A Brief History of Capitalistic Free Enterprise by Glenn Rogers

Author:Glenn Rogers [Rogers, Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781732488144
Publisher: Simpson & Brook, Publishers
Published: 2019-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

The Great Socialist Experiments

of the Twentieth Century

Karl Marx was not a fan of capitalism as he understood it. Born during the Industrial Revolution, Marx was the son of a successful German-Jewish lawyer and enjoyed a comfortable family life. Though not religious, he “converted” to Christianity so that it would be easier for him to interact with the German middle class. He began his university education at Bonn University and from there went to the University of Berlin where he studied the philosophy of Hegel, though he did not like much of what Hagel said. In the mid 1840s, after the newspaper he worked for was shut down, Marx moved to Paris where he became reacquainted with Fredrick Engels. At that time, the two formed a close and life-long relationship.

Aware of the challenges associated with the living conditions of the lower classes, Marx became a proponent of the working class. Engels had written The Condition of the Working Class in England in which he had described the living conditions of the lower classes—which were horrendous. Marx believed that the plight of the poor was the fault of capitalism, a system that, as far as Marx was concerned, exploited the propertyless of society only to further enhance the wealth of the already wealthy. As Marx continued to study and think, he concluded that all of history had been dominated by an ongoing class struggle—the rich versus the poor. Further, he concluded that the economic system of the society in which one lived determined one’s perspective in life. In fact, everything one thought about was, according to Marx, determined by the economic system under which one lived. And the economic system of Western society was capitalism—a system that made the rich richer and kept the poor in poverty. However, capitalism was flawed, Marx believed, and was destined to fail. Wanting to hasten the collapse of capitalism, he proposed revolution and overthrow. “Workers of the world, unite!”

Along with Engels, he wrote the Communist Manifesto which outlined the tenants of the yet to be established communist party. Politically and socially speaking, the timing of its publication coincided with a great deal of social dissatisfaction and unrest that led to further unrest and a number of disturbances throughout Europe.

Paul Strathern has written an excellent brief biography of Karl Marx: Marx in 90 Minutes. In it, Strathern notes that to the inequities Marx credited to capitalism, he “… proposed communism as the answer.” However, Strathern also notes that, “The twentieth-century experience has taught us in no uncertain terms that it [communism or socialism] does not work,” (8). And near the end of his book, Strathern reiterates his point: “Marx’s great venture—communism—has now all but completely failed,” (67).

Every historian aware of the great communist experiments of the 20th century agrees with Strathern’s assessment. Marx was simply wrong about what the problem was and how to solve it. Yet Marx did raise some important questions that merit our attention. I will address those concerns in the next chapter.

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