PROPERTYand economic planning will liberate people
to enjoy their true creative natures and social har-
mony. Furthermore, for Marx, this progress to
communism is inevitable: Human history and tech-
nology is moving inexorably, by scientific laws, to
communism.
This view of historical inevitability of communism
comes from Marx’s materialism, which sees reality as
the tangible, economic activity of life (production and
consumption). Applying Hegel’s DIALECTIC, Marx sees
history as the clashing of opposites: modes of produc-
tion, social classes, and ideas. All thought (philosophy,
law, art, religion) come from certain ways of working
and economic structures. So when agriculture is the
main way of working in the European MIDDLE AGES,
and that economy is made up of working peasants and
land-owning nobility, all politics, theology, art, and sci-
ence evolve from that system of social production.
Marx says that CATHOLIC Christianity (St. Thomas
AQUINAS) of the medieval period simply reflects the
HIERARCHY, chivalry, and MONARCHYof European eco-
nomics of the Middle Ages (FEUDALISM). Protestant
Christianity, with its individualistic views of Christ
and salvation, its work ethic and piety, reflect emerging
CAPITALISM.
History flows through economic systems with cor-
responding social classes, for Marx: (1) primitive
(tribal) communism where all are “hunters and gather-
ers”; (2) antiquity (Greek and Roman) where owners
are slave owners and workers are slaves: (3) medieval
feudalism with peasants and landlords: (4) capitalism
with INDUSTRIALworking proletarians and industrial-
owning capitalists or “bourgeoisie”; (5) socialism
when the working-class revolution sets up the “DICTA-
TORSHIP of the proletariat” and (6) communism, in
which technology produces such abundance that no
work is necessary and all economic classes disappear.
Marx’s vision of future communist society is so heav-
enly (prosperity, leisure, freedom, happiness, har-
mony) that it is no wonder that many people followed
it. The realities of poverty, disease, war, and work
paled next to Marx’s vision of a bright future in com-
munism.
Of course, to get to this perfect society, one had to
overthrow capitalist DEMOCRACY first. This would
require the unutopian practices of conspiracy, sabo-
tage, violent revolution, and brutal suppression of
resistance and dissent; but for Marx, this was neces-
sary to reach the heaven of the communist STATE. Peo-
ple were not sinful or imperfect, and once the ideal
society was achieved, they would become unselfish,
kind, loving, and cooperative.
Most of Marx’s historical analysis has to do with the
next great social transition—from capitalism to social-
ism. This results from the “forces of production”
(socialized technology) outstripping the “relations of
production” (private property and wealth, wage labor,
and social classes). Specifically, utilizing the LABOR THE-
ORY OF VALUE, Marx sees the workers not getting the
full payment for their work, causing a “crisis of over-
production” (or recession/depression) that shuts down
the economy, causing a workers’ revolution, establish-
ing socialism. The government of dictatorship of the
proletariat leads society from socialism to commu-
nism, following an outburst of productivity by “liber-
ated” workers. Because all economic periods have
states that are dictatorships of the ruling (owning)
class, this socialist dictatorship is really more demo-
cratic than LIBERALdemocracy. Unemployment is elimi-
nated; universal education, medical care, housing, and
old age pensions are instituted; and the prosperity of
socialism leads other capitalist societies to collapse.
The historical relativism of morals and ethics
makes adhering to bourgeois values (honesty, respect
for RIGHTS, nonviolence) unnecessary for socialist revo-
lutionaries: Stealing, killing, kidnapping, lying, terror-
ism are all justified if they advance the revolution. A
new socialist ethics (and New Socialist Man) will
emerge in this new historic epoch. The old capitalist,
acquisitive, greedy, selfish, individualistic human will
become the socialist, sharing, caring, collectivist, gen-
erous, peaceful, humane person. War will end.
The experience in the socialist countries did not
confirm Marx’s positive vision. Instead, they displayed
economic stagnation, oppressive governments, and
social alienation far worse than that experienced in lib-
eral capitalist countries. Marxism—the ideological
development of Marx’s theories and their practice in
different nations—attempts to explain this disparity
between Marx’s ideal and communism’s reality. Some
blame the surrounding capitalist-imperialist countries;
others blame poor leadership (Stalin) or bureaucracy.
But after 70 years of disaster, communist regimes aban-
doned the Marxist system. The Soviet Union returned
to a quasi-capitalist, REPUBLICANsystem; China insti-
tuted free-market reforms; and Cuba declined into
poverty and despair.
The theories of Karl Marx seduced and deceived
millions of people and caused enormous human suf-
fering. Questions remain as to why the promise of202 Marx, Karl