Marx

KARL MARX : A MUCH MISUNDERSTOOD THINKER

200th ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH

By Stephen Wilson

German Philosopher Karl Marx

MOSCOW -- "O No . Don't speak about Marx. We have heard it all before. We

are sick and tired of hearing about him. We had to listen to

lectures about him for years. Let us change the subject."plead

one of the students as the other students groaned. Phil, an

English teacher from England based in Kishinev, wisely changed

the topic. An attitude of either apathy, antipathy as well as

boredom , appears to be the general response to the 200th

anniversary of the birth of German philosopher Karl Marx. In

contrast to the Day of Victory on May the 9th , where an

unprecedented 1 million Russians converged on the city of

Moscow, the ghost of Karl Marx seemed invisible and only

the name of a Moscow metro, a statue and streets remind you

of him. The only conspicuous presence of Marx

surfaced in the names of a few historical journals as if he

has been relegated to a historical curiosity rather than a

guide to action. 

Those articles don't flatter Marx. In one Journal 'Historian' a leading editorial writes : 'All his life Marx struggled for the happiness of the workers but cared little

about his family ' and how Marx is supposed to have hated

Russians . You read a lot about the personal life of Marx

but seek in vain, for an objective analysis of his ideas.

One of the claims is that the Soviet Union was supposedly

based on Marx's ideas. But can anyone seriously blame

Marx for the mass terror of the repression ? Marx, did not

welcome Russian support and application of his ideas to

Russia because he estimated that Russia was not ready

for such an experiment. In fact, he was embarrassed and

almost tongue tied when Russians wrote to him for advice

of how to Introduce his ideas to Russia. He hoped for an

outbreak of Revolution in Germany and Britain which he

wished would assume a peaceful character.

Some current philosophers such as Alasdair MacIntyre

claim in his 'After Virtue' that Marxism as a political

philosophy has exhausted itself. A key problem facing

Marxists is "What are the moral values of Marxism ? What

do Marxists define as the good ? How do they make a

distinction between good and evil ? " There is no explicit

answer offered by Marxists and they tend to fall back

to either Kant or Christianity. It comes as no surprise to

learn that Liberation Theology attracted many supporters

in Latin America during the 1980's and 90's . This odd

theology tried to combine Marx and Christ!

Yet do people really grasp Marx? His ideas are too often

misconstrued. George Ritzer , an American sociolgist

states there is a place for Marx in a study of sociology and

that he deserves wider attention on university courses.

He states that the Soviet experiment was a disastrous

distortion of socialism. Ritzer declares : "Despite his

overwhelming importance to sociology in both a positive and

a negative sense, Karl Marx's work rarely has received its

due in historical analyses of the development of sociological

theory ".{George Ritzer, Classical sociological theory ,1996,

Singapore.

Marx was not a monster! His work represents a sharp

critique of the inhumanity of capitalism and how it overworked

people to such an extent that they were reduced to 'crippled

monstrosities ' and not allowed to fully develop their wider

skills and talents. He was a humanist inspired by a rich

vision of a more humane and flexible division of labor where

people had much more free time to dance, sing and take up

all kinds of hobbies.

His major work Das Capital is hardly an inspiring read. In fact,

it was allowed to be published in Russia , by the censors ,

because the work was deemed too dull to attract any readers.

Perhaps more accessible works worth reading are : 'The

Communist Manifesto ' and the early works which include 'The

Economic and Philosophical works. '

Marx began his career as a radical journalist who was fighting

for basic rights such as freedom of the press, freedom of

speech and basic civil rights. That is why claims that Marx was

an enemy of free speech are just ludicrous.

Marx , during his youth , dreamed of becoming a poet . He set

out to write verse, adored Goethe and William Shakespeare,

and was a product of the romantic era. After being exiled to

England following the failed revolutions of 1848, Marx never

quite settled down to taking a regular job. He lived in great poverty

which was only relieved by income he obtained from Engels ,

or an inheritance and journalism. When Marx tried to get a job

as a clerk in a railway station his application was rejected due

to his bad handwriting . When he tried to sell off his wife's

expensive silverware to the pawnbroker, he was arrested and

detained by the police on suspicion of robbery.

An unexpected thing is that the dull work of Das Kapital which

the Russian censor thought would never be read by Russians

has recently become a bestseller in certain places because

many of the claims of how capitalism has developed appear

to be vindicated by recent developments. Those people who

purchase this work are not always die hard Marxists but non

Marxists who are simply looking for insights into how capitalism

works in such an unstable way.This is no consolation to two

ex teachers of courses in Marxist Leninism who lost their jobs

following the collapse of the Soviet Union. I recall drinking with

one such teacher in Kishinev who was drinking his sorrows

down and saying " I am struggling to get a new job . I am almost

unemployable" . The other ex-teacher I met ,Nadia , found a

job in a Tourist agency and is doing well.

One of the problems with Marxism was that Marx did not draw

up any blueprints of the new society. He was against such Utopian

thinking because he understood that such social engineering could

end in disaster. Marx , or no Marx, the abuse and inhumanity of

one person against another in the name of profit, power or prestige

is not going to go away. We need a much wider critique and prudent

careful action. But there is a place for Marx in this critique. Marx

is still a ghost who speaks with an on going resonance and

resilience.