Up@dawn 2.0

Friday, April 14, 2017

Final Report Installment 1

Karl Marx

I decided to write my first installment over Karl Marx because like many philosophers he questioned his country's economic and political system and did just accept it for how it was by assuming there was no better way. I feel the same way about the political system of the United States and I know that it can be improved.
The well-known philosopher Karl Marx had ideas on how he felt a society should be run. His view was that everyone should be given a chance to make something of themselves, not just the upper class. Karl Marx’s idea came from what he saw during the Industrial Revolution. Worker's were put into unsafe conditions to make little to no money while the factory owners took all the profit. He did not feel that it was right that these hard working people were not given a decent wage, and that the people at the top were getting all the benefits. He felt that capitalism at this time was actually destroying society because of how people were taking advantage of it. It needed to be regulated. Due to this large gap in earnings he felt that there needed to be a system in set that would ensure that the lower class was provided for by redistributing the wealth, or what he called communism. Many people fear the concept of communism now because of how Russia tried to use a communist form of government to run their country. They failed however because they in fact did not have a communist society but a communist dictatorship where they took away peoples’ freedom and told them where to live, what they had to do for a living, and allocated a very large percentage of the taxes they gained from the people to their military and police force. While this was happening most of their people were starving and living in cramped living spaces. There are countries however that have communism policies that have been beneficial, these examples are free education such as what we see in many parts of Europe and free healthcare such as in Canada without a high raise in taxes that you would assume.

These communist policies are suppose to be set in place to benefit everyone equally, the problem occurs when the government allocates the money to sources that will most benefit them and not to the people as a whole.

Karl Marx during his time only saw the consequences of capitalism due to little care for worker safety. What he thought could be achieved with a communist society was a world in which no one would own land, no inheritance, where education was fee, and where public factories provided for everyone. He managed to make an important impact on society by making people realize that it is possible to change how a society is run, and that it does not have to be so divided as it is.

3 comments:

  1. "like many philosophers [Marx] questioned his country's economic and political system and did just accept it for how it was" - you mean did NOT, right?

    In your next installment maybe you can say something about whether "democratic socialism" of the sort that Bernie Sanders claims to represent would be a natural application of Marxist principles, or whether it would sell the Marxist ideal out... and whether that would be a good or a bad thing.

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  2. Yes I must of missed that when I posted it.

    Interesting clips and References for 1st installment:

    http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Category.aspx?CategoryID=314

    References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
    http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/fall-of-communism-in-russia-faq.htm

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  3. Comment by Carl Windham:
    I like that you chose Karl Marx. I was intrigued by his viewpoint in politics when I first heard about it. I agree a lot with what he said in stating everyone should be given a chance to make something of themselves. A lot of times in societies nowadays you are born into what you must be in life. If you step out of that line you were supposed to fall in many people look at you sideways. During the time period, Marx's idea held even more weight because many fell under the natural ways set before them. His idea created backlash and a bunch of uproar from what I remember in high school. He forever put a twist on communism that you did a great job of explaining in this post. In another post touch on another form of communism or an opposing political stance that may have gave Marxism a problem.

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