Marxism and Communism: The Real Score
German political philosopher Karl Marx created the system known as Marxism, together with his collaborator Friedrich Engels. In their view, later known as historical materialism, the history of society is a history of class struggle in which the ruling class uses religion and other traditions and institutions, as well as its economic power, to reinforce its domination over the working classes. Human culture, according to Marx, is dependent on economic (material) conditions and serves economic ends.
Religion, for Marx, is “the opiate of the masses” that serves the political end of suppressing mass revolution. Marxism is a theory of revolution, of history, of economics, and of politics, and it served as the ideology for Communism. Although he was a philosopher Marx had disdain for merely theoretical intellectual work, stating, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the point is to change it.”
Marx was in many respects the most influential political theorist of the 19th century. Marx advocated the abolition of private property and predicted the demise of capitalism after a series of recurring crises.
