Karl Marx and Marxism: Impact and Ideology

1 Comment

1. Fred Thornton
   August 6, 2024 @ 6:27 pm

   I fully admit both bias, and ignorance, concerning the thoughts of Karl Marx. That said, I have spent my life in the sad shadow of Lenin’s attempt to translate Marx’s thought into reality. With that for a frame of reference allow me to share a thought I’ve never heard mentioned concerning the man himself, whichever one of the pair (Marx or Lenin) it might better fit.

   The focus of my thought is the Nature versus Nurture debate, which force or factor most shapes the adult to be. To my thought the evidence of history says that one, if not both, of them was absolutely solid with the arguments favoring the “nurture” side of that debate, solidly of the opinion that the “nurture” of the prevailing societies and systems was responsible for creating the misery and despair to be seen in the s.i.c “workers class” of people, the very misery and despair needed to power a revolution. An easy assumption easily defended.

   However it also seems that in the (in large degree justified) condemnation of the nurture, aka the economic and social factors, of the day a realistic and rational examination of the motives involved with human “nature” was totally ignored in the formulation of the socialist/communist template of society.

   Almost as if they suffered the naive belief that “surely the common man won’t mistreat his brother the way the rich man does…” No, he won’t. He’ll treat him worse, as history shows. Perhaps Lenin’s attempt failed where Moa’s succeeded because Moa, observing the fate of Russian Communism, finished his revolution against the social and then promptly initiated an attack on the culture that had supported the old order.

   All of which takes me the long way around Robin Hood’s barn to wonder who is actually behind all this “woke” business… the Chinese wanting to do it again or the Russian’s wanting to get it right.