Marx believed that "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it". Through his background in both philosophy and journalism, Marx could interpret, through philosophy, and change it by the power of journalism. Marx also believed that it is possible to analyse everything through the economic happenings at the time, this is referred to as the behaviour of economics. Marx achieved the combination of Hegel philosophy, British empiricism and French revolutionary politics; making him a significant force in the western world.
In the lecture it was said that:
- Aristotle thought man was a rational animal
- Plato thought man was a political animal
- Kant thought man was a moral animal
- Hegel thought man was a historical animal
- Marx thought man was a productive animal and it was this ability that allowed man to make tools, thus allowing man to become the dominate species
There are two sides to the dialect dialogue. They are the Thesis, which is a proposition, and the Antithesis, which is a counter proposition or contradictions.
Another theory was Karl Marx's theory of Alienation. This relies on the first theory of human nature, in which it states the spirit is broken or fragmented because there are three parts to a person, in terms of need, they are:
1) the natural self- we need to eat, drink, breath, everyone has to do it. 2) Alienated self in which the natural needs perverted by capitalism. the need for clothes, commodities and shelter. 3) species self understands we are all part of one another like links in a chain. This will emerge in the communist state. Could these three states of needs hint at our time line of existence. We were lived in a basic state of eating and drinking and living off the land, then the industrial revolution and golden age of mankind breed the capitalist system; and our needs were alienated, this is the age we are in now; maybe the next step is the communist state. Capitalism has ruled the planet for generations; maybe the next step is communism. The example in the lecture, to illustrate the theory of alienation, was that in the capitalist system we are all stationed at various parts of a convey belt, and we have one task to perform, like putting a screw into a thing. We have no idea what this thing will be at the end of the process, we have no idea of what the thing was at the beginning of the process, we have no idea who was before us on the convey belt and we have no idea who is after us; we simple perform are jobs and don't ask any questions, this is alienation. We are alienated from other people, we just do what is asked of us and conform to the needs of the convey belt. Capitalism alienates us from ourselves, we lose our identities and out motivations. Everything, in the capitalist system, is motivated by money; work becomes the loss of the self, as we generally work below others, work does not develop our body or mind, if anything it reduces it. There is no fulfillment or expression of creativity in our work, it is just sitting in front of a computer screen, in a office, mindlessly tapping away at a computer.
Communism, Marx believed, was the cure to the capitalist disease. In communism the thesis is the bourgeoisie, who own and run the free markets and the antithesis's is the proletariat who are the working classes. The bourgeoisie are the ones who run the factors and workplaces that the proletariat's inhabit, it is the bourgeoisie who suppress the individualism and creativity of the proletariat's. One of the main problems of the capitalist system is the rich get richer, whilst the poor get poorer. Another major problem of the capitalist system in the insecurity of industry and business. The bourgeoisie rely on the working classes to buy the products that they produce, the problem is the working classes don't get paid enough money to buy the cutting edge products the bourgeoisie are producing. So if the working classes can't buy the products of capitalism, who is buying them? The insecurity of money is another problem, if the world is gripped by an economic crisis, like we are today, then the bourgeoisie suppress the working classes further, by driving down their wages, making huge staff reductions and shutting down facilities; to mend a problem that the greed of the bourgeoisie caused in the first place. Marx believed to be free, and break the chains that we are held by, the proletariat's need to rise up against the bourgeoisie and communism will replace capitalism and be the solution. In communism there is no difference between mental and physical labour, we would be free to express ourselves with in our work. A person would be a fisherman in the morning, a factory worker in the afternoon and a musician in the evening; working to their full potential and expressing themselves. In theory communism is the better economic system, but in practise there has rarely been a successful example.
In conclusion I would like to consider, is capitalism all that bad? Capitalism and the free market does breed advancements in technology, without capitalism maybe we would not of had the i-pad. Capitalism apparently allows for a free democracy, in which the people of the system have freedom of speech. But in the capitalist democracy are we as free as the bourgeoisie would like us to think we are? When we protest in this country we, cause a little of bit of fuss for one day, then go back to work the next day. Whereas in the Arab revolution the people stayed in protest for weeks and weeks until something changed. They were under a dictator for generations and did not leave until he was overthrown, whereas we in the Britain generally give up after a day because we can not afford to miss one more day off work. Furthermore are we hopeless in changing the capitalist system, as I mentioned when we protest in Britain, never changes. We are born into this system, we do not chose it, but can we ever get out of it. Capitalism is a fierce beast, it encourages risk taking and gambling with money you do not have, it encourages selfish behaviour and cut throat tactics, is that anyway to live?
Viva la revolution I say.
