For this semesters book review I chose to read The Communist Manifesto. It was written by the German philosopher Karl Marx, edited by Friedrich Engels and originally published in 1848. This book today has come to be recognized as one of the worlds most influential political documents. I greatly enjoyed this critically acclaimed book and found it very interesting. I will give a brief overview of the contents and discus my final thoughts on the book.
The Communist Manifesto begins by giving a recount of the history of the working class and how they have built society. It begins by stating: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” [1] Karl Marx states that ever since the beginning of civilization there has been a constant class struggle. The freeman and the slave have both broke their back working for their king to live a lavish life of comfort. “In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank.” [2] Karl then says that the modern bourgeois society has resulted from this. Now it is strictly the proletarians (working class) against the bourgeois (wealthy class).
Karl Marx next goes on to recall how the bourgeois class has come to accumulate so much power in modern times at the extent of the proletarians. The unification and structure of nations has added to the power that the bourgeois have been able to accumulate. “More and more the bourgeoisie keeps doing away with the scattered state of the population, of the means of production, and of property. It has agglomerated population, centralized means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands.” [3] Political centralization has allowed the many provinces and kingdoms with different systems of government to be brought together under one nation. This in turn has led to the spread of bourgeoisie power. “The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all the preceding generations together.” [4]
The Industrial Revolution has only added to the influence of the bourgeoisie class as well. “Subjection of nature’s forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalisation of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground—what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labour.” [5] Karl Marx claims that the power of the bourgeoisie only continued to grow and is now so powerful that even the bourgeoisie class does not know what to do. The only thing that they know what to do with this power is to keep feeding the system, so that they become more powerful at the expense of the proletariat class.
Then, Karl Marx makes the statement of how the growth of industry has helped the bourgeoise class in their rise of power. By the massive growth of the Industrial Revolution workers have grown in number. “But with the development of industry the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The various interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalized, in proportion as machinery obliterates all distinctions of labor and nearly everywhere reduces wages to the same low level.” [6] Wages for the working class greatly fluctuate with the invention of new technologies. However, since there were such a great numbers of workers they were able to form unions and go on communal strikes in order to receive better treatment. Marx states that while now and then the riots were successful, it wasn't long before the wages would return to the same rate.
Next, Karl Marx introduces the terms of communism and shows how it is here to help the proletariat struggle. He says that the Communists are different from other working-class parties in two distinct ways. They are: “1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.” [7] The aim of the Communists is to overthrow the bourgeoisie and make the proletariat a dominant political class in society. Karl then says that the theory of communism is the abolition of private property.
Overall I greatly enjoyed this book. It is a fascinating read and one that shows how Communism can be appealing to many. However, history shows the destruction and terror that Communism really brings about. Communism seeks to abolish religion, therefore making the state its citizen's god. Communism is therefore against the Catholic Church and we must reject it. “The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modern times with ‘communism.” [8]
Bibliography:
Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1948. ISBN 13 978-0-7178-0241-8
[1] Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1948, Page 9.
[2] Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1948, Page 9.
[3] Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1948, Page 13.
[4] Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1948, Page 13.
[5] Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1948, Page 14.
[6] Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1948, Page 17-18.
[7] Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1948, Page 22.
[8]Catechism of the Catholic Church. 2nd ed. New York: Double Day, 1997, 2425.
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