by Geoffrey Churchman
He was born on 5 May 1818 in Trier, Germany, to be precise, and in her pursuit of suitable dates for more public holidays to please her voters, it’s a little surprising that Dear Leader hasn’t come up with this one, as he is the father of the ideology which has clearly been a major force in her life and and at least some of her cabinet colleagues. Maybe she’ll announce it next year?
According to the Wikipedia page on Marx, he “has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history and his work has been both lauded and criticised. His work in economics laid the basis for some current theories about labour and its relation to capital. Many intellectuals, labour unions, artists and political parties worldwide have been influenced by Marx’s work, with many modifying or adapting his ideas. Marx is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science.”
And he is. No student of political science can ignore him as, deeply flawed as his theories are, he has had a major influence on the World. At the time he wrote his works in the mid 19th century he was concerned with the vast disparity of wealth and power between the haves and the have-nots.
But as economic historian John Kenneth Galbraith pointed out, as well as revolution, his Communist Manifesto proposed a series of modest socio-economic reforms by governments, which western countries steadily adopted — and served to diminish the appetite by workers for revolution. The revolutions that did occur — Russia, Cuba, China — happened in those countries which never saw those reforms. In that way did Marx work against Marx.
It’s rather ironic that in the last few decades the vast disparities in income and wealth have reappeared — including here in Kapiti where for some unfathomable reason, KCDC Boss Mr Maxwell is paid from Ratepayers about 5 times the average salary. Globally, we now have a new unfettered dictatorship — not of the proletariat (those at the bottom of the heap) but by the Billionairiat. It’s now said that the top 1% own about 80% of the World.
Even more ironically, Jacinda & Co. have been throwing nine figure sums of Taxpayer money at these billionaires: the America’s Cup owners and most recently, $162 million to Jeff Bezos of Amazon. What about doing something for the workers your party is supposed to represent, Jacinda? Why not reduce GST as David Seymour calls for, Jacinda?
Fun facts about Marx
He sought the type of personal control typical of a narcissist: His fiancé Jenny von Westphalen constantly derided herself for not being good enough for him (she was a well connected member of the nobility).
Despite perpetual poverty, the Marx household in London had two maids, half-sisters, Helene (the von Westphalen family maid) and Marianne. Although neither were paid regularly, Helene’s shoes were pawned to pay for Karl’s daughter Jenny to take piano lessons. (She was sent to finishing school for girls, to ensure she could marry well).
Karl had a son, Freddy, to Helene, He was adopted out to a proletarian family.
Karl regarded family members as commodities according to the value of their bequests. The death of Jenny’s uncle in 1866 was ‘a very happy event’ – . Jenny got 100 Pounds.
Marx regarded Slavs as savages. Poland had no history. Russian rule, ‘for all its Slavic dirtiness’ was civilizing the obviously even less worthy peoples of the Caspian and Central Asia, Bashkirs and Tatars. Lasalle, the wealthy German Social Democrat leader, was a ‘Jewish N…..’ , who was ‘n…..-like’. Of the Jews: ‘what is the worldly religion of the Jew? – huckstering.’ (On the Jewish Question, 1844).
Slavery was a necessary phase of the ‘historic dialectic’ – ‘slavery is an economic category of the greatest importance’. (Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy). Yankee annexation of land from ‘lazy Mexicans’ was progressive for the same reasons. British rule over Asia and particularly India was necessary to bring these ‘vegetative peoples’ into the historical stream. (The British rule in India, 1853).
In general, the Marx-Engels correspondence, despite being heavily redacted over decades, remains a valuable source of information.