The Importance Of Social Harmony In The Pursuit Of Freedom
John Greavu
Professor Joan Tronto
POL 1201
19 December 2013
Marx and Gandhi:
The Importance of Social Harmony in the Pursuit of Freedom
In response to prompt #7:
Pick two thinkers from among Marx, Fanon, and Gandhi, and write an essay in which you answer this question: what is the best way to achieve human freedom? You should consider: a) How do individual freedoms relate to collective freedoms? b) How do individual and collective practices of self-discipline and education create or impede human freedom?
Although a generational, geographical, and cultural gap exists between them, Karl Marx and Mohandas Gandhi seem to agree that the best path to freedom is one where communal unity is the prime focus. For Marx, the existence of classes inevitably and always leads to class conflict, and the securing of freedom by granting collective rights and liberties (as a means of compensating for potential oppression) is a sure path to a divided, unequal, society. For Gandhi, the oppressors are just as much a part of the community as the oppressed and thus, any freedom brought about by harming the oppressors shall only be artificial and short-lived. Furthermore, collective and self-discipline, as well as the administration of education, play crucial roles in emancipation’s pursuit. In this pursuit, both political thinkers place high value on interpersonal relations and the complete destructuralization of all social hierarchies that impede on them. Capitalistic Europe, in the eyes of Marx, severely imposed on the freedoms of the proletariat (the “blue-collar”, working class), whose only worth to the rest of society was their ability to perform manual labor. Conditions of industrial work stifle personal expression, creativity, and dehumanize the workers. This disparity in perceived worth leads to struggles in the ability of the “upper” members of society to relate to the proletariat and vice versa, thus setting up a hierarchy, of which some members of society are seen as
Professor Joan Tronto
POL 1201
19 December 2013
Marx and Gandhi:
The Importance of Social Harmony in the Pursuit of Freedom
In response to prompt #7:
Pick two thinkers from among Marx, Fanon, and Gandhi, and write an essay in which you answer this question: what is the best way to achieve human freedom? You should consider: a) How do individual freedoms relate to collective freedoms? b) How do individual and collective practices of self-discipline and education create or impede human freedom?
Although a generational, geographical, and cultural gap exists between them, Karl Marx and Mohandas Gandhi seem to agree that the best path to freedom is one where communal unity is the prime focus. For Marx, the existence of classes inevitably and always leads to class conflict, and the securing of freedom by granting collective rights and liberties (as a means of compensating for potential oppression) is a sure path to a divided, unequal, society. For Gandhi, the oppressors are just as much a part of the community as the oppressed and thus, any freedom brought about by harming the oppressors shall only be artificial and short-lived. Furthermore, collective and self-discipline, as well as the administration of education, play crucial roles in emancipation’s pursuit. In this pursuit, both political thinkers place high value on interpersonal relations and the complete destructuralization of all social hierarchies that impede on them. Capitalistic Europe, in the eyes of Marx, severely imposed on the freedoms of the proletariat (the “blue-collar”, working class), whose only worth to the rest of society was their ability to perform manual labor. Conditions of industrial work stifle personal expression, creativity, and dehumanize the workers. This disparity in perceived worth leads to struggles in the ability of the “upper” members of society to relate to the proletariat and vice versa, thus setting up a hierarchy, of which some members of society are seen as