FREE ESSAY ON KARL MARX

KARL MARX

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Karl Marx : The Man Behind Communism
Were Karl Marx ideas on communism moral? It is quite obvious that some societies do or
did believe that communism was a good way of life. Even though there are many drawbacks
to communism there are still some advantages. Karl Marx is a man of intrigue he only did
what he wanted to and not what others wanted him to do. Upon completion of my research I
feel that Marx was a very bright man. His ideas may not be all together but a man that
can introduce communism to the world and actually get people to follow Marx ideas is
powerful to me. In my research paper I would like to tell you a little about the life and
times of Karl Marx, and how is ideas effect the economy today.
Karl Marx was born at 2 am on May 5, 1818. Marx was one of eight children he had two
brothers and five sisters. His mother Henriette Prockmon called Karl, Gluckskind meaning
child of fortune. She loved Karl and his sibling all the same and felt fortunate to have
children. But Karl's father thought that Marx was "possessed by a demon" (Padover 22) it
was probably since Karl always never did what his father expected of him. Karl's siblings
even saw him as a tyrant he would use his siblings as a horse and ridicule them all for
being slow intellectually since he was gifted at learning compared to them. Marx's
childhood was not all peachy he had two brothers and one sister die of tuberculosis,
which ran in the family and kept Marx out of military service (Padover 38). Karl was
raised as a Jewish man but in 1824 a Prussian government decree conformed a long- 
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standing practice that Non-Christians could not attend schools. So in August 1824 he was
baptized in the Trier Evangelical church. Therefore he had his road to college paved for
him by being able to go to school for lower education. Marx started college at Bonn
University where his father wanted him to learn law and continue the family business.
Marx on the other hand wanted to go for philosophy. He switched to Berlin University
after his first year so that he could get a better education. Marx disappointed his
father by not studying law and told his father "I did not read works on jurisprudence
primarily to become a lawyer, but rather to find metaphysical answers." (Padover 49).
Marx got a doctorate in philosophy from Berlin with financial help from his mom whom was
not well off financially and lived in a lower-middle class neighborhood. In 1842 Karl
Marx started writing for a liberal democratic newspaper called Rheinische Zietung in
Cologne, and at the end of 1842 Marx became the editor for the paper (Padover 29). In the
beginning of 1843 Marx was told by the ministry that at the end of the quarter the paper
must cease publication, causing Karl to resign immediately. The summer of 1843 before
heading to Paris to devote his time to studying political economy and the history of the
great French Revolution, he married the daughter of Privey Councillor Von Westphalen in
trier named Jenny Von Westphalen. Marx liked to speak his mind in writings, which caused
him to be expelled from France by Guizot in 1845 (Carver 208) . Upon leaving France he
went to Brussels and stayed there, pursuing the same studies, until the outbreak of the
February Revolution. Marx still could not keep his ideas to himself and was asked to
leave Brussels, He was asked to return to France by the French Provisional 
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Government to help with the uprising there (Appelbaum 119). Marx lived a poor life; his
long time friend Fredrick Engles asked Marx and his family to move to London where he
was. By doing so Engles helped Marx with food and shelter for him and his family. While
in London Marx and Engles worked on papers and books together, Marx wrote article for the
New York Times at that time also. Even with all of the writings that Marx did he still
never made a lot of money. In Karl Marx's later years he was always sick with different
ailments causing him not to write much so he had no extra money to pay to see a doctor
(Padover 323). Marx died March 14 1883 but his ideas are still alive today in different
countries to day. Marx's most famous writings include The Communist Manifesto and Das
Kapital for major works. He was well known for his time and his name still pops up in
today's society. Karl Marx was a very smart man in history even though his views may not
have been the right road.
The times of Karl Marx were nothing to brag about either. Imagine living in his time
there was no advanced medicine and living without the technology that we have today. To
some it may not be to bad but you still had to eat, provide shelter for your family and
medical help for your family when they need. Since the medical care for Marx was to
expensive and not as advanced as today he lost a lot of people dear to him that he would
not have lost today. When Marx was a child he lost a sister and a brother to
tuberculosis, in today's society. Marx was also the support for revolutions. He would put
his ideas on paper and let the public read them. A lot of times what he spoke of was
truth that would lead to a revolution (Cameron 421). In 1840 the industrial revolution
began in England 
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and France had brought into being a new social force that was pressed for widespread
change in society. This force was the industrial working class, a class of wage labourers
concentrated in small factories and work places and increasingly inclined to resort to
collective action, such as strikes, and collective organization, in the form of trade
unions. Between the years 1830 and 1848, which mark two separate revolutionary uprisings
in France, the industrial working class changed the shape of European politics. Karl Marx
had a name for himself as a rebel but he did not directly fight the battle he brought the
idea to society and the people would take it to the government or the labor leaders
(Rigby 529).
Karl Marx did leave economic contributions to free countries except for the idea to stand
up for what you believe in. He did help communist counties set their rules and a
guideline to live by. I think Karl Marx's ideas on communism were wrong. Karl Marx's
ideas on communism are incorrect based on his ideas of economics. Marx believed that
labor would be free (Cameron 124). Few if any people would work for free, if they get
bored, they could go to the movies, theme parks, and other entertainment but where would
they get the money from. His ideas that there would be no currency in the future are also
wrong. Humans have lived for thousands of years, we have gone through time periods where
barter was the only trade. They all eventually took up currency, Karl's idea of
concentration of wealth is faulty. Karl's idea was that people who are rich, are rich
because they get ideas on how to make something better than the next guy does. Poor 
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people many times come up with million dollar ideas. Money keeps being transferred from
rich to poor, poor to rich. These ideas of Marx's are wrong about economics and do not
work. Look at counties like the former Soviet Union they are falling apart. The money
they have they feel is safer in their home and in their pocket than in their banks.
People are waiting in long lines for items such as food, all things that take some
adjustment to get used to so that they can become a Democracy instead of communism. Karl
Marx lived in a time a lot of us probably would not have wanted to. We would not have the
convenience of our cars or an air conditioner on a hot summer day. Karl Marx did not live
a life of luxury. He was far from a millionaire and the most important thing to him was
his writings and ideas. His family was important too but he never had a job that could
support them instead he wanted a job as a rebel. He enjoyed his freelance writing styles
and causing uprising in different countries, he likes to be heard. He would write for
anyone whom would print he did not do it for the money but the money did feed his family.
Marx had a rough child hood being ridiculed by his dad for not following what his dad
felt was best. Karl is best known for writing the highly subjective Communist Manifesto,
which even today some private schools still will not let a copy through the door. Finally
we talked about Karl's contributions today and we can best say that his ideas are still
alive today in countries like Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam. Karl Marx was a very smart
man whoms ideas are still around today in a more modern society and he has a name that
will be around for many more years as the man behind communism.
Bibliography
Karl Marx: The Man Behind Communism 7
References
Appelbaum, Richard P. Karl Marx. Vol 7 
Newbury Park: Sage, 1988. 7 vols.
Cameron, Kenneth Neill. Marxism: The Science of Society an Introduction.
Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey, 1985.
Carver, Terrell. Marx & Engles. Bloomington: Indiana University press,
1983.
Linklater, Andrew. Beyond Realism and Marxism. St. Martin's Press:
New York, 1990.
Marx, Karl. Wage - Labor and Capital. http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/Archive/1849- 
WLC/wlc9.txt, 11 November 98. 
Padover, Saul K. Karl Marx: an intimate Biography. Abridged ed.
Canada: Meridian, 1980.
Rigby, S.H. Engles and the Formation of Marxism. New York:
Manchester, 1992.