Strengths and Weaknesses of Marxism Ideology - Essay Example

Insert Introduction Marxism as an ideology has its origin in Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818- March14, 1883) and Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 and August 5, 1895). Marxism is an ideology, theory and practice of socialism that are inclusive of dialectical materialism, the labor theory of value, class struggle and the oppression of the proletariat, until there is an establishment of a classless society. Marxism uses political and socioeconomic inquiries and applies these inquiries in analyzing and critiquing the role that capitalism plays in fostering class consciousness and antagonism in systemic socioeconomic change. The strength of Marxism is widely and readily felt since concepts in all scholarly disciplines can be understood and interpreted through Marxist lenses. While the strength of Marxism cannot be denied, its weaknesses should also be acknowledged, as shall be seen in the discourse which ensues forthwith. To help underscore the strengths and weaknesses of Marxism, all political and socioeconomic developments that have taken place under the Obama Administration are used for case study. Thesis Statement Like any other theory or ideology, Marxism has its strengths and weaknesses, but the magnanimity of Marxism override these weaknesses, so that it is accurate to say that Marxism is the best theoretical and ideological module for understanding the [American] society, its systems, structures and operations. Strengths of Marxism Strength 1: One of the strong points of Marxism is that it looks at the development of the human society comprehensively. Marxism acknowledges the development of the society as being based on the development of forces of production. This quality or advantage of Marxism is underscored by the fact that development of machinery or tools increases productivity of human labor and that this development also affects the size of the total population that the society can support and division of labor and specialization to the most elaborate extent possible in a society. Again, it is a fact that all human societies are predicated upon the organization of production. The same is underscored by the fact that the struggle of ideas in the society reflects class struggle in the society also confirms this. Ideas of the ruling class are less dominant and are constantly being challenged in the US because of the highly democratic nature of the US and the chasm between the haves and have-notes is relatively narrow. Strength 2: Another advantage in Marxism is its ability to look at the human society as a complex whole. Marxism is cognizant of all the social forces involved in making a complex whole are factored. For this, the power and role of the ruling class and extraneous actors such as interest groups, the aforementioned media, the Church and other religious groups and even trade unions can be understood in Marxism. Just as the Church has been portrayed by Marx as existing to perpetuate the interests of the bourgeoisie, so has the church largely stood against the introduction of the ACA Act. On September 2013, Cardinal Dolan stated that the Catholic Church was opposing Obamacare because it was silent about the unborn. While from the façade the reason for the standpoint may appear noble, it is not: the Catholic Church has many Republicans [such as Rick Santorum, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush and Lisa Murkowski] who would have pushed for the inclusion of the unborn. Instead, the Catholic Church chose to liaise with Republican politicians and businessmen to fight the ACA Act. The Catholic Church has always stood for the GOP and the ACA Act was not going to be an exception. Strength 3: One of the strengths of Marxism is that it acknowledges and emphasizes the importance of the social class, in relation to media ownership and audience interpretation of information being presented by the media. While other schools of thought sidestep this reality, it is a very important factor in media analysis. Indeed, semiotics and content analysis are powerful in analyzing media content. However, the Marxist theory goes ahead to highlight the material condition which prevail upon media reception and media production. In this light, it is because of Marxism that political economists are able to study the control, ownership and content of the media and the influence that media ownership has over the media content. Marxism also provides a way of considering important issues such as modes of interpretation and differential access which are greatly influenced by socio-economic groupings. For this reason, the Marxist media research will include analyzing representations conveyed in the mass media so as to facilitate the revealing of underlying ideologies. The current world seriously needs these analyses (Rupert, 153-4). The immediately foregoing is clearly underscored by the economic and political developments that surrounded the passage of the Affordable Care Act and how a section of the media, particularly, Fox News covered it. In one instance, Fox News aired a dramatically skewed chart that suggested the enrollment for ACA was to fall far short of previous estimates of seven million enrollees yet on March 27, 2014, health insurance enrollment that were taking place through the ACA’s exchanges had already surpassed the 6 million mark, 4 days before the deadline. Marxism helps one understanding the path Fox News took. Fox News is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group which is chaired and partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-American. Rupert Murdoch is not only a media mogul with a vast news and entertainment empire, but a rich investor who feels that the ACA Act is socialist in nature and would therefore eat into his financial interests. It is for this reason that Murdoch finds a commonplace with Republicans who in turn use Fox News to propagate their propaganda. Some of the Pitfalls of Marxism Weakness 1: The major weakness of Marxism is that it does not seem to work in the real world. This is because Marxism fails to take into account the essential greediness, competitiveness and selfishness of the human being. Marxism relies on people to work hard just because they should and to forego the ability to get rich from their efforts. Unfortunately, in the real world, this does not happen and Marxist economies have always been inefficient and unproductive. Weakness 2: Another weakness of Marxism is that it fails to capture all the dynamics of human factors and social relations. Marxism envisions only two classes in the society- the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. However, there is the middle class and other subclasses extant between the ruling class and the most unskilled and low income earning population. Again, it is possible for someone to work up into success without engaging the social structures that buttress social structures. Weakness 3: Again, Marxism seems to be very susceptible to institutional corruption. This is because, Marxism leaves all the means of production to the state for regulation and for ensuring that private citizens and groups are not conducting production outside the confines of the government. This gives the government absolute control over everything, yet Marxism offers no mechanisms by which the government is to be checked against the danger of engaging in excesses. Summary and Conclusion on Marxism In light of the foregoing, it is clear that there are strengths and drawbacks of Marxism. As for strengths, Marxism helps people to: appreciate human development comprehensively; understand the human society as a complex whole; and appreciate relations among social class in media ownership and audience interpretation of information. The flipside is that Marxism fails to acknowledge realities of real world by assuming: the inherent greediness, competitiveness and selfishness of the human being; all the dynamics of human factors and social relations which transcend class; and safeguards against institutional corruption. However, despite the shortcomings that may be attributed to Marxism, Marxism remains the best theoretical and ideological module for understanding the [American] society, its systems, structures and operations since unlike liberalism, neoliberalism and realism, Marxism is wide enough to allow people to understand the social process through which actors are historically constructed through social self-production and conservative political commitments. Works Cited Rupert, Mark. Marxism (Class Notes). Print Read More