Outline

Karl Marx’s Theory

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1. Who is Karl Marx?
https://thecharnelhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/David-McClellan-Karl-
Marx-His-Life-and-Thought-1973.pdf

Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany on the 5th of May 1818 from a middle-class family.
Marx came from a Jewish family, his father named Heinrich Marx and Karl's grandfather,
Meier Halevi Marx who was a rabbi (teacher of Torah in Judaism) of what was known
Kingdom of Prussia (now. Marx's family had enough money to live fairly at that time, as Karl
Marx was born in a three-story building where his father rented a few rooms there. They
later moved to a smaller house but still mid-class house in Tries. In 1835 Karl Marx went to
university, he went to the faculty of law at the University of Bonn which is quite far away
from his home. During his only year in Bonn, he lost touch with his family and had a
drinking problem which later his father moved him to Berlin University. But he ended up in
Bonn again, which later he became a well-known philosopher and economist.
2. What is his theory?

Karl Marx and Friedreich Engels came out with the theory of Marxism which
Karl Marx is most known for. Their theory revolves around the economy and
political situation at that time. They thought about Marxism and for the
improvement of the idea of class struggle. Marxism talked about the struggle
between the working class and the borguoise. For instance, Marxism is a
system against or the direct opposite of capitalism, which is a system that was
(and still is) at that time. From Karl Marx's theory, it became the base of
today's known as socialism and communism.

http://www.repozytorium.uni.wroc.pl/Content/40318/002.pdf

3. Why he came up with it?

Marx lived in the 19th century which the early age of capitalism. Marxism came