Views From the Right: In Praise of Marx
Republicans would do well to acknowledge Marx's actual achievements.
From a republican's perspective the thought of Karl Marx has done much to change the world.
Of first order achievement is Marx's diagnoses of problems in his time and ours.
Marx superbly identified the social problems of alienation, exploitation, and the lack of meaning in a seemingly godless age.
For Marx alienation is a widespread societal disease whereby individuals are blocked from pursuing their own enjoyment of life and instead are subject to attempting to satisfy business owners through their ultimately meaningless laborings.
Marx was right to condemn the causes of alienation as exploitative.
But his solution was worse than the problem.
What Marx wanted to do to address the problem of alienation was to discredit God as a potential solution to man’s woes.
Then Marx would convert individuals to the godless religion of communism.
Although communism lacks a God figure its religious nature is undeniable. In Marx, for example, the point of worship is not God but the arrival of heaven on earth and the elimination of history through the eventual arrival of Utopia.
This arrival of perfection, in Marx’s estimation, would eliminate alienation and man would be free to do as he pleases without being chained to any kind of exploitative relationship.
Accordingly Marx says:
In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.
However this happy tale of hunting, fishing, and thinking freely was just that: a tale. When Marx imbued the government with a special religious status in his communist system he unleashed a zealous rage, that once utilized by the USSR, lead to the death of millions. Apparently there’s little room for alienation or exploitation from beneath the gravestone.
Thus for all Marx’s philosophical follies that sent people to the grave he gave people what they want and always will want -- a simple answer to complex problems. And until Republicans take Marx seriously and address the problems of alienation, exploitation, and the lack of meaning in a godless age Marx’s communist solution will remain the standard albeit a lethal one.
Zigmund Reichenbach holds a M.A. in Philosophy from West Chester University. You can occasionally find him covering news stories of national interest at Real News or you can follow him on Twitter @zreichenbach1. To support the creation of articles like these visit the RootsRSNG’s Patreon.
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