Karl Marx and the Idea of Communism

Karl Marx’s claim that capitalism is important to human development but must be overcome and a system put into place that would eventually evolve into communism is unrealistic. Although the idea of communism, a social system designed to promote a classless society where everyone is truly equal and social problems such as racism, sexism and oppression do not exist, would be favourable to a capitalist society, it is unachievable as it doesn’t comprehend an individuals personal desire, the labour classes ability to lead or the growth and change that has occurred within capitalism since Marx. Capitalism is the social system currently within place in countries all over the world, where the means for producing and distributing goods are owned by a small collection of people, the capitalists, and the labour class, is made up of the majority of the population who sell their labour for a wage.

Marx’s primary claim is that an individual’s moral, philosophical and religious ideas are reflections based on our material circumstance and that they are not autonomous driving forces in history as others have claimed. Marx concluded that ‘instead of shaping society, ideas were in fact shaped by society’ (Mann & Dann, 2005). By this he meant that the economic system of a society determines what values and principles are upheld. Therefore, an outdate society would value attributes such as honour and loyalty to keep people in line, whereas a capitalist society would value freedom and equality to keep the workforce as large and as mobile as possible to keep down wages. When a society’s economic conditions experience a fundamental change and a new class assumes supremacy after a political revolution has occurred and installed that leading class in power. Marx predicted that a communist revolution eliminating private property and the subjugation of one class by another would occur at the end of history society (Mann & Dann, 2005).

Marx believed that through industrialisation,