Proletarianism In Laborism And Btilitarianism

However, what happens when the roles of the classes turn? This is Karl Marx predicts within his book The Communist Manifesto. The proletariats are the class considered to be the working class, right below the bourgeoise in terms of economic gain. Karl Marx discusses the number ratio between the two classes and discloses the fact that the proletariat outnumber the bourgeoise. Within the class is a sense of belonging, the bourgeoise live their lavish lives and have most of the say so when it comes to power. Most laws and regulations work in the favor of the bourgeoise class, while the working proletariat class is the class of struggle. This is where it ties into man’s self-alienation. Marx’s idea that the working man has alienated himself from humanity by becoming a machine of society, no longer being able to think for himself but rather only thinking of survival and mass production. By focusing on production for the bourgeoise, man is unable to relate to himself or others around him. He is alienated in the fact that he no longer belongs to a community but more so to a factory. This is beneficial to the bourgeoise because they would not have to fear the alliance of the workers against them if each worker felt isolated from one another. Karl Marx describes within his book the overview idea of the working man as a tool for production, a machine himself, isolated

“to a mere money relation,” (Marx and Engels [1848] 2013:35]. Marx, saw the tear down of the old as the only way for the bourgeoisie to survive. Periodically, a crisis occurred where productive forces threatened their conditions and bourgeoisie would have to bring in new productive forces and destroy the old. Marx believed that these changes to technology and productive capacity were the main influence on how society and the economy were organized. The bourgeoisie had to push for the modern world to quickly and continually develop to protect capitalists’ monopolies. However, constant development caused continual disturbances of social conditions by breaking down stable aspects of human life. Capitalist used their power to push the world to advance so that they could prosper with no concerns to the possible effects on the economy, which would have been most detrimental to the proletariat. For Marx, this showed that capitalists’ self-interest pushed economic progress, which led to societal progress but also risked crisis. Capitalism not only affected society through the creation and separation of social classes but also in influencing societal progress and social relations.

Additionally, the development of bourgeois industries causes a proportional deterioration in the condition of the proletariat. This deterioration, which can be slowed but not stopped, creates within the proletariat a revolutionary element, which will eventually destroy their bourgeois oppressors. As Marx says, "What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable".

When discussing the formation of the modern bourgeois and proletariat, Marx claims industrial capitalism has purposefully destroyed previous social paradigms. The current bourgeois is not a continuation of millennia of advancement, but a concentrated shift to “naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation” (222). The language used is remarkably violent: “the bourgeoisie…has pitilessly torn asunder…drowned in the icy water of egotistical calculation” (222). Capitalism is inherently predatory, as it must “constantly revolution[ize]…the whole relations of society” (222). The bourgeoisie can and consistently have destroyed civilizations. Therefore, communism should not be criticized as abnormal for attempting to bring about an end to this cycle of destruction. Marx uses religious language when describing professions, “stripped of [their] halo” (222) by “paid wage labour” (222): they were “hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe” (222). The idolization of these groups suggests capitalism has gone against the sanctity of labor by only making it worth market price. That communism hopes to return value to “every occupation” (222) means that it is helping restore their quasi-religious status. The following

The production of the mass quantities, however, required a mass proletariat. They became the backbone of the economy. Workers in the factories toiled long hours at minimum wages to satisfy the growing needs and demands of the markets. The poor conditions and the inequality in the distribution of goods, however, prompted the proletariat to begin to demand a fair share of the results. It became clear that the bourgeoisie had, “stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It had converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers”. 4 Workers were relegated to the bottom of the social pyramid.

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

-- the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of modern industry and of the

Throughout The Communist Manifesto, Marx expresses the political, economic and social turmoil that were present in their society. During this time period, agriculture production was the main occupation. This resulted in a class struggle between the landowners and the serfs who labored the land. A new, manufacturing class emerged from this conflict called the bourgeoisie. Bourgeoisie changed the focus from agriculture to industrialization and commerce. Having “less dexterity and strength [that] is required in manual labor, [helps] modern industry develop” and prosper throughout society (Marx 131). This more proficient way to produce commodities helped the bourgeoisie control global and domestic trade. They eventually reached a point where they were inhibited by the feudal government and could not progress at the original rate they were going. Resulting from this, the French Revolution occurred and the bourgeoisie demolished the aristocracy that was originally present during this primitive time. Unfortunately, this did not resolve the primary

As the bourgeois advanced financially, they also gained political influence. They progressed from a once oppressed class to an independent urban republic. As their political influence increased, certain changes became clear. The bourgeois had “torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation (Marx).” This force eventually grew to the point that it was able to force other nations to conform to its values and methods or suffer extinction. As the bourgeois became richer, the proletarians began to suffer more. The balance of property began to shift even more rapidly than before leaving property “concentrated…in a few hands (Marx).” Eventually, the super-efficient production of the manufacturing economy began to take its toll on the bourgeois as well as the proletarians. More goods were produced due to the cheaper costs and ease of manufacture leading to an over-production of goods (Marxism). Over-production became a serious problem, resulting with widespread unemployment of the proletarians, and threats of a revolution on the horizons.

