Marx's Ideal Society
One of the greatest debates of all time has been regarding the issue of the freedom of mankind. The one determining factor, for Marx, it that freedom is linked with class conflict. As a historian, Karl Marx traced the history of mankind by the ways in which the economy operated and the role of classes within the economy. For Marx, the biggest question that needed to be answered was "Who owns freedom?" With this in mind, Marx gives us a solution to both the issues of freedom and class conflict in his critique of capitalism and theory of communism, which is the ideal society for Marx. His theory of communism is based on the "ultimate end of human history" because there will be freedom for all humankind. Marx saw communism as the ideal society because it is "the genuine resolution of the conflict between man and man- the true resolution of the strife between existence and essence...between freedom and necessity" that capitalism fosters. Marx was also committed to the notion that theory and action go hand in hand. Marx dismissed earlier thinkers because they (philosophers) "have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." He also stated "Ideas cannot carry out anything at all. In order to carry out ideas men are needed who can exert practical force". However, Marx would have been appalled by the way his theory of communism was misused. It can be said, though, that Marx's theory of communism was clearly open for interpretation because he failed to offer "principles or guidelines of even the most general kind" for how the system of communism was to be fully established. It was this opportunity for interpretation that made Marx's theory of communism doomed for failure when it was used in practice. Marx's theory stems from the social conditions existing during his lifetime. This was when the industrial revolution was hitting its stride. Great technological advances were being made to the modes of production, especially
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