In the 1840’s through to 1850’s there was industrial revolution and commercialization of agriculture. This brought with it social problems majorly being some members of the society amercing wealth while others lived in poverty. This paper seeks to compare between response to the manifesto of the communists by Marx and Engels and that by Walden by Thoreau. It specifically looks at what were the problems in their view and what were the possible solutions.
Marx and Engels viewed the greatest problem that faced the world at their time as class conflict. Classes according to them arose when a particular group of people achieve class solidarity and consciousness. Conflict arises when one class becomes aware of exploitation being meted on them by members of another class. The two classes that Marx and Engels identified are the proletariat: This class included all people that earned a living by selling their labor to the market and earning a wage or salary in return. These people were viewed as having no independence of their livelihood and hence had to continuously work so as to survive (Marx and Engels 45).The second class was that of the bourgeoisies: These are people that earned their income from the excess capital that was created by the workers, in modern times we can say they keep the profits. The bourgeoisies were seen to exploit the proletariat and this was a main source of conflict. This they described as antagonism that existed in the society due to existence of competing socioeconomic desires and interests between people of different classes (Marx and Engels 59).
This class conflict took many different forms such as direct violence and this was inform of wars that were fought over resources and acquisition of cheap labor. There was also indirect violence and these presented itself inform of death of the lower class poverty strike people due to poverty related causes such as starvation, lack of proper housing exposing them to illness, lack of proper medical attention due to lack of resources among others. There was also existence of unsafe working conditions for the masses that provided labor in the industries. The conflict also originated from threat of losing a jobs or being denied a chance to get hold of a crucial investment opportunity. There was also the control of peoples mind by pushing into their minds the capitalism ideology through readily providing to the masses books that promoted capitalism and shelving any material that had contrary views. Capitalistic ideologies were also passed to the masses unintentionally by promotion of consumerism ideology through advertisements of goods and services (Marx and Engels 67).Conflict also existed politically amongst the different classes of people that made up the society. This was existed inform of both legal and illegal lobbying by government leaders for the passage partisan laws that included consumer laws, labor laws, tax codes tariffs, injunction and other sanctions. When lobbying did not work the government officials resorted to bribing the concerned authorities so that they could get things to go their way (Marx and Engels 71).The oppression of the masses also included lockout that was aimed at destroying the labor unions so as to further oppress the labor force and the masses responded by strikes and go-slows in production systems to protest low wages and unfair labor practices.
The solution to the problems that afflicted humanity at this time according to Marx was the abolition of the capitalistic class and formation of a classless society (Marx and Engels 76).Marks provided possible solution to each and every problem that afflicted the society as follows:
Marx also suggested abolition of right of inheritance; he noted that the disparity in fortunes that family held was not acceptable and it should be abolished at the death of the property owner, to this he also included fortunes that arose from wage differentials in the society. This principle of non-inheritance was aimed at achieving wealth equalization after the death of the previous property owner (Marx and Engels 125).Though after the equalization one could still acquire property through hard work of their own hands. Marx also proposed the confiscation of the property of all bourgeoisie emigrants and rebels that took advantage of the revolution of the proletariats to enrich themselves so as to protect the commoners from exploitation by a few. Another solution that he put forward was the centralization of credit by the state through formation of a national bank that has state capital and exercises exclusive monopoly (Marx and Engels 136).This measure he stated would deprive the capitalists of their wealth and power to direct the nation’s economy. When the state has exclusive control of credit facilities the state would be able to decide what part of the economy to expand and by what extend and the state would be able financially starve useless and socially harmful ventures pushing them out of existence. He suggested that all decisions on how both private and public enterprises were to be run would be made by some central authority and hence the state would not use credit as a means of controlling the economy.
Centralization of the transport and communication services in the hands of the state is another solution offered by Marx (Marx and Engels 159).This measure would be aimed at depriving the capitalists the power to control the economy yet they made a small proportion of the whole society. Instead the state would be able to its own internal communication system based on the social need of the society and afford it to the majority poor. Marx also suggested that the state was to put efforts to increase the bounty of its natural resources. This it would achieve by expanding the factories and other instruments of production that are in the state’s hands (Marx and Engels 179).This it would do by putting the vast waste lands into cultivation and putting into place rules that will help land. This was to create a sharp distinction between the state and the capitalists that just maintained vast resources under their ownership without exploiting it for economic purposes further pushing the masses into deep poverty. Equal liability to provision of labor is another solution that Marx put forward (Marx and Engels 189).This would be achieved through establishment of industrial armies in the agricultural sector. In the capitalistic sector few capitalist who did not work were supported by many laborers that did most of the work. The capitalists were parasitic on the rest of the population. Marx envisioned a communistic society in which everyone worked except for those who were either very young or very old to do so and providing productive labor would cease to divide people into classes and since everyone would work the society would be classless (Marx and Engels 210).
