
What is Marxism
A social,
political, and economic ideology bearing Karl Marx's name is known as Marxism.
It looks at how capitalism affects labour, productivity, and economic growth
and makes the case for a worker revolution to depose capitalism and replace it
with communism.
According to
the theory of Marxism, the conflict between social classes—more specifically,
between the bourgeoisie, or capitalists, and the proletariat, or
workers—defines economic relations in a capitalist economy and will unavoidably
result in revolutionary communism.
Marxism | Meaning, Future prediction
KEY TAKEAWAYS
·
Karl Marx developed Marxism, a social, political, and
economic ideology that emphasizes the conflict between the capitalists and the
working class.
·
Marx believed that because of the inherent exploitation
of workers by capitalists, there will necessarily be class warfare.
·
The working class would eventually topple the
capitalist class and seize control of the economy, in his opinion, as a result
of this fight.
Understanding
Marxism
Marxism is a
social and political ideology that includes Marxian economics and the theory of
class conflict. The Communist Manifesto, a booklet by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels that lays out the theory of class struggle and revolution, was the first
work to openly formulate Marxism. Marxian economics is centred on the
critiques of capitalism that Karl Marx made in his 1867 book Das Kapital.
Marxism
generally contends that capitalism will inevitably fail because it is
intrinsically unjust and faulty as a means of economic and social reproduction.
Capitalism is described as a mode of production in which owners of businesses
(capitalists) control all of the means of production, including the factory,
equipment, raw materials, finished goods, and profits from their sales, while labourers
are employed for wages and have no ownership rights to those items.
Additionally, workers receive lower pay than the economic value that their labour
generates for the capitalist. The fundamental class conflict between labour and
capital is fueled by this surplus labour, which also provides profits for
capitalists.
Marxism | Meaning, Future prediction
Marxism: What Kind of Philosophy Is It?
Marxism is a
school of thought that combines social, political, and economic theory. It was
created in the latter half of the 19th century. It prioritises communism and
socialism over capitalism and focuses on the conflict between the working class
and the ownership class.
What Future Events Did Marx Predict?
Marx
believed that capitalism would eventually self-destruct. A classless society would
be established as a result of the alienated, oppressed workers overthrowing the
owners and seizing control of the means of production themselves.
Was Marx Correct?
No, not yet.
Some nations, including the former Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, have made an
effort to establish a communist society, but they were unable to completely
eradicate the concepts of private property, money, and class. Capitalism, in
all of its guises, will still be the major economic system in 2021. Naturally,
some of his criticisms of capitalism still hold true today, such as the fact
that businesses will continue to merge and acquire one another in order to grow
and become more consolidated, that unemployment and poverty will continue to
exist, and that workers will continue to be paid less than they may be entitled
to.
Marxism | Meaning, Future prediction
Class Conflict and Capitalism's Supposed Demise
According to
Marx's theory of classes, capitalism is just one of a number of economic
systems that have developed historically and in a logical order. He asserted that
they are motivated by huge, impersonal historical factors that manifest
themselves in social class struggle and conduct. Every society, according to
Marx, is split into social classes whose members are more similar to one
another than they are to those of other social classes.
Here are some essential components of Marx's
theories on how the class conflict will manifest itself in a capitalist system.
1. In a
capitalist society, there are two classes: the proletariat, or workers, who
turn raw materials into valuable commercial goods through their labour, and the
bourgeoisie, or company owners, who control the means of production.
2. The
capitalist economic system gives few rights to common workers who do not own
the means of production, such as factories, structures, and raw materials. In
times of high unemployment, employees are also easily replaceable, thus
diminishing their perceived value.
3. Business
owners are motivated to get the most effort out of their employees while paying
them the lowest wages feasible in order to increase profits. As a result, there
is an unfair disparity between employers and employees, whose labour employers
make use of for personal gain.
4. Marx
argued that because workers have no personal investment in the manufacturing
process, they will grow disenchanted with it and their own humanity and become
hostile to corporate owners.
5. In order
to maintain its position of privilege and power, the bourgeoisie also uses
social institutions, like the government, media, academia, organised
religion, and banking and financial systems, as tools and weapons against the
proletariat.
6.
Eventually, the working class will rise up against the bourgeoisie, seize
control of the means of production, and overthrow capitalism as a result of the
inherent disparities and exploitative economic relations between these two
classes.
Marx, therefore, believed that the capitalist
system had the makings of its own demise. The working class would inevitably
rise against the capitalists and seize control of the means of production as a
result of the alienation and exploitation of the proletariat which are essential
features of capitalist relations. The "vanguard of the proletariat,"
educated leaders who grasped society's class structure and who would unify the
working class by fostering a sense of class consciousness, would lead this
revolution.
Marxism | Meaning, Future prediction Marxism | Meaning, Future prediction