Two Essays on The Communist Manifesto
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In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels provide their analysis of the evolution of societies through history. Rather looking at slavery, feudalism, or capitalism, Marx and Engels (1) arrive at one overarching conclusion, ôThe history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.ö This class struggle ultimately ends in a power struggle between the working and upper classes that results in revolution and the destruction of the established social order and class stratification. Likewise, capitalism is no better than feudalism for preventing this struggle from reoccurring, merely establishing ônew classes, new conditions or oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old onesö (Marx and Engels 2).Marx and Engels viewed capitalism as merely another form of master-slave relationship that favored the owners of the means of production at the expense of the working class laborer, who becomes alienated from his or her labor and barely earns a sustenance wage. This class of individuals, the ôbourgeoisie,ö are ruled by the ôproletariatö class that owns the means of production, maintains a concentration of resources, and who exploits the freedom of the worker for sustenance or slave wages, (Marx and Engels 5). This unequal relationship eventually pits even the laborer against other laborers as he or she competes for wage-labor. Marx and Engels conclude that only a revolution will restore balance of power in society, eli
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s. Instead of cooperating, Gandhi theorized that if the Indians would assert themselves and refuse to cooperate with the British, they would eventually undermine British power and rule. Those who would take part in civil disobedience or non-cooperation with British law would be punished, and the suffering and sacrifices of those being punished would ultimately result in a change of ways and heart by the British oppressors. As Gandhi (8) proclaims in ôSatyagraha,ö ôLong live non-cooperation.ö
Gandhi understood that there was only so much sacrifice and personal suffering that the individual could absorb. Because of this, he understands that there are limits to individual sacrifice and it is difficult and a long process to change the hearts of entrench regimes. However, from organizing boycotts to breaking British laws, Indians have a means of gaining self-governance and autonomy over their oppressors. Yet in order to achieve this, Gandhi (8) understands in ôSatyagrahaö that each individual or citizen must be willing to sacrifice some measure of freedom or lifestyle in order to achieve national good, a warning he provides to the British, ôRemember that you are offering battle to a nation which is saturated with the spirit of sa
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Approximate Word count = 2967
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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