Marxism: A Guide

Intro:

It seems that in TRP words such as Marxist, Communist and Cultural Marxist gets thrown around carelessly. I want to make a brief guide on what Marxism actually is so people here can be more informed about what constitutes as Marxism since people here seem to be politically aligned with the right and they may be uninformed about Marxism for whatever reason. This will serve as a very basic guide to what Marx is talking about, obviously, there are many interpretations of Marx through men such as Mao, Lenin, Tito, Hoxha, Guevara etc. Even if you don’t politically agree with any of this I still highly recommend reading a little about Marx because now that Trump is in office the radical left will probably be more prominent and to use the cliché; knowledge is power.

Materialism

Marxism follows a materialistic worldview. All materialism means is that there is nothing beyond our natural world. Our physical world is what influences our thinking. Some of you may have heard the term “I think; therefore, I am,” that would be an idealist worldview. A materialist would say “I am; therefore, I think,”. This materialist worldview would explain why Marxists are atheists because atheism doesn’t believe in a supernatural God or gods that control the universe. Instead, things are guided by natural processes that can be explored and figured out through science. Also, our material conditions influence our way of thinking. An example would be during feudalism where tradition stated that the king was chosen by God for so long that it was just common sense to people at the time. Now, because we have democratic republics and we elect our officials, that idea seems ludicrous.

Historical Materialism

Marx analyzed history and found that history wasn’t just a series of random of events, instead history is driven by revolution. There are different stages of human economic development and they are categorized as follows; hunter-gatherer society, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and eventually through revolution socialism and onto communism. Communism being the last and final stage of human development. To jump between these stages requires revolution, for example, from hunter to gatherer society (which made up 95% of our time on this earth) to slavery required the agricultural revolution. From feudalism to capitalism, required revolutions like the French or American revolution. In each of these revolutions there was a class that was the subjugated class who overthrew the higher classes. The higher class would implant their world view on the classes below them and this changed how people behaved. For example, under hunter-gatherer societies, there was no real property and this idea persisted somewhat under feudalism with common lands in which anyone could go and hunt. Eventually as the bourgeois gained power these lands turned into private property. In feudalism, land ownership was seen as the only way to make money and become wealthy. As economic conditions changed, then the bourgeois became wealthy by trade or by manufacturing goods and would rival the nobility in wealth. They eventually overthrew the aristocracy and now impose their worldview on the working class. Conditions dictate world views and these economic conditions will change and that, in turn, will change our world view as well. Sounds similar to the materialism I explained before right?

Marxian Economics

This is pretty complicated and the paragraph that I write won’t do it any justice but, I will outline all the important things to know. If you love economics and want to understand capitalism and Marxist economics much better than I would recommend Das Kapital and if that is to beefy for you there are guides out there on how to read it. Exploitation exists in all of these economic stages of development (slavery, feudalism etc.) and communism seeks to eliminate that. Here is why, the only thing that creates wealth is human labor. You may mention that machines add costs and are incorporated into the cost of a product. Machines do transfer their value bit by bit into the products that they produce but ultimately, they need human labor to function. Capitalists are capable of purchasing labor from the working class who only have their labor power to sell. It will be easier to explain exploitation through an example, let’s say you are a worker and you are making a table and it requires you four hours to make a table which will then sell for $100. That $100 will cover costs of living for a day. Now, an employer will want a cut of the profits so they will buy your labor for eight hours. In those eight hours, you can produce two chairs which will both be worth $200. The capitalist can profit that extra $100 and pay you $100 all because he owns the factory to make the tables (known as the means of production in Marxist terms). Not only will the factory boss profit off of your unpaid labor but the landlords and banks are capable of getting a chunk out of your labor through rents and interests on loans. An actual “fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage,” would mean that everyone would break even. The employer and employee would both walk away with enough to sustain themselves. This isn’t the case, there is a reason why on the Red Pill people encourage you to own your own business or own property. Even if you are a high paid engineer you will never earn as much as your boss. This idea is called the Labor Theory of Value if you are interested in learning more.

The Proletariat

You’ve probably heard this term before. A proletariat is a social and economic class that has to sell their labor to survive and they work for a wage/salary. You don’t have to be a factory worker to be a proletariat. The proletariat lacks property that produces money (most of the time) and their interests are always juxtaposed to the boss. The proletariat would like to work less hours for more money while the boss wants the proletariat to work more hours for less money. The proletariat is different from farmers who own their land because farmers can work more hours and yield more product and therefore have more money. Farm hands that work for a boss are the proletariat since they may not have any land of their own. If you will look throughout history peasants are usually conservative and avoid supporting the proletariat because of their different ways of acquiring wealth. The proletariat are interesting because they can achieve class consciousness. All class consciousness means is that they recognize their place in the economic system and realize there is a ruling class that actively exploits them. The expansion of capitalism, wage labor and polarization of wealth increases the ranks among the proletariat meaning they are the vast majority and they’re capable of overthrowing capitalism and establishing socialism.

Marxism-Leninism

This is a term used frequently and it is the most common type of Marxism used to start revolutions. What Lenin added onto Marx’s theories is the stage of imperialism within capitalism and the vanguard party. Lenin thought that imperialism was the highest stage of capitalism and colonies had potential for proletariat revolution because capitalism spread there. He also blamed World War One as being a war for imperialism because the nations of Europe bickered over the wealth generated by colonies and puppet states. The vanguard party is simply a group of professional revolutionaries who would lead the proletariat and organize them for revolution.

Conclusion:

The basic run down is that humans can determine their destiny because there is no high power directing out actions and our physical conditions influence our thought. All economic systems exploit and to end exploitation we would need to reach the last stage of economic development which is communism. The proletariat are the revolutionary class and they are capable of overthrowing the ruling bourgeoisie. If you found this helpful, let me know so I can also post up other guides that can explain more aspects of Marxism and how it relates to the modern world.