Marx and Revolution
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“The Nobility of man shines upon us from their work hardened bodies” (Manuscripts, 100). In two of Marx’s works, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” and “Manifesto of the Communist Part,” Marx critiques capitalism and outlines his theory of impending communist revolution. Marx had the theory that a worker’s labor, and therefore product, is an extension of himself. This meant that any practice separating the two essentially tears the man apart. Since Marx sees a system like this beyond repair, and the only solution is a forceful and complete communist revolution ending in the destruction of private property and the reunion of mankind with his labor.
The first thing Marx discusses is his theory of “estranged labor.” In the simplest form, this term means a separation between a worker and his product. There are many factors that could lead to this separation, including the division of labor, the institution of machines in factories, or the rise in importance of money. In the end, the outcome is all the same; the worker loses control of his product. The problem with estranged labor is the theory that the more a worker produces and the more valuable his product becomes, the poorer he becomes. For Marx, this leads to the worker himself becoming a commodity that, like his product, he does not own. Instead of a worker owning his labor with his labor having inherent value, the labor is locked inside the products, and outside of the worker. This independence of labor from its original worker is the basis for Marx’s next powerful term, “alienation.” Alienation of labor is simply when labor exists outside of the worker and when the worker has no claim over his labor. Marx saw this as having damaging effects on the worker, both physically and spiritually. “The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home” (Manuscripts, 74). This situation is no longer simply inconvenient, unpleasant, or unjust; it is criminal. This is no longer voluntary labor, but rather forced labor, and labor that some might consider slavery. Under the modern capitalist social and economic system the workers have become slaves.
Another term Marx speaks about in “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” is “species-being.” This meant that men are species-beings because they choose to include the species as part of themselves and because they treat themselves as living, free species. Although this doesn’t seem like it makes much sense, it allows Marx to deeply connect each individual man to mankind the species. So according to this definition, damage done to the individual is also damage done to the entire species. If you wanted to take this a step further, estranged labor and alienation not only separate man from the profits of their labor, but from the species as a whole. It is the “estrangement of man from man” (Manuscripts, 77). This is saying that all men come from one “essential” nature, so one man who is estranged from his labor, and therefore from himself, is also estranged from other men.
Marx doesn’t say the factories or the division of labor are the root