A Flashback to Marxism

     Marxism was initially thought of by the minds of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel. Soon, the ideals and philosophy behind it all would spread around the whole world, and would soon come into practice of many countries.

     Marxism is the theory behind communism, and ultimately entails numerous goals for a different type of society. Marxism really came off the ground when both Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto, a document that gave nations a different perspective, yet ironically was radical enough to expel both Marx and Engels from the university they were studying at. It wasn't until the early 1900s (1914-1917) was when marxism began to emerge due to the Soviet Union putting marxism into their society's way of doing things. Marxism soon then made its mark on various countries, all varying from places in Europe, Asia, and even Latin America. Today, marxism-or lack of a better word-communism, is still used yet many countries are not in favour of this system being used due to the problems it can create.

     Back then in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, many people were noticing the flaws that a capitalist society had produced. Employers were exploiting workers of their finances, child labour was a cruel and inhumane way to treat children, the environment was being impacted poorly, and workers had to endure unsafe, unhygienic conditions for ridiculous hours at a time. Soon, rebellions became evident for the people of the nation could not nor should not have to go through these conditions. As stated before, Engels and Marx noticed this very much and created a more idealistic society where everyone was benefitting in some sort of way. Of course, this was published in the world renown document, The Communist Manifesto, and the document outlined many goals and principles.

     This document included ten main goals of the Communist Party which entailed: termination of all private property, everything is to now be of public use; a large progressive income tax law towards the government; abolition of everyone's rights to own anything; the seizing of all property of anyone who denies the system or rebels; all money to be given to the government or state and to be equally distributed among all citizens; all means of transport and communication is to be in the hands of the government; everyone has equal liability to work; the combining of both the agricultural and manufacturing (or industrial) industries, and there would be no separation between town and country distribution; free education for all children if they are to go to a public school, and the combination of education and the production of goods. Of course, many countries these days have altered some of the goals of the Communist Party and do not go entirely by what the document entailed, yet the main objectives are still clearly apparent in their society's system.

     There are still many ideas and topics associated with the word, marxism. Marxism revolved around human history and how the class in power greatly oppressed the other social classes, both with contrasting issues and interests. The marxism theory involved the working class overthrowing the capitalist society and its rulers. From this, a socialist society would sprout and the ruling class would now be rooted into more than half of its population. It would generally be a classless society, where everyone was equal and would all support and help one another for our nation to thrive and prosper. This would be a huge step up from the capitalist society that majority of the population wanted to evacuate from. Of course, all of this could not occur without a revolution, which Karl Marx heavily predicted in order for this socialist society to come about.

     Socialism is merely a lesser degree of communism, however, the same principles still do apply such as the termination of private property, and all of free trade is to be banned and heavy government regulation over trade and markets is promoted. Karl Marx was the mind behind socialism, yet his very theory was also called marxism, yet inevitably turned into communism. All three processes of government are intertwined, yet all lead to the process of communism in many governments to this day. With such good intent behind all of these systems in place, it is hard to believe that communism has also many flaws and downsides to itself. Many government leaders have altered the system so greatly that communism is usually associated with oppression and poverty. Unfortunately, this is the case with countless of other countries, with numerous amounts of leaders gaining extraordinary amounts of power, all to ill use. Examples such as Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Kim Jong-un are just a few of the communist leaders that have killed millions of people (and birds in Mao Zedong's case) in history. Poverty and lack of personal freedom outline majority of communism's flaws. Many people have heard of George Orwell's novella Animal Farm, a famous allegory depicting the events of the Russian Revolution in farm animals. One of the most common themes of the book is the inevitable misuse of power, therefore, will always be one of the main faults of communism.

     Without a doubt, there are many different societal systems in place, and marxism, socialism, and communism are just a few of the theories and systems put into place to this day. Even with a few of its faults, it is still put into practice today, which comes down to the ultimate question: what is the best system in order to rule a society properly?