Left-Over Marxists and the confusion about Capitalism

Most liberal intellectuals are decayed Marxists. They don’t like Marx but they accept his great division: he preached class warfare and divided the world between Oppressor and Oppressed/Bourgeois and Proletariat. He sliced through society, proletarian at the bottom; everyone above that was a bourgeois. The bourgeois was either a capitalist or his supporter.

This was an arbitrary division and untrue. It glorified the factory worker and put everyone else under suspicion as an enemy traitor.(The political effects have been murderous).

If he had drawn the line higher up the social scale and included skilled craftsman and thinkers then they might also have had more sympathy for his theory and it would not have been so dangerously wrong.

All politics for Marx, consists in the conflict of classes, brought about by changing methods of economic technique (which we know is dependent on inventions and discoveries and not therefore pre-ordained to happen but Marx doesn’t mention this because he believes his theory to be an evolutionary science which is bound to result in the triumph of the proletariat).

Looking back: The bourgeoisie conquered the feudal nobility in the great French Revolution, 1789 and then in 1848 in France there began the new revolution of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. These socialists were put down with great slaughter. As the bourgeoisie had defeated the feudal nobility, so, in the end, the proletariat were certain to defeat the bourgeoisie, Marx argued.

The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848. It begins, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”.

I can understand today why people accept this statement without much thought. We know about the rise of middle classes over centuries and then the trade union and workers movements of the nineteenth century (most often started by self-serving and sometimes philanthropic middle class people) and the establishment of the Welfare State in England after the Great War. But history isn’t a science and Marx was selecting his facts. Change has happened not only through class conflict but through different groupings, for example before industrialism there was conflict between the merchant guilds and the craft guilds- the ones who sold commodities and the ones who made them. Most conflicts have been wars between nations, not between different classes. (It has been true that workers often hate foreigners more than the boss). Marx was brilliant in understanding that politics is motivated by economics.

But politics is not only based on economic bias rather than upon considerations of the general good. (And Marx’s preaching of the class war scared the Liberals).  E.g. Nationalism was first promoted by its patriots as a general good. The new idea was launched by the French revolutionary wars; France was a nation fighting for “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” – Democracy in a word. Nationalism spread to the whole of Europe.
Nationalism is still a source of emotion –perhaps most often felt by the poor who ironically are the most exploited. Our media still press this button to perpetuate war in the service of it’s club, Monopoly Capitalism.

Orwell and 1984
Here Orwell re-iterates Marx’s doctrine. Yet in his novel “1984” the motive of the world controllers is Power for the Sake of Power . They do this through surveillance (Big Brother will protect you) and hatred (though manufactured Propaganda) of an Evil Enemy.  Of course people in power want money but in “1984” ultimate power is the main motive. Today it’s clear that the desire by the few to own everything will soon wreck the earth.
N.B. Orwell’s Animal Farm is about Communism.

Another example of Marx selecting his facts to suit his pseudo-scientific theory in support of the rights of the proletariat was that he picked up the idea that labour is the measure of value. The value of any commodity, he says, is measured by the work (time) involved in making it. (This is just one important factor of value and I cannot think of one example where it is the only factor). Skill is not included, nor beauty. Indeed beauty cannot fit any formula. Beauty has a value in itself. When you understand Beauty is Truth you face the ultimate criterion of choice; and you have the power to exteriorize yourself according to your vision, your insight. In this sense you take away free will if you have no freedom to choose – you have a lid on your emotions. (- The warped sentiments of the communes in Russia and China!).

By ignoring skilled people Marx isolates the proletariat as the one oppressed class: why, he says, should not the whole value be paid to the man who made the commodity? With what right did the landlord and the capitalist appropriate part of the product if they added nothing to its value? Workers should own the means of production.

I have not read the whole of Marx and don’t intend to – he is too much blinded by his hatred, but I do know that his economics did include the idea of surplus value. Under capitalism the wage – earner produces more than he is paid for. And it is obvious that under communism (apart from paying for the machines) surplus value would be needed for services (e.g. doctors, teachers) and common amenities. Property would be held in common.

Today there is great confusion over capitalism. Intellectuals accept Marx’s division and see everyone who makes a profit from business as a bourgeois (this word is not now in vogue) and a capitalist – and an exploiter. When I was a punk some of the punks branded me a capitalist because I had a shop. Today people wonder how I can like Prince Charles and yet be against our corrupt government. One journalist says that my brain is confused. Prince Charles is rich and privileged, therefore an oppressor says the decayed Marxist.

I say Charles has done more good in the world than any other politician, and the monarchy at this point in time is a stabilizing establishment. There are so many points on which I don’t agree with politically correct, left – over Marxists,– because I’m not embarrassed to be controversial. They are not thinking things through.

Regarding Naomi Klein’s recent book, This Changes Everything which is against monopoly capitalism a reviewer accuses her of inconsistency because she says, there’s nothing wrong with making a profit. You have to have capital for commerce; there is nothing wrong with capitalism per se. The enemy is monopoly capitalism.

By the mid nineteenth century when Marx wrote his Manifesto, Free Trade was all the rage. This put an end to fixing prices so as to protect farmers and craftsmen. (Isn’t protection monopoly?)  Surely competition would reduce the price of commodities. Wasn’t that good for poor people? Marx saw through all this and realised that competition leads to monopoly. He hated Free Trade. (Unless capitalism is controlled, big fish eat little fish).

There is nothing astonishing in the fact that Marx’s appeal was mainly to class antagonisms, when we consider what British capitalism was in the first half of the nineteenth century: cruel and brutal. Marx hated it and its cold-blooded employers.

Scene inside an English coal mine, early 19th century. You would not be able to see the scene on this engraving as it was pitch black except for the candle on the cart.These children worked in the dark for up to 15 hours a day. This 5 year old child had to open and shut the door to control the draft. Older children are pushing the cart. Girls also did this.

We should not forget the part played in history by individuals. Marx, by his teaching created the class war which he prophesied.

Bertrand Russell – philosopher and socialist – says, Freedom and Organization 1814 -1914:

At this point in time I don’t understand how point 4 would work, because I’m not clear how different Socialism is from Communism – which in practice was a nightmare of oppression and death. But if we can take back some of our country’s lost wealth it will be a start and it will help us and the planet.

The British had a mixed economy during the nineteenth century up until Thatcher when the bargain sale began, together with the out-sourcing of our industry.

Just to get back to a state in which our country owns its national assets and services becomes more difficult as the sales continue; the profitable Eurostar just went, social housing is pulled down and luxury flats for speculators are built.

As things stand Marx’s division should undercut governments, corporate monopolies and banks (The Revolving Door Club) and separate them off from the rest of us.

Monopoly is the enemy.

I think if we could follow this signpost it would show us the way to a world of real human values. This means a hierarchy of values (Monopoly Capitalism creates Chaos). The future of civilization depends on this hierarchy of human values.