Thoughts on Karl Marx

I finally read (the relevant parts of) ‘The Marx-Engels Reader (Robert C. Tucker, ed.)’. I found this book to be most illuminating, and recommend it. Why spend so much time on this? If you are going to defeat the enemy, you must first understand his core philosophy.

The introduction was quite useful: the editor gives you Marx’ philosophy in a nutshell. ‘Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844’ was also important. Here, you will find his beliefs on free will, the proletariat, private property, communism, and science as god. Strangely, the selections from ‘Capital’ were only marginally useful: Marx attempts, with little success, to rewrite the tenets of capitalism. Going from this work to the ‘Communist Manifesto’ was jarring, inasmuch they seemed to be written by different people (e.g. Engels).

Another point I realized: you have to trace the development of communism. Marx was the solid, German philosopher. Engels was the PR/application arm of this team. Do not confuse this pair with Communism as implemented by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, the subsequent changes by Stalin, and further changes by Khrushchev and Brezhnev. The flavor of Communism in China by Mao is different still, and much closer to that of Marx than the Russian variety.

Final word: just because Communism was a practical failure, do not dismiss it so lightly. It has a solid, difficult-to-refute philosophical basis.