Karl Marx. Ideology: Communism "Focus: Vienation of labor Before: 1. 380 BCE: Plato argues that the ideal society has strong limitations on private property. 2, 1807: Georg Hegel puts forward a philosophy of history that inspires Marx's theories. 3. 1819: French writer Henri de Saint-Simon advocates a form of socialism. * After: 1, 1917: Vladimir Lenin leads the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, inspired by Marx's ideos. 2, 1940s: Communism spreads across the world and the Cold war begins. 3. 1991: The Soviet Union breaks up and nations in Eastern Europe adopt Capitalist economic systems. * Important work: 4. 1844 Economic and philosophic manuscripts 2. 1848 Communist Manifesto 3. 1867 Copital Volume I (vol Il and Ill published 1885 and 1894 posthumously) * Political context: Industrial revolution started turned the whole social structure of Europe upside down. Prior to this people used to live in self-sufficient communities largely. Trade did exist but was limited. However, ofter this revolution factories were made due to which relatively cheap stuff started being made and supplied to the market due to which handmade stuff started disappearing. Its relevance also started decreasing, Hence the people were outcompeted due to division of labor and specialization of work. This meant that an individual person could no longer survive and would have to work in an industry. Marx’s work addressed central concerns of the time i.e., how the rise of how the rise of industrial capitalism affected living conditions ad society's moral health. According to Marx there is a thing called means of production which are not the final product e.9., land, fertilizers and so on, The means of production is at the top of economic pedestal meaning those who ‘own it determine the economic system. In capitalism copitalist class owns the means of production ‘and are known as Bourgeoise. However, they are not manual labors. Instead, the working class known as proletariats work as they are forced to work in the industry. Yet they don’t own the means of production and offer their labor services for low wages because capitalist class has an incentive that if the wages are low there will be profit maximization because greedy capitalist would always want to increase their profit. That is why itis known as wage slavery. Under a capitalist system ‘according to Marx the worker becomes disconnected from the products that he creates the momentthey are handed over to his employer. This causes the worker to lose his self-identity. The worker puts effort into the products he creates. This is the theory of Allenation. According to Marx there are 4 types of alienation that a worker experience i.e., 4. From the product of Labor: Under capitalism it is the capitalists motivated by the desire for profit rather than the desire to meet real human needs who decide which goods and services will be produced and the prices at which they will be sold. Workers cannot purchase the products that they have created, 2. From the act of production: Under capitalism workers have little or no overall control over the production process which is often based upon the division of labor involving the breaking down of the production process into an endless sequence of simple repetitive and boring tasks which give no opportunity for worker creativity. No creativity or ingenuity means no psychological satisfactions. Workers have simply become cogs in a gigantic machine. 3. Alienation of the worker from their Gattungswesen (species-essence): Marx considered Man ‘not as an isolated entity or individual without any social life. The word species describes the intrinsic human essence that is characterized by a plurality of interests whereby every individual has the desire and the tendency to engage in the many activities that promote ‘mutual human survival and psychological wellbeing. This ability and desire to consciously Shape things around us is what makes one human. Hence humans cannot find meaning the life they could have driven from their work. 4, Alienation from other workers: Capitalism reduces the labor of the worker to a commercial commodity that can be traded in the competitive labor market. Here workers are forced to. compete with other workers for limited manual jobs because if they don’t, they won't be able to survive. The reason the system is such so that the workers don’t gain class consciousness. All the workers are exploited by the capitalist as a class. However, proletariats don’t realize this and need to unite and protest against this. Marx goes on to connect this to his theory of how a revolution would come. "Historical Materialism: Y On stages of economic development: Human civilization has manifested itself in a series of organizational structures each determined by its primary mode of production particularly the division of labor. Marx is a teleological philosopher. Teleology means the fate of a seed is to become aplant. Marx is a part of those broader philosophers that believe history progresses ina particular fashion and can be interpreted to determine the future. His analysis is reductionist in the sense that everything Is related to economic structure. Near him every history is divided into eras that has had Class struggles having those who have means of production and those who don’t. The nature and owners change but this is the fundamental premise.4. The tribal form: Tribal societies were the first human forms who had no social classes because there were no means of production. They were hunting and gathering societies and were nomadic tribes. However, over time by virtue of their alleged superiority of men they used to hunt animals and women used to collect plants and do house hold work, eventually became domesticated resulting is formation of social classes i.e., men and women. Primitive communism: Union of several tribes into a city by agreement or conquest. The production here was low with everyone being able to provide for themselves and they were self-sustaining. However, over time the tools improved and the agriculture revolution began. This resulted in the nomadic tribes being converted into sedentary populations meaning they could grow their food on one land. This also gave birth to private property i., this is my form, these are my domesticated animals and so on. The equality also finished by the end of this era resulting in social inequality. Thus, the first