Karl Marx has been named as one of the most influential thinkers and writers of modern times. The Communist Manifesto published in 1848, explains and describes his theories on socialism. This manifesto was used as the foundation in order to establish theÿ? Communist Russia. Although Communism eventually failed, there are still points in his work that can be applied to modern society.
One of Marx's arguments is that the bourgeois society is so powerful that it can no longer be controlled. He explained that such type of society should be removed. KarlÃÂs solution for such a problem was to overthrow the bourgeois society and to establish a proletariat society. Marx explains his insight on history, focusing mainly on the development and destruction of the bourgeoisie, which was the ruling class of his day. Before the bourgeoisie became the ruling class, society was organized through a feudal order which was run by aristocratic landowners and corporate guilds.
Cover of the Communist Manifesto’s initial publi...
Engels in 1868
Karl Marx (1818-1883)With the discovery of the continent of America and with the frequent expansion of economic markets, a new class arose, a manufacturing class, which took control of international and domestic trade by producing goods more efficiently than the closed guilds.
Since this class was growing into an economic power, it began to increase its economical power; therefore it destroyed the antique feudal society which sought to restrict their ambition. According to Marx, the French Revolution was the most decisive act of bourgeois self-determination. Indeed, Marx thought bourgeois control so pervasive that he claimed that "the executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie"The bourgeois ascendancy had created a new social class which labor in the bourgeois industries. This class, the proletariat or "wage-laborersÃÂ were indispensable for bourgeois production. As bourgeois industries expand and increased...