Changing the System of the World by Karl Marx - Assignment Example

Marx returned to Paris after being expelled once again by the Belgian government due to the fright created by the February Revolution. In the summer of 1849, he finally went to London after being expelled from Paris once again. Marx is considered to be one of the founders of the International Working Men’s Association.

Karl Marx identified and shed light on the ills of capitalism and explained how it could be challenged. People of the world took his ideas as a guide towards changing the system of the world despite the regular efforts by the supporters of Capitalism to bury his ideas. He, along with Frederick Engels, identified the inevitable fault of a capitalist society which is a class struggle; therefore, his dialectic holds Communism as the perfect and final form of the State that makes possible the appropriate use of human abilities. He believed that in the end socialism will replace capitalism and that this world will be a classless society ensuring the rise of the working class. Above all, Marx was a revolutionist whose main aim was to put an end to capitalism and contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat. As far as the influence of Marx’s ideas and beliefs on the world, as a whole, is concerned, most Americans have already accepted his main ideas unconsciously and uncritically despite the otherwise claims of the anti-Marxists. American and Western businessmen who claim to be against the whole concept of communism are frequently found to be the ones who are convinced of the truthfulness of Marx’s ideas. They seem to have very little or no ideological defense against his Communist ideas when they encounter them under another name or are introduced to them without being labeled. Marx’s ideas have seemed to open the minds of Americans to their propaganda. However, on the other hand, labeling the ideas brewing in their minds as Marx’s might lighten some of their effective and successful talking points. At the same time, they are under the influence that depression cannot be solved by capitalism. He is one of the influential people whose ideas have such a strong impact even on those who think they abhor Marx and his beliefs. These ideas have an injurious influence on the capitalist economy, clear political thinking, and democratic action. The more politically radical European intellectuals have been influenced greatly by the ideologies of communism as well as socialism. Apart from economics and politics, he has a great influence on the way people think about culture even though he is not a pure cultural theorist (Rose, 1951).    Marx’s hostility towards Europe, sometimes, resulted in strange extremes. For instance, he criticized the opposition to the Crimean War by calling the British Prime minister, Lord Palmerston, a traitor and a paid agent of Russia. In the same way, Marx’s hatred for the Prussian monarchy can be observed his struggle with his Russian competitor Mikhail Bakunin for control of the International Working Men’s Association (Sperber, 2013).    It is beyond doubt that Marx’s ideas about the commodity nature of Capitalist production play an important role in describing the exploitation of the working class under the system of profit. For Marx, class struggle was the major fault line of the Capitalist society which, indeed, is true even in the modern world for this struggle leads to inequality and ultimately the exploitation of the working class. Alienation is another concept that is discussed largely by Marx; however, it is mostly ignored in the commentaries regarding Marxism. This concept is still applicable in that man can only rise above alienation by creating a communist society and doing away with private property. It is pertinent to say that the intellectual stature of the people like Marx and Engel is the need of today’s world.  Read More