Marxism

In what has been called the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat,” or the government that would be set up after a revolt against the bourgeoisie, the communal economy is highly reminiscent of the Enlightenment philosophe, Rousseau. While Marx believed that the development of such a system is inevitable, it must be taken into account that humans would not naturally conform to the resulting society. Given that all the needs of the citizens would be taken care of, many people would be prone to not do their assigned duty. As a result, a domino effect would cause countless people to follow their example and in a short period of time the entire nation would be without a workforce.

Many historians have validly questioned whether or not a Marxist revolution will ever occur, given the disconcerting history of such an event. Although class tensions and oppressions have never escalated to the predicted overthrow of the bourgeoisie, it is more than likely that there were significant mistakes made on the part of the revolutionaries in the proletariat. Additionally, it is notable that Marx’s foretold revolution cannot be considered the only solution to class oppression, given that at some point the upper class would dignify a proletariat effort towards reform, thereby stopping the escalation towards such a revolt.

At a glance, Marx’s ideas can be considered accurate in a scientific and theoretical sense, but when it comes to experimentation and realistic application, his ideal society falls short of success when it encounters the pitfalls of human nature. The failure of his economic conservatism can be seen not in the foiled efforts toward a successful proletariat revolution, but rather in the final goal, which would never be able to remain stable economically or socially. Although the theories that Marx and Engels developed would seem to be the mathematical solution to economic problems and class tensions, the resulting lack of motivation and hope though religion would leave his ideal society in a rather defunct state of affairs.