If modern industrial development is the tool which gives the proletariat the means to subvert the bourgeoisie then it is impossible for the developing countries, which Marx states are dependent on the developed ones, to experience the emancipation of their proletariat. Modern industry will not develop to the degree that they have in the developed countries as a result of bourgeoisie market conquest and the inequity of global capital. Suppose that the bourgeoisie of the developed world are subverted and the oppression of the developing world's bourgeoisie and proletariat cease, as both are dependent on the developed world. It will be impossible, therefore, for the proletariat of the developing world to overthrow their national bourgeoisie without the development of modern industry which is only possible, as Marx argues, with the conquest of new markets and the renewed exploitation of old markets (999). These new markets would be the newly emancipated workers of the developed world. The liberation of one country's proletariat in the developed world allows for the expansion of the bourgeoisie of a developing country to exchange the chains of the developed world's proletariat with that of another; there is a constant state of predatory bourgeoisie in the world and it would be cyclical in nature as any country which becomes newly liberated would become subject to the bourgeoisie of another country. Therefore the workers of the world can never unite under Marxist

Karl Marx argues in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 that “The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates. With the increasing value of the world of things proceeds in direct proportion the devaluation of the world of men” (653). This statement holds true to today’s economy for companies mass produce goods such as smartphones and clothes while paying theirs workers low wages and having them work long hours under harsh conditions.

There is deep substance and many common themes that arose throughout Marx’s career as a philosopher and political thinker. A common expressed notion throughout his and Fredrick Engels work consists of contempt for the industrial capitalist society that was growing around him during the industrial revolution. Capitalism according to Marx is a “social system with inherent exploitation and injustice”. (Pappenheim, p. 81) It is a social system, which intrinsically hinders all of its participants and specifically debilitates the working class. Though some within the capitalist system may benefit with greater monetary gain and general acquisition of wealth, the structure of the system is bound to alienate all its

The Industrial Revolution was the quintessence of capitalistic ideals; it bred controversy that led to Karl Marx’s idea of communism as a massive grass roots reaction to the revolution’s social abuses. Firstly, the Industrial Revolution featured the construction of machines, systems and factories that allowed goods to be manufactured at a faster rate with a lower cost. The seed drill made it so there could be “a semi-automated, controlled distribution and plantation of wheat seed”(Jones 2013). Secondly, there was a great social and economic divide between the wealthy owners and the poor workers, which gave rise to the mass’s vulnerability to the advent of extreme socialism. Figures of authority severely oppressed their employees by giving them insufficient pay, a treacherous work environment, and even making some children work more than 12 hours per day (Cranny 150). Finally, far right capitalism created a brutal boom and bust cycle of economics that made, for the multitude at the bottom, a perpetual nightmare of poverty and death. People responded to this social situation by taking part in violent protests; oppression sires rebellion. The Industrial Revolution was the chassis of great imagination and progress of political, economic, and social force that still affects this world today.

In the chapter, “Manifesto of the Communist Party” in The Marx-Engels Reader book, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had broken up the topic of the Communist Party up to four parts: 1. “Bourgeois and Proletarians”, 2. “Proletarians and Communists”, 3. “Socialist and Communist Literature”, and 4. “Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties.” In this essay, I’ll be focusing on the first two parts of the “Manifesto” since there are so much information to cover within three to four pages. To begin I would like to summarize, “Bourgeois and Proletarians” was about the vicious cycle of the proletariats having to constantly fight the socioeconomic classes above them considering that they are always exploited, yet they have no norms (“appropriation”) of their own to secure or embrace. “Proletarians and Communists” was where Marx and Engels define what Communism is, how it relates to the Proletarians, and how Communism works (or would work). History can be trace back to the class/political struggles; the oppressed fighting against their oppressors; the “subordinate gradations”. Subordinate gradation was defined as a social rank, where the highest power is at the top and the weakest is at the bottom. However, when old subordinate gradation falls another one would rise, that was the cycle. Marx and Engels went on to make a statement that the current class antagonisms are between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The proletariat is defined as the

Despite their large numbers, the proletariats find difficulty in unifying against the bourgeois. The division of the laborers, geographically, keeps them from becoming a union of their own, and so, they are in competition with each other instead of against the bourgeoisie. Marx believes that with the increasing number of proletariats, their strength will grow, and they will find ways to better their situation. “The real fruits of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of workers.”3 Improved means of communication will prove to be