May 5: Karl Marx, German philosopher

BORN MAY 5:

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher and with a handful of others--Darwin and Freud come to mind--a creator of the world in which we live. Politics since Marx either follows his thought or opposes it, but it can't ignore "Marxism" or "Marxist ideology." With his wife and children, he lived in London for decades, collaborating with another German thinker, Friedrich Engels. Much of his research was done in the Reading Room of the British Museum. Marxism 101 says that in history, human societies develop through class conflict. In capitalism, this is conflict between the ruling classes (the bourgeoisie) and the working classes (the proletariat). Capitalism, he said, produces internal tensions that will lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system: socialism. He advocated an organized revolution of the working class. His most important works are The Communist Manifesto (with Friedrich Engels--a mere pamphlet) and the monumental three-volume Das Kapital (Capital).

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