Critique Of The Communist Manifesto

Assignment No. 3: Critique of the Communist Manifesto

Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels' Communist Manifesto is one of the world's most influential pieces of political literature. The manifesto was created for the purpose of outlining the aims and goals of the "The Communist League". The Communist League was made up of radical proletariats who were fed up with the bourgeoisie social order and sought to overthrow them. The manifesto is known to have been written by Marx and assisted and edited by Engel therefore the many ideas and theories expressed by this work are known as Marxism. Marxism has many poignant views on changing society and its class structure, and what needs to be done to achieve these changes. The Marxism theories do fall short on effectively dealing with other aspects of society, and are still subjected for debate. In John Locke's Second Treatise on Government, Locke's reasoning with property, gives an indirect argument to some of Marx's ideas while supporting others.

The Communist Manifesto is the written attempt to explain the goals of the Communism. It begins by claiming that all historical progress has been derived from class struggles and how these struggles have lead to the current state of society. "The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones." This drastic endeavor of the bourgeoisie was able to allow the development of capitalism from the past feudal states, yet there is still a class struggle. Except this struggle is now between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, since the productive forces of capitalism are unable to keep both sides happy. Marx offers a solution to this problem, which he claims "The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariatÐ'...Abolition of private property." Marx believes that if all people were ruled under one class, we would have no need for private property. The manifesto continues with Marx's belief that capitalism is very unsteady and that this class struggle between the bourgeoisie and proletariat is inevitable under this system. But Marx explains that the only means for communism to spread in a society ruled by capitalism and class distinctions is by revolution.

A problem with Marxism is that this whole concept reflects on creating an imaginary future which is filled with all the answers to the problems of the workers in modern society. The only way people will be able to reach this future is by forfeiting all their personal hopes and dreams for the sake of the proletariat class. Marx undermines the fact that all people do not share the same desires, and that his idea of upheaval of the bourgeoisie might not entice the public as a whole. Especially since Marxism revolutions