Excerpt: The Communist Manifesto

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. [1848] 2005. "The Communist Manifesto". Pp. 132-135 in Understanding Society, 2nd ed., edited by Margaret L. Andersen, Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.

I have a copy of the full document elsewhere, and a quick comparison reveals that the excerpt has less than half the content of the original...

The essay, published in 1848, effectively defines the conflict perspective in terms of class: "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles".

Too much of the essay is angry rhetoric, but there are meaningful observations, such as this one on globalization:

All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilized nations, by by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old wants, satisfied by the productions of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations.

My problem with Marx's view—and until I've re-read the full essay I won't say for certain—is that he implies that the conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat is conscious, that all actions and behaviors therein are deliberate. The bourgeois "exploit", "subject", "create", "improve", "agglomerate", "centralize", "concentrate", etc., all with the directness of a willing class consciousness. It may be his tone of urgency that exaggerates these terms, but I disagree with his implication.

Marx is contemptuous of the bourgeois class and glorifies the proletarian class—those who have nothing to sell except their labor. Perhaps his use of extremes is genuine, perhaps it's to draw attention to class and the history thereof, which do often seem neglected in post-Enlightenment writings. In any case, his economic determinism is too rigid to adequately describe societies, especially today—what of interactions between those of the same class? What of personal motivations and social mobility? What of race, gender, sexuality, education, religion, etc.? What of the camaraderie across class lines seen in times of mutual distress? One's economic class is rarely the most prominent thought in one's mind, whether bourgeois or proletarian, especially in societies that value individualism and egalitarianism and, hence, prefer to believe in class-blindness.

This excerpt highlights the key points of Marx's descripition of the problem—the exploitation of one class by another. A good deal of thought is not included, such as the details of how and why this exploitation occurs and how to overthrow it. I'll comment more after re-reading the full essay.

Relevance: 4/5 (relevant)
Salience: 4/5 (salient)

References:

• none