Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto - Essay Example

This paper purports to analyze Marx’s stances on the practical and idealist form of democracy, and the reasons the idealist form of democracy can not be established in the current social set up. He also does not uphold individualism and personal freedom (Marx), and this aspect of his manifesto will also be analyzed. The basic theme running in the background of his text, and which forms the basis of all his arguments and much discussion, is Marx’s concept that man is not genuinely free in the society (Marx).

He compares the current state of man’s condition in the capitalist society with that of the feudal society in which there were hierarchical classes and divisions in the society, so that the poor and oppressed, and the workers and peasants (Marx), could not rise above their standards ever, and were stuck in a vicious circle in which they were destined to forever serve the ruling class (Marx). Although this feudal system of government and society has been changed in most of the countries of the world, it is unfortunately replaced by the capitalist government and businessmen (Marx).

The concept of classes and divisions in the society still remains, the strata are just as well demarcated as they were before, the only difference is that now whereas it might appear that man is free in the society (Marx), he is basically just a customized worker for the huge industry that the capitalist has set up (Marx) in order to benefit from the hard work of his workers (Marx). Marx has identified the social strata as the bourgeoisie and the working class (Marx), with the former being the oppressor and the latter being the oppressed (Marx).

He claims that unless and until the oppressed recognize that they are being oppressed, and rise above their social conditions against the ruling class, they will never be able to claim true personal freedom, and so would never be a part of democracy (Marx). True democracy is based on truly free people, who are free in thought as well as in person, and are not bound by work and service to a ruling class. It is only when society has its foundations based on such free people that it can hope to bring in democracy and it is only then that the democracy would work.

The worker is still in shackles, and although he might seem to be a freeman, he is not (Marx). Marx submits that free trade and paper currency are the bane of the society (Marx), and the chains that bind the workers. He likens society to a big factory set up by the bourgeoisie capitalist (Marx), in which he has hired an army of customized workers (Marx) to work for him around the clock in order to increase the sales, from which only the capitalist manager would benefit (Marx); the increased sales would only mean more machinery for the workers, whose working hours would be increased based on the ease that the machines bring with them (Marx).

He has also identified sub-strata in the ruling class, such as the factory onlookers (Marx), the supervisors (Marx), the middlemen, and other divisions within an organization which rule over the workers (Marx). Marx does not uphold individualism and personal freedom (Marx). His concept is that individualism is the characteristic of the bourgeoisie, as he only thinks of himself and makes the workers work for his own profits and benefits (Marx). What Marx proposes is the exact opposite of this