In
the past two weeks, I have been able to dig deeper into the theories of Marx’s
theories. For example, I know why it failed – for the most obvious reason: Marx
overlooked humanity. Humans are greedy, selfish, aggressive and competitive.
While Marx’s economic system is a dream of utopia, it is yet only a dream.
As
I was reading, I thought to myself: why human beings cannot refrain oneself
into their greedy desires and try to make this utopia society come true? After all,
resisting this small temptation might benefit human society as a whole in the
long term since in Marx’s vision, society would be in peace, free of war and
corruption, discrimination and inequality. Any rational person would agree that
Marx’s theories regarding the economic system is the most ideal situation that
the human society can develop into. Then why do so many people oppose of this
system?
In
the perspective of the working class, it is difficult to put full trust into the
ruling class that they will act accordingly to how they should when applying
this economic system. I have heard many stories from people around me which
they complain that their manager or company do not give them a fair amount of
wage regarding their work. In order for Marxism to work, people need to have
full trust in each other, but trust is hard to build and easy to break. In
modern day society, trust between the ruling class and the working class are
significantly lacking and people might fail to act according to Marx’s theories
leading to a failure in achieving a utopian society.
In
the perspective of the ruling class, Marxism definitely harms their privileges.
Under the current economic system of capitalism, the ruling class can gain more
and even enjoy more rights than those of the working class. Their future
generations may enjoy these privileges as well. There is no direct reason to
why they would act according to Marxism and live their lives as equals to the
working class. If I was a member of the ruling class, I would like to keep my
privileges and fortune for myself and my loved ones instead of making
sacrifices for the majority of the society in which I have no blood relation or
emotional linkage to. It just doesn’t seem beneficial to me in any way.
Then I ask myself, why do people support Marxism if it really is as
not-beneficial as I find it. Till this day, there are still many people who
support it and some countries who still see Marxism as an ultimate goal. How
did that happen? Or is it just a lie to make those who are underprivileged feel
better?
According to my memory, China praises Marxism and adapts an economic
system that is a mix of Marxism and modern Capitalism. Originally, it was pure
Marxism but corruption reeked the governmental offices and people were not
satisfied with how things went. Later on, the government allowed private
ownership in order to compete with other large and strong countries like the
United States and Britain. I see this as a failure of trying to apply Marxism
to an entire country. But I like to think that if education was properly
conducted among all people while corruption didn’t exist, it might’ve worked
out. From what my grandparents mentioned to me, during the old times, China
faced serious corruption and the people faced starvation. My grandmother’s
youngest brother starved to death when he was still a child. It breaks my heart
to know that. If Marxism was implemented as how it should’ve been, they might
not have needed to face poverty and he might have survived and succeeded in
life as a person today.
In
the end, humanism caused all of this but humanism can fix this. The more I know
about Marxism, the more I hope it could’ve been perfectly implemented. Though I
don’t think it would happen in my time, I hope it’d happen in the future where
everyone is united and determined to be better and create a better environment
to live in.
Do
I support Marxism now? Not really. I still think it’s too childish and more of
a daydream than an economic system. But do I wish for this daydream to come
true? Maybe, when the right time comes and we can prevent Marxism from
failing again like how it did in the 20th century China.
Hello Emily !
ReplyDeleteFinishing reading your two logs, I always wanted to leave some comments but it is really difficult to do that because I’ve not read this book, and I also don’t have relevant background. However, your logs gave me some thought-provoking points, so the below just my personal opinion based on what I know and your sharing.
Marxism, it is not only about economy and politics, there must be many aspects under Marxism. As well as thinking why people support this idea, we should also think why Marx created this idea. In fact, as you mentioned, nobody can really implement Marxism, it is difficult for people to trust, including you and me. I think it is impossible for humans to control their own desires, this is similar to a gamble, you give your bargaining chips all; if you lose, you would have nothing; however, you can choose to benefit from it beforehand. When there is nothing to lose, it is not only a question of greed, it is human nature that cannot be illustrated by words.
Remain the same importantly, Capitalism, why is there capitalism, why Marxism is to criticize capitalism, of course I am not a scholar and won’t dig into them, but it is still very interesting to understand the reasons. I can share my own points of view. I am inclined to capitalism. Of course, this does not mean that I fully support capitalism or that I am against Marxism. A better system will be created as we move forward, how to integrate is the question to think about, instead of supporting one of them ignorantly, BTW, sorry for hearing your grandmother’s younger brother story, China employed a wrong method to experiment the integration, as you said, it’s attributed to government corruption. and I don't particularly support ideas, but if only there were one that could totally resist these upsetting things, I would support it.
Hi Emily!
ReplyDeleteIt seemed that you clearly realized the negative aspects of humanity. XD You bring up many thought-provoking questions and give critical perspectives on Marxism.
Indeed, they are worth discussing, and as a human living in society should ruminate them as well.
In this book, does Terry Eagleton give a specific example of the implementation of Marxism? Could you elaborate more about the benefits of Marxism he mentions in the book?