Essay Example on The Communist Manifesto German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

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The Communist Manifesto German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels authored The Communist Manifesto an infamous pamphlet that explained the goals of communism along with the theory behind the political movement They argued that a communist revolution was bound to happen because of the repetitive class struggles between the oppressors and the oppressed They further argued that the exploitation of one class by another is the driving force behind all historical developments According to Marx and Engels class relationships are correlated to an era s means of production They continued to argue however that with time these relationships would lose compatibility with the developing forces of production thus leading to a political uprising where the oppressed class frees itself from the oppressors leading to a new class developing and emerging as the ruling one Marx and Engels believed that this would eventually lead to the future freedom for all of society In the era The Communist Manifesto was written the proletarians were laborers who made up the lower class while the bourgeoisie were typically employers of the laborers who made up the middle class The manifesto argued that the capitalist bourgeoisie callously exploited and oppressed the proletarians and proposed communism as a tactic to combat the class struggles and exploitation that existed within society Marx and Engels believed that a communist system would diminish the differences between the classes by means of a revolution

The driving forces of history are class struggle and conflict From Marx and Engel s perspective capitalism would contribute to its own destruction Since the beginning the capitalist system seemed to favor the bourgeoisie while simultaneously disfavoring proletarians The Communist Manifesto describes how the laborers work accumulated wealth for the capitalists It also described how the laborers did not see any of the fruit their labor afforded to the bourgeoisie Marx and Engel did not agree with this system Instead they thought a classless society would better suit the masses and they believed it would emerge through an uprising against the proletarians by the bourgeoisie In the middle of the nineteenth century Marx and Engel viewed capitalism and the forces of production as the opposition of the class struggle They noted that class antagonisms were still prevalent in society yet there were still only two main classes two classes who were hostile and damaging to the entirety of mankind In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engel explained how this systematic exploitation was progressing further and becoming worse as time progressed They argued that because the proletarians participated without protest they were contributing to their own oppression More specifically they argued that they were handing over more wealth and more control to the bourgeoisie who were then using that wealth and control to further oppress those below them

As a result of the proletarians obligement poor workers would become more poor and the distribution of wealth between the classes would become more uneven Marx and Engels believed that so long as the workers allowed the bourgeoisie to own such immense capital they would always be subjected to their unwavering and perpetual dominance The six stages of political evolution in Marx and Engels s opinion is also discussed in The Communist Manifesto The middle of the nineteenth century the time during which the Manifesto was written was considered to be in the fourth stage which was capitalism Stage five the next stage of political evolution would occur when the proletarians overthrew the oppressive class and put them under their dictatorship This will bring the destructive conflicts between competing social classes to an end which will give communism the final stage of the political evolution a place to take root Communism the final stage of the political evolution will be achieved when no man can exploit another for personal gain For this to become reality several things need to happen First the proletarians must abolish all laws and governments in their entirety Second all social classes need to be eradicated from society forcing people to work for one another for the common good Third there is to be no property ownership or use of money Marx and Engels claimed that this was the last stage of the political evolution and at this time no social classes would exist and everyone would be treated equally Many nineteenth century workers found The Communist Manifesto attractive 



This was because they were experiencing the class struggles that Marx and Engels were describing and if society shifted to a communist rule they would be equalized with the bourgeoisie thus ending the struggles that they were experiencing They believed that since communism appealed to the majority it would spread rapidly Centuries after the publication The Communist Manifesto still remains profound Today in the twenty first century society has a polarized view of communism yet still regards Marx and Engels as revolutionary philosophers who changed they way people think and view the world from a variety of perspectives The Communist Manifesto created an important and ongoing discussion regarding different aspects of politics that continue to affect society such as the continued exploitation of certain groups of people the pitfalls of capitalism and its alternatives and what society could be subjected to in the future Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels pamphlet The Communist Manifesto transformed the way people think as well as the the world as a whole


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