antagonistic classes salves and slave who owned ‘owners appeared and became a profitable business. Slave owners were those the means of production and slaves were those who didn’t. 3, Feudalism: Feudalism was based on aristocratic landowners (barons) who exploited the mass of peasants. It was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9" and the 15" centuries. The development of forces of production led to emergence of feudal relations of production. Those relations were based on the feudal lord’s ownership of the serfs or landless peasants. These relations were more progressive than in slavery system because they made the laborers interested to some extent in their labor. Industrial capitalism: With the industrial revolution there was large scale machine production and factories came the era of industrial capitalism. Under capitalism the producer, the proletariat were legally free because they were not attached to the factories but in practical sense they won't survive if they don’t work in the factories. Hence, they are forced to work in the factories hence it is pseudo slavery. The reason is that they don’t own means of production hence they are compelled to sell their labor power and thereby came under the yoke of exploitation. This was an economically productive system but at the same time exploitative and unequal as those who own the means of production get rich and the other class does not. Y In short: 1. Tribal form: Classes (except men v/s women) 2. Primitive communism: Slave owners/freemen v. slaves 3. Feudalism: Lords v Serfs/peasants 4. Capitalism: Bourgeoisie (capitalists) c Proletariats (workers)y es were formed on the ba ; social classes We re formed on the basis of relationship with means of production, Hence, the famous saying af kor! Mars, “The history of all hitherto existing mankind isa history of class strugale. ¥ Basic principles Basic principles of historical materialism: The basis of human society [s how humans work an nature roduce the me to produce the means of subsistence. Due to this there is @ division of tabor into social classes depending on the rel :pending on the relations with means of production based on property ownership where some yeople li people live from the labor of others, Society moves from stage to stage when the daminant class Is he old relations of production to change. This form of revolution, whereby displaced by a new emerging class that enforces takes place in the superstructure of society (the political arena) inthe. the underclass liberates and new system/class structure emerges. premise v Future (classless communism): There Isa crisis within the system of capitalism because Its to exploit the working class, Due to this a 1d will unite and develop a class am meaning they will start take proletariat. This means of profit maximization will lead capitalist to continue tipping point will come as the working class will be allenated an consciousness and will lead a revolution. They will overthrow capitals control of every state-owned resource which is known as dictatorship of the production will be owned by the worker's class. me equal and there will no longer be anced. and there would be a money-less, classless that for the first time the means of, They will do fair distribution and effectively everyone will becor for the state and would wither away and effectively at the er society and state-less society which would be the pure form of communism. ¥ Summary: cnn Cony Reena aiecunaC a Mea ‘Communism is the riddle of RECA) oneness aes aa) Sees = Legacy: a ae 7 Workers’ Rights: In terms of workers’ rights the workers started protesting and made unions ‘5 Marx's writings became famous due to printing press especially Das Capital. Due to this,( Inspiring wey 5: i '9 welfare states: In Scandinavian countries inspired by Marx’s writing they S cicor meen to ia realized the horrors that a capitalism could bring. ee 1pper in his book open society and its enemies critiqued Marx stating ism state economy and would result in an authoritarian and autocratic State, The classic example of this is Stain’ reign of terror. Secondly, the kind of system Marx wants to create is undemocratic. Thirdly, Marx did not envision that dynamics of labor would change as nowadays there is no ownership of means of praduction especialy inthe digital world. Fourthly, nowadays there are multiple identities ‘people associate themselves with. Also, Marx failed to envision that capitalism would adapt with changing needs which is visible with the worker's rights. Finally, a true communist state was never created. A socialist state came into being but never Classless society. Marx relates everything to economy. He does not give any feedback path i.e, sometimes it is not the economic base that creates values. It might be the values that create the base. Also it is possible that directly from values one can challenge the base. * Concept of base superstructure: Structure of human society is divided into 2 parts into which society is structured: 1. Economic Base: They include everything that are needed to produce things. They are the means of production and the relationship people have with them. They shape the superstructure. The relationship of means of production determine the superstructure. 2. Superstructure: They are things which have nothing to do with production of economic resources. They are values, cultural norms, expectations and so on. They maintain and legitimize the economic base and reinforce it. g., According to Marx since there is capitalism the notion of success would be who would have more wealth. it would not matter what his/her other values will be. His ability to accumulate wealth would be a ‘meter to determine his success rate. The reason is that capitalist class has resources to create these values. Eg, in earlier times within UK they house of lords had rich and powerful people and everything revolved around them hence creating their values. Also, since capitalist system is dominant everything will be done according to it e.g, in schools, universities, religious institutions and so on people are engineered to accept the copitalist system and contribute in it eventually profiting the capitalist class. Another example is white privilege. Since whites owned the means of production hence, they were dominant in the society and were considered intellectually superior. That is why Marx is reductionist in his economic analysis.