Another solution put forward by Marx was the gradual and systematic abolition of the glaring distinction between the country side and the towns. This would be achieved combining agriculture and industrial activities (Marx and Engels 256).There existed a clear distinction between the peasants that worked in the farms and the more civilized inhabitants of the cities. To eradicate the antagonism that existed between the country and city dwellers by combining agriculture and industrialization a situation would be created in which one spent part of their time in the farms and another in the cities hence less conflict between the two groups. Marx also suggested the introduction of free education to all children attending public schools and restructuring of how children worked productively in the farms and the industries. In the capitalistic economy children of the middle class spent long hours toiling in the farms and industries leaving little room for education which was more of a privileged of the capitalists. This he suggested could be corrected by providing free access to education for all children and incorporating into the curriculum some industrial apprentice so that the children would be in touch with the labor market requirements and also some gymnastics for the physical development of the children (Marx and Engels 267).
Thoreau on the other hand postulated that man should become completely self relient.He states that men labor under an ideology that is entirely a mistake almost seeming as fate and out of necessity. They get employed and work tirelessly to lay down treasures that will later only be destroyed by rust and moth or thieves will break and steal (Thoreau 45).He sees this kind of life as a fool’s life. He feels man does not treat themselves as tenderly so as to preserve themselves. He sees Negro slavery as a sign of resignation to confirmed desperation. Allowing oneself to be enslaved by the subtle masters is dehumanizing. Men view of the fact that the situation of one being a slave cannot be changed is not accepted. He states that the necessities of life are food, clothing, shelter and fuel and many other things that are in his opinion the luxuries and comforts of life are dispensable (Thoreau 71).He feels that man can only judge human life by putting themselves into a situation of voluntary poverty. He sees the success of a true philosopher not only to confining oneself to writing books but also living by the dictates of what they advocate which include independence, simplicity ,trust and magnanimity Thoreau finds that the members of the society toil so much to acquire properties such as houses that only serve to enslave them. He feels that the luxury and bounty of one class of people is counterbalanced by the extreme need of the other with the poor acting as servants to the rich and all seem to have resigned themselves to such a state of affairs. Men he describes as having become tools of their tools. Instead of only taking what they need from nature to survive they put too must effort to create surplus. Thoreau views most things that man engage in as pure vanity such as building of a magnetic telegraph from Texas to Maine only to find there is nothing important to be communicated between the two cities or connecting the old and new world through a tunnel under Atlantic only for insignificant news to be passed (Thoreau 89).For economic activity Thoreau suggested that man should concentrate on production of food just enough to meet their dietary needs and each person was able to produce food enough for themselves. Through this he found that if each person worked to produce their food then each person would only work for six weeks in a year and use the rest of the time in activities that they enjoy.
Thoreau provides the solution for man to escape from this vicious cycle of self-enslavement as returning to the basics and taking from nature only what each man needs to survive when he went to live in the woods. For a person to fully comprehend their purpose in life they need to retreat into solitude (Thoreau 134).One needs to slow down and reconnect with nature and not live life in a hurry which is a total waste of life. Only by staying away from all the comforts and distractions of life and concentrating on acquisition of strictly what they need to survive can a person escape from falling into routes that are senseless as they have been followed by others without any success (Thoreau 167 ).Instead through solitude one is able to reflect and beat a track for themselves .the important thing that needs to be done is to be confident and follow their dreams and have the ability to face the life that they have envisioned and in so doing they will achieve success .By simplifying our lives the laws that govern the universe will appear to be less complex, we shall be able to see poverty not to be poverty , solitude to not to be solitude nor weakness as weakness instead we shall be able to derive optimum good from every situation of our life.
In conclusion While Marx saw the problems of the society to be emanating from existence of two different classes of citizens that is the proletariat and the bourgeoisies with the bourgeoisies controlling all resources and living off the hard work of the proletariats, Thoreau saw all the problems that afflict man to be caused by men falling into patterns of activities that have been undertaken by their predecessors without stopping to reflect and find their true purpose in life. Man he says was also preoccupied with creating wealth that in actual sense he did not need hence continuously found himself enslaved by the wealth creation process. Marx suggests that the solution to all the problems afflicting man is there to be a revolution so as to disband the capitalist class and ensure access to a state’s resources to all members of the community and each member of the society should work for their living to stop a situation in which a few members of the society depend on the labor of the majority. Thoreau on the other hand gives the solution to man’s problem as man to put his effort to produce only that which he needs to survive and not be obsessed with wealth creation and each person should seek their true purpose in life.
Works Cited
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition. London: Verso, 2012. Print.
Thoreau, Henry D. Walden, Or, Life in the Woods. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. Print.
