A Red Flag Rises Part III: Karl Marx and Man as an Economic Factor

In these previous two posts we have looked at the philosophical roots of Marxist Socialism as found in Hegelian Dialectic, and the Dialectical Materialism of Feuerbach. At the end of the last post I listed seven key aspects of these philosophies which directly influenced Communism, and each one of which will be discussed in its own future post. However, we must first examine the "finishing touches" placed on Hegelian/Feuerbachian thought by Marx himself.

Karl Marx did not merely imitate or assent to the ideas of those who went before him, nor did he borrow from them carte blanche. While Hegel and Feuerbach were his inspiration, he did not agree with them at every point, and had several crucially important ideas of his own, which fashioned their thought into the "scientific socialism" of the next generation. In the words of Fr. Vincent Miceli, S. J., in his magnificent work The Gods of Atheism, "Karl Marx received the keys to his Communist kingdom from his German masters, Hegel and Feuerbach. Hegel gave him the keys of the unhappy conscience and the dialectical method of analyzing history....Ludwig Feuerbach, with the publication of his The Essence of Christianity, supplied Marx with the key of a humanist, materialistic humanism....A genius in his own right, Marx minted a few keys to his own kingdom."

Without entering the hallowed grounds of the philosophers, whose fine points and language I will not profess to understand, I believe that we may use a few straightforward adjectives to help understand the fundamentally Marxian aspect of Communist thought, and they are concrete, political, economic.

Like Feuerbach, Marx was highly critical of the Idealism of Hegel, yet he felt the materialistic humanism of Feuerbach was also too vague and abstract. Much of Marx's thought centers on striving to turn from the abstract to the concrete. He sought to understand man and human history in concrete terms, viewing the history of our species as purely political and economic, a great dialectical struggle of oppressor and oppressed, master and slave, bourgeois and proletariat, one class pitted against another.

To Marx's atheistic, materialistic mind man has no future but this earth, no purpose but work, no goal but to work for utopia here on earth. The worker is not just a man towards whom Marx had sympathy, rather to him the worker is man. Within this perspective, the economic aspect of Communism takes on a larger and deeper meaning.

Make no mistake about it, Marx was not merely some sympathetic social justice advocate. He was seeking for paradise on earth. Man as a worker, in community (for Marx was a collectivist, man has no real value as an individual), having finished the dialectical struggle of the ages through revolution, will live and work on this earth in a classless utopia. This is the vision of Communism. It was not meant to be confined to a country or a time. It was meant to free all mankind through its revolution from bourgeois oppression, from the confines of individualism and petty nationalism, from the illusion of the idea of god and the futile hope of an after life, from the divisions of class, from any moral absolutism except its own. It was evangelical, inspired with an almost messianic zeal, and it was meant to cover all the earth with its society. Man, through his struggles, was seeking "becoming", and could only be or become in the perfect society of worldwide Communism.

It may be objected here, in light of comments in the earlier two posts, that Marxism is really an economic idea after all, since its political and economic aspect is tied with Marx's whole view of humanity, and is central to his philosophy. I have written before that Marxism cannot be understood as a merely economic principle apart from its underlying philosophies. But, it may be asked, is it not clear now that Marxism is precisely economic?

It would, perhaps, be better to view Marxist Socialism as a weapon. Its spearhead is its political and economic aspect, its concrete point in which it enters and pierces modern history. Its material shaft is Feuerbach. Its energy, or driving force, is the dialectic of Hegel.

Marxism is economic-focused, yes. But its economic and political ideas cannot be understood apart from its philosophies, and indeed could not have existed apart from them. Thus, the economic aspect of Communism arises from its root philosophies, not they from it. Sans atheism, Feuerbachian materialistic humanism is not possible, and the idea of an earthly paradise is made less likely. Sans dialectic, the Marxian view of history disappears. Sans collectivism, the subjugation of the individual to the state becomes unthinkable. Sans evolutionary thinking, the certainty of earthly utopia vanishes. And this list can go on.

Regardless of what some may think, Communism cannot really be separated from atheism, materialism, moral relativism, etc. Once again, let me state: Communism cannot be understood merely as an economic idea or principle. It cannot be divorced from its roots in nineteenth century German philosophy. It cannot be separated from its underlying Hegelain/Feuerbachian principles, nor can we fully appreciate its evil or its dangers apart from its principles.