Marx on Capitalism

Paper Summary:

This paper is a philosophical, economic and historical critique of Marx's worldview and theories on the downfall of the capitalist system. It looks at how Marx's own economic determinism, his own unflinching reliance on the economy as the determining factor of our historicism, defeats himself since capitalism, as so clearly demonstrated in "The Communist Manifesto", can be considered both spiritually and ethically futile.

From the Paper:

"Marx declares that Proletarian uprising- the ending of capitalism- is inevitable: "It's not a question of what this or that proletarian- or even the whole proletarian movement- momentarily imagines the aim to be. It's a question of what the proletariat is, and what it consequently is historically compelled to do." 10 It seems that Marx misunderstood the proletariat. Observing uprisings and revolutions throughout the last century (and before), he is myopic in two ways: 1) The working class (especially that of today) seems more compelled to work within existing power structures to enforce change in an advanced Capitalist society- not to rebel. And 2) This enforces the suggestion that working class rebellions usually develop from the proletariat, but are rarely purely Communist. In such uprisings, a demagogic figure usually exploits two common factors: people's ignorance, and people's desperation. "

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