Communism

In their work, The Communist Manifesto, and Engels’s solo work, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, it might seem that with communism they plan to destroy the relationships that a family has with one another. It might seem this way because all the parents would do is work to support the society, and the older kids would be at the public schools to learn, and the kids would be neglected and forgotten. This is not true, however, and communism secures the correct relationships within the family. Communism destroys the desire for money. Communism also prevents the exploitation of children. Lastly, Communism does away with private education.

Communism destroys the desire for money. The present foundation on which the bourgeois family is based is on capital. This capitalistic family finds its complement, capital, in the absence of family, because everyone is always to busy working and trying to get money. This means the type of family that is formed in bourgeois society does not care about each other, but about money, and they are willing to sacrifice their relationships for it. Communism takes advantage of the fact that humans have a material nature and when communism destroys the notion of private, individual gain, it also destroys this disordered idea of what a family should be. A material nature causes one to change their behavior due to external, physical means. What it creates in its stead is a healthy family that spends time together, and not at work trying to make money.

Communism also prevents the exploitation of children. When parents send their kids to go work in the mines when they are only six years old, this is clearly not even an unhealthy relationship, it is not even a relationship at all. Communists would not make the kids work when they are young to make money. Communists would send them to school. They would do this so the kids can become skilled laborers and contribute to society in a healthy way. Communists also would not have the mindset that trying to make money is the most important thing in your life, so exploiting children would not even come into their minds. With these schools and a newer way to turn slave-like kids into slave laborers, communist society would prevent the exploitation of children.

Lastly, Communism does away with private education. Private education in the capitalist society does not educate kids in order to make the skilled, specialized workers who can become more than mere wage-laborers. It trains them to get the maximum amount of money with the least amount of work possible, and often the kids end up as factory workers anyway. This is a bad relationship because instead of doing loving things together, the family makes plans on how to oppress others. In a communist society, public education would allow kids to learn more than how to pull a lever or push a button. These schools would teach people about specific jobs, and how to contribute to society in a healthy way, not how to take advantage of others for the sake of money. This gives families time to do fun things and teaches them to love each other selflessly, and gives them a motive to love for reasons other than material gain. This is so because when there are no class distinctions or capital, there is no reason to use people for self interest.

By destroying the desire for money, preventing child exploitation, and doing away with home education, communism secures the correct relationships within the family. In theory this is brilliant and flawless. In reality, unfortunately, this cannot happen. Human nature can not be predicted as easily as Marx and Engels say, and won’t be changed just because someone won’t get a meal one day. Humans are much deeper than this and to think of humans as having a material nature is very self-centered and arrogant, because humans who are strong of character will not fold under such insignificant modes of change. Achieving such an audacious world is next to impossible unless you impose a society of fear, which doesn’t protect anybody’s rights.