Blog 10: "The Communist Manifesto"

Reading Karl Marx’s, The Communist Manifesto, it is clear that there is an un-equalness in the society of the Bourgeois and Proletarians. These two classes of people in the society are very different from one another. The Bourgeois are the wealthy, luxury owning pompous people; they are the upper class who rule over all the other classes. These other classes are known as the Proletarians are the more poor of the two; these are the people who do all of the hard labor. The Bourgeois have always been the “top dog,” and will fight to stay at the top; therefore leaving no room for the Proletarians to be as successful. Although the Bourgeois are seen to be the present successful group in the reading, Marx believes that the proletariat will be the social class of the future.

In order for there to be this social status equalness, Marx believes in communism; that these concepts of being a Communist will even things out between all the social classes. Marx’s statements all throughout the reading support the cause of communism, and that the Communist cause is the proletarian cause. Marx expects communism to provide the proletariat with a bright future. As he stated, “Of all the classes that stand to face with the bourgeoisie today the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class” (Marx 365). This is a very clear statement that Marx is in support of the “little people,” if you will. Marx explains that the goal of the Communists is the same as the proletarian parties, in that they focus and believe in the formation of the proletariat into a class to conquer the bourgeois of superiority and the conquest of political power by the proletariat. Also, in order for them to achieve such aims, there strategy is simple, “Abolition of private property” (Marx 368).

Marx’s ideologies of communism remind me of the old story of “Robin Hood,” how their main goal was to steal from the rich to give it back to the poor; this way the poor can live normal decent lives and maybe even other throw their unjust suppressors. I also get reminded of how our major parties today are represented by those Marx spoke of in this reading. I made that connection that the Bourgeois are the current Republicans and the Proletarians are the current Democrats. Each party’s beliefs are alike to Marx’s social classes, for an example the Bourgeois believe in taxing the less fortunate and giving back to the already rich, just like Republicans. Whereas the Proletarians believe in giving back to the smaller people, just as Democrats believe in giving to the small businesses and less fortunate people.

Reading “The Communist Manifesto” was very fascinating and I enjoyed learning that it had many ideas about societies that are still much like todays. In my opinion, I think communism is not totally a bad idea; Marx has many well supported arguments that I agree with. He wishes to see the labor of society be equally distributed among all the people of a society and he proposes a more equal division of wealth. This is one of the ideas of communism that I agree with. In Marx’s new ideal society, instead of fighting and ruling over one another, the people will learn to work together and evenly distribute goods, money, work, and land. This new society sounds magnificent. So in conclusion, I do not agree with everything Communism offers, but I do think it could equal out a split economy.

Marx, Karl. "The Communist Manifesto." A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Trans. Samuel Moore. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. pp 353-379.