Lenin And Philosophy By Louis Althusser

During the Industrial Revolution, a man named Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations, in which entails the idea that job specialization makes society great. Approximately 70 years later, a man named Karl Marx writes the Communist Manifesto, which totally disagrees with Smith’s thinking and says that specialization is bad for society.  The strengths and weaknesses of Smith’s argument are to be followed by Marx’s ideas that contain some  weaknesses but is overall the best argument. Marx believes that all people are born equal, but due to resources and opportunities scarcely available, few people can succeed by which they must exploit the rest of the world.

For example, it shapes the nature of religion, law, education, the state and so on. According to Marx, capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. For example, by polarising the classes, bringing the proletariat together in ever-increasing numbers, and driving down their wages, capitalism creates the conditions under which the working class can develop a consciousness (or awareness) of its own economic and political interests in opposition to those of its exploiters. As a result, the proletariat moves from merely being a class-in-itself (whose members share the same economic position) to becoming a class-foritself, whose members are class conscious – aware of the need to overthrow capitalism. The means of production would then be put in the hands of the state and run in the interests of everyone, not just of the bourgeoisie. A new type of society – socialism developing into communism – would be created, which would be without exploitation, without classes and without class conflict. Marx’s work has been subjected to a number of criticisms. First, Marx’s predictions have not come true. Far from society becoming polarised and the working class becoming poorer, almost everyone in western societies enjoys a far higher standard of living than ever before. The collapse of so-called ‘communist’ regimes like the former Soviet Union, and growing private ownership and capitalist growth in China, cast some doubt on the viability of the practical implementation

The Communist Manifesto left a tremendous impact on a society that was rapidly becoming industrialized, and its effects can even be seen on the dominating economic system of the twenty-first century. In the later nineteenth century, however, industrial capitalism was on the brink of ruin. “On many occasions during the past century, Marxists have thought that capitalism was down for the count . . . Yet it has always come back with renewed strength.” Industrial capitalism succeeded in the face of communism, despite numerous economic disasters. As the capitalist economists hopefully noted at the time, these economic earthquakes, temporary in character, soon cured themselves and left capitalism unscathed. Karl Marx sought to create

The Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) had brought about significant changes in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and technology and subsequently established an era of unprecedented economic growth in capitalist economies. It was within this era that Karl Marx had observed the deprivation and inequality experienced by men of the proletariat, the working class, who had laboured excessively for hours under inhumane conditions to earn a minimum wage while the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class, reaped the benefits. For Marx it was this fundamental inequality within the social and economic hierarchy that had enabled capitalist societies to function. While Marx’s theories, in many instances have been falsified and predictions

Karl Marx’s critique of political economy provides a scientific understanding of the history of capitalism. Through Marx’s critique, the history of society is revealed. Capitalism is not just an economic system in Marx’s analysis. It’s a “specific social form of labor” that is strongly related to society. Marx’s critique of capitalism provides us a deep

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Lenin was the Bolshevik leader. He was a clever thinker and a practical man; he knew how to take advantage of events. When Lenin arrived in Russia, he issued a document called the April theses, promising ‘peace, bread, land and freedom’. He called for an end to the ‘Capitalist’ war, and demanded that power should be given to the soviets.

Bowles and Gintis also believe that schools are no longer about the teaching of a subject but the Social Principle or control of the pupils meaning that schools concentrate more on the hidden curriculum than the knowledge process. Equally, schools don’t reward independence and innovation, therefore meritocracy cannot exist within our capitalist society as capitalism is based on the principle of a ruling class (the bourgeosis) and a working class (the proletariat) and meritocracy would abolish the idea of the ruling class, society would be equal. According to Louis Althusser (1972), a French Marxist philosopher, the school serves to mould individuals into subjects that fit with the requirements of capitalism, they learn submission, deference and respect for the economy and their place in it. The school also works to ensure that the labour force is technically competent. Also, according to Althusser, the ruling class within any society exercises control over and through schooling and the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs). The ideologies themselves express the material interests of the ruling class, so this control over and through the ISAs maintains what is called class hegemony, or domination. Althusser is also draws attention to the powerful effects of the ‘hidden curriculum’ of

Dimitriadis firstly mentions with the key components of the Marxisim, then links the Marxist theory with the education by saying “Schooling in capitalist America is, ultimately, about reproducing the capitalist class system, making it seem fair and ‘natural’.” (Pg.33). I believe that America is not the only country in the world to use the school system in their benefits. Until I read Marx’s theory, I was naively considered that education is the way change the socio-economic system.

