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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Cowbee@lemmy.ml to c/memes@lemmy.ml

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On May 5th, 1818, Karl Marx, hero of the international proletatiat, was born. His revolution of Socialist theory reverberates throughout the world carries on to this day, in increasing magnitude. Every passing day, he is vindicated. His analysis of Capitalism, development of the theory of Scientific Socialism, and advancements on dialectics to become Dialectical Materialism, have all played a key role in the past century, and have remained ever-more relevant throughout.

He didn't always rock his famous beard, when he was younger he was clean shaven!

Some significant works:

Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

The Civil War in France

Wage Labor & Capital

Wages, Price, and Profit

Critique of the Gotha Programme

Manifesto of the Communist Party (along with Engels)

The Poverty of Philosophy

And, of course, Capital Vol I-III

Interested in Marxism-Leninism, but don't know where to start? Check out my "Read Theory, Darn it!" introductory reading list!

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[-] pineapple@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

Communism is actually human nature. Think about before the human era when everyone was hunter gatherers working together and sharing was what kept everyone alive. There was no currency or concept of ownership.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

I recommend this thread, though maybe don't bother going down the chain that far as it becomes a stalemate.

Essentially, you're correct in that tribal societies were very communistic, but not Communist. Marxists call this "primitive communism," as a distinguishing factor from Communism, a highly industrialized and global society emerging from Socialism.

The truth is, all modes of production are "human nature." Human nature, after all, is malleable, and is largely determined by which mode of production humanity finds itself in. Each mode of production turns into another due to human nature, Capitalism is merely also human nature, just like feudalism, tribal societies, as is Socialism and eventually Communism.

[-] pineapple@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 hours ago

Interesting take, thank you for your opinion.

[-] System_below@lemmy.myserv.one 4 points 1 day ago

But is human nature not more acutely observed within the view of coercion, control and oppression? Marx says himself that the human history is defined by class wars between the haves and the have nots, with or without capitalism we will have a system that expresses control and oppression.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Marx states that all hitherto existing history is the history of Class Struggles. In analyzing tribal societies, he did so as they did indeed lack class, money, and a state, but were distinctly not "Communist" as production was low, and life relatively harsh and brutal. Communism as a mode of production is the classless society of the future, the end of class struggle. There will be new contradictions and new changes, most likely, but class as a concept is abolished through a global, publicly owned and planned industrial economy, in Marx's analysis.

[-] System_below@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 23 hours ago

This is where i struggle agreeing with Marx, i find him to be selectively pragmatic and idealistic whenever the former or latter is convenient.

He acknowledges human nature is to oppress or be oppressed, as even in prehistoric human groups leaders would have formed and social rules enforced, we can assume this from our experiences in social groups. Yet does not believe that communism would lead to centralised oppression despite his historical studies, to me its either he chooses to ignore this factor or people misinterpret his writing and they cannot be applied in a post industrial capitalism society.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 5 points 23 hours ago

Marx doesn't acknowledge "human nature is to oppress or be oppressed," though. Marx builds the economic analysis of class society and charts how it will eventually erase its own foundations. Primitive communistic societies did not usually have classes, as they didn't have an economic basis for it.

Communism would be centralized, but it would also be democratized.

[-] Trashcan@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

If you define economics as have and have-not, they obviously had economics. Who are he to tell us that bartering didn't happen on any scale within a tribe of cro magnom.

I think the point being is that economics is a large scale class system with fairly complex structures. There's always been have and have-nots. Just look at a pride of lions on how they distribute the feeding based upon ranks within the pride. It's not economics, but it's s class based system with distributed means (i.e access to food).

So maybe all of nature is oppress or being oppressed in a way. We just industrialised it.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Nobody defines economics as "have or have nots" or denies that trade existed a long, long time ago. I think you're missing the point of class society and how that plays in economics, but isn't all-encompassing of it.

It isn't about oppression or being oppressed.

[-] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 day ago

smh why do libs have to embarrass themselves everytime there is a reference to Marx

[-] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 7 points 16 hours ago

Because they are taught to never, ever, read any of his books. It's the Necronomicon for them.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago

I'll be honest, I picked this meme precisely because I knew it would draw out liberals, and I think it's been effective in convincing a few people to reconsider their prior understanding.

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