamics, and its inherent contradictions.
Legacy and Impact
Marx died on March 14, 1883, in London. Although he did not live to see the widespread adoption of his ideas, his theories on capitalism, class struggle, and historical materialism have had a profound impact on social and political thought. Marxist theory has influenced various movements and revolutions around the world, and it continues to be a subject of study and debate in academic and political circles. Marx’s critique of capitalism and his vision for a classless society have left an indelible mark on history, making him one of the most influential thinkers of the modern era.
So What’s the Big Deal?
It’s hard to overstate how influential the Industrial Revolution was. Up to that point, the vast majority of humanity lived in poverty. It was unfathomable that it could be any other way.
But thanks to a few textile factory owners in Liverpool in the mid-1700s, a new way of doing work–built around a highly specialized division of labor–came into being. It spread like wildfire because it was so much more productive than the old way of doing work. People started applying industrial methods everywhere they could.
The result was a huge boom in productivity, and a huge increase in standards of living.
Suddenly, there were factories, trains, and telegraphs. Slavery, which had existed for thousands of years to that point, suddenly seemed cruel and unnecessary. It really seemed as though humanity had figured out the best way to do things, and would continue growing and prospering indefinitely into the future.
But there was one fellow who dared to say: Nuh-uh, not yet. You might think you’re free. But the old form of slavery has just transformed into something else.
That fellow was Karl Marx. He was history’s greatest party pooper. And he spent his whole life studying and writing, trying to convince people he was right–which he was, more often than not.
Marx’s Fundamental Insight
Throughout human history, there’s a constant pattern. Some people work, transforming nature to create useful things. Others do not, like babies, the elderly, or the very sick. This leads to a question: how do those who don’t work survive?
The answer is at least some workers must produce more than they need for themselves, creating a surplus. This surplus supports those who don’t work. Marx called the part of work that maintains the worker “necessary labor” and the surplus “surplus labor.”
Marx wondered how societies decide who works, how they work, how much they keep, who doesn’t work, and how the surplus is distributed. He believed these decisions shape society culturally, politically, and economically.
Marx identified five types of societal arrangements based on how the surplus is distributed:
- Communism: A group works together, produces a surplus, and decides collectively how to distribute it.
- Ancient: Individuals work independently, produce a surplus, and decide individually how to distribute it.
- Slave: Workers produce a surplus, but have no control over it. The surplus is maintained and distributed by the slave owner.
- Feudalism: Serfs work, producing for themselves and a surplus for the feudal lord, who controls the distribution.
- Capitalism: Wage-earners work and produce a surplus but have no control over it. The capitalist pays them a wage and controls the surplus.
In short, in capitalism, workers must be paid less than the value of their work, which allows capitalists to profit. Marx saw similarities between the capitalist-worker and slave-owner relationships, because both are based on exploitation.
Both are also based on a lack of control over what happens to the fruits of the surplus labor.
Most of us capable of producing surplus labor would be satisfied with the arrangement if we knew that surplus was going toward supporting babies, the elderly, or the very ill. But we don’t get to decide this in capitalism. The capitalist–the one who is offering us a wage that must be less than what we are worth–does. And if she or he decides to use it to buy a bigger house or more goodies for themselves, there’s nothing we can do to stop this.
That’s why most people in a capitalist society dream of one day owning their own business–because then they will be in a position to decide what to do with the surplus. Even to dream of being self-employed is to dream of opting out of capitalism, as this is best described as the “ancient” form of production above.
It’s natural to want to feel connected to your work, Marx argued. But in a capitalist system, like in a slave or feudal system, we are alienated (Guess where that word comes from? Yep, Marx!) from what we produce. It’s only in the ancient and communist systems that can have some say in what happens to the surplus labor we produce.
Here’s the Problem:
Marx never actually wrote about how communism was supposed to work in real life. Kind of strange, considering he’s the founder of the concept, but true. “The Communist Manifesto” is about the need for communism, not the mechanics of it. For most of his life, Marx’s obsessive focus was on capitalism (i.e., the economic system that emerged out of the Industrial Revolution) and how it worked.
That vacuum was one many political dictators seized upon during the twentieth century. After all, it’s very easy to say you want to set up a system that follows the principle: “From each according to [their] abilities, to each according to [their] needs” (another slogan pioneered by Marx). It’s quite another to do so in practice.
And so what happened in practice was many millions of people suffered and died in the name of communism during the twentieth century. Marx did clearly advocate for the use of force in bringing about a communist society. Here, for example, is what he said in a speech in the Netherlands in 1872:
Someday the worker must seize political power in order to build up the new organization of labor; he must overthrow the old politics which sustain the old institutions … We do not deny that there are countries — such as America, England, and if I were more familiar with your institutions, I would perhaps also add Holland — where the workers can attain their goal by peaceful means. This being the case, we must also recognize the fact that in most countries on the Continent the lever of our revolution must be force; it is force to which we must some day appeal in order to erect the rule of labor.