Capitalists realize the threat critical thinkers pose to their position, while at the same time recognize the ability of job-training based people to fuel their notion of an ideal society, and to ensure continued power, they use their vast control over educational institutions and the market to create conditions where job-training based education is favored over critical thinking enhancing education. The creation of such conditions has led to the emergence of dissimulation and a false consciousness , where people are deceived into taking as natural something that has in fact merely been created by other people: they truly believe they know what is best for them but this belief arises from an incomplete knowledge of the conditions shaping the world that surrounds them. I feel that it is this very illusory nature of capitalism that ensures its survival. Capitalism requires that a majority of the people will fail per se, so that there can be any success at all: a very real consequence from which the educational system fails to escape. A valid refutation of this argument can be that, although the logic of it is sound, it is still fundamentally based upon the assumption that people inclined towards the social sciences are inherently more inclined to pose a threat to the capitalist society. One may argue that anyone, regardless of their skill set, may or may not pose a disruption in

The philosophy of Karl Marx begins with the belief that humans are inherently cooperative with common characteristics and shared ends. To human beings, life is considered an object and therefore, humans make their “life-activity itself the object of his will and of his consciousness” (Tucker 76). In other words, humans are able to think, imagine, and “produce even when he is free from physical need and only truly produces in freedom therefrom” (p. 76). It exemplifies that idea that humans not only have the capability to create things for survival but express themselves in what they produce, within the standards of the human race or universally. When capitalist wage-labor enters the picture, it forces these shared ends and the freedom of expression in human production to cease, causing a rise of competitiveness among

The specialised critique of capitalism found in the Communist Manifesto (written by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels), provides a basis for the analysis and critique of the capitalist system. Marx and Engels wrote about economical in relation to the means or mode of production, ideology, alienation and most fundamentally, class relations (particularly between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat). Collectively, these two men created the theory of Marxism. There are multiple critiques of Marxism that attack the fundamental tenants of their argument. Several historical events have fueled such criticisms, such as the fall of the Soviet Union, where Marxism was significantly invalidated and condemned. On the flip side, Marxism has been widely supported in times of capitalist hardships. What viewpoint a person will hold towards Marxism is largely dependable on the economical environment in which they live. Further, it is also important to remember that Marx and Engels lived in a very different era than today’s society, and the concept of capitalism may have arguably changed quite a lot over time. Therefore, the principles found in the Manifesto may often have to be refurnished and reapplied to fit different economic environments.

According to Althusser, the two ways that the state helps to keep the bourgeoisie in power are through the repressive state apparatuses and the ideological state apparatuses. The repressive state apparatuses are a set of people who suppress the working class and when they do so, they support the bourgeoisie’s rules by using physical force. Examples of people who use this force are the police, courts, army and judiciary. The ideological state apparatuses are a set of people who control people’s ideas, values and beliefs in order to support the bourgeoisie’s rules. Examples of the ideological state apparatuses include the media, religion, family, the political system and the education system. Althusser views the education as an important ideological state apparatus. He argues that the education performs two functions. The first function is that the education reproduces class inequality by failing the successful generation of the working class students. The second function is that there are set ideas and beliefs that are produced as a result of class inequality which disguises its true cause. The function of ideology is to show the workers that they deserve their subordinate position in society and that they would be less likely to challenge capitalism if they accept that inequality is unequal. Other Marxists such as Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis argue that capitalism requires those employees to do the jobs who have the right

I cannot write this essay without reference to study of my own experienced and my daughter’s- placed in the harsh environment of the government schooling system and its observations of the stark belief systems of “the child to fit the system” and not “the system to fit the child” with reference to the what education should be about. This means different things to different people. To some this means a teacher teaching and passive learning taking place, the outcome is expected at the end of each year that each child has to achieve the same outcome and is graded accordingly.

The writings of Karl Marx (1818-83), according to Mingst (1999), are fundamental to the Marxist school of thought, even though he did not directly state all the issues that are today encompassed by Marxism. The theory of Marx on the evolution of capitalism based on economic change and class conflict: the capitalism of nineteenth century

Society abides by the social relations put in place between proletariats and the bourgeoisie due to the coercive nature of these relationships, autonomous of free choice. Though dominating the actions and choices of society, such coercive relationships with owners of capital are tolerated due to people’s need for survival. People’s need for survival results in the need to make money for their material existence, which includes food and shelter. Awareness of one’s current economic system also contributes to the understanding of the established social order. However, due to their subordinated status, low-income and low-skilled jobs may be their only opportunity for survival. For instance, undergraduate university students are only armed with high school diplomas and few skills, but require earning a living to complete school to try and succeed within a capitalist society. As a result of the few skills and little schooling students possess, taking low-skilled jobs