Whatever you think of Marx, he was an insurrectionist. He failed to understand how governments work, how political organizations tend to get hijacked by a group of elites, how his ideas would be taken up and used as the hammer and sickle of authoritarianism for the better part of a century. That is easily his greatest flaw.
But as a socioeconomic critic, his ideas have held up incredibly well.
Today, Marx is considered a founder of sociology and the modern social sciences more broadly. He was a theorist, not an empirical researcher by today’s standards. But his theories of capitalism and how it works have been tested and retested by modern studies, and still hold merit, even as capitalism has changed enormously since Marx’s time.
One way sociologists try to distance themselves from the stigma of being associated with Marx and his beliefs about overthrowing the state is to call themselves Marxian rather than Marxist. Marxian sociology is sociology that uses Marx’s socioeconomic theories without accepting his beliefs about the overthrow of the state. Marxists, by contrast, are those who still subscribe to Marx’s belief that existing governments should be overthrown.
In a similar way, contemporary politicians inspired by Marx’s ideas without necessarily believing the existing state should be overthrown tend to call themselves socialist rather than communist. In the United States, these politicians include Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Osacio-Cortez. They are not insurrectionists; they advocate working through the existing political system to bring it more in line with Marx’s vision of a communist society, and may call themselves adherents of social democracy or democratic socialism. (Marx himself had mixed feelings about democracy; there’s a whole Wikipedia page on it if you want to go down that rabbit hole.)
Marx’s theories and concepts continue to have a significant impact today in dozens of ways.
This post has been an enormous oversimplification of Marx and his work, and I will probably get flamed by his stans as well as his haters in the comments. But let’s not forget the main purpose of this post: establishing why the man is worthy of commemoration, despite his flaws. Just in case there is any doubt, here is a non-exhaustive list of some of the ways his ideas are still relevant today.
- Class Struggle and Inequality: Marx’s concept of class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat remains relevant in understanding contemporary socioeconomic inequalities. The widening wealth gap and ongoing labor disputes in various industries echo his ideas.
- Capitalism Critique: Marx’s critique of capitalism, highlighting its inherent contradictions and exploitation, resonates with those critical of neoliberal economic policies and the unchecked power of multinational corporations.
- Globalization: Marx’s ideas on the global nature of capitalism and the international division of labor are applicable in analyzing the dynamics of globalization and its impact on workers and economies.
- Alienation: The concept of alienation, where workers are disconnected from the products of their labor, the labor process, and their fellow workers, is relevant in discussions about job dissatisfaction and the psychological effects of modern work environments.
- Historical Materialism: Marx’s theory of historical materialism, which suggests that material conditions primarily influence social structures and cultural ideas, is a foundational concept in various social sciences.
- Ideology: Marx’s concept of ideology, as a set of beliefs that justify the status quo and obscure the realities of exploitation, is used in analyzing media, culture, and political discourse.
- Social Movements: Marx’s emphasis on collective action and revolution inspires various social movements, including labor unions, anti-globalization protests, and campaigns for economic justice.
- Critical Theory: Marx’s ideas are foundational to critical theory, particularly in the Frankfurt School, which analyzes the cultural and ideological dimensions of contemporary society.
- Environmentalism: Marx’s writings on the metabolic rift between humans and nature have been revisited in discussions about ecological degradation and sustainability.
- Postcolonialism: Marx’s analysis of imperialism and colonialism informs postcolonial studies, which examine the legacy of colonialism in contemporary social and economic inequalities.
- Intersectionality: Although not directly related to Marx, his focus on intersecting social and economic factors has influenced intersectional analyses of race, gender, and class.
- Economic Crisis: Marx’s theories on economic crises, such as overproduction and the falling rate of profit, are referenced in understanding the cyclical nature of financial downturns.
- Technology and Automation: Marx’s insights into the impact of technology on labor and productivity are relevant in discussions about automation, artificial intelligence, and the future of work.
- Political Economy: Marx’s contributions to political economy continue to influence academic and policy debates on economic development, inequality, and state intervention.
- Social Change: Marx’s belief in the potential for social change through collective action continues to inspire activists and policymakers working towards a more equitable society.
Karl Marx’s legacy is complex and multifaceted. I reject Marx’s call for violent revolution. But I accept many of his other ideas–and so probably do you, even if you weren’t aware of it until you read this post.
As we commemorate his passing, it’s clear that his contributions remain relevant and thought-provoking, even in society today.
Okay, let me have it. What did I get right or wrong about this man and his legacy? Have at it in the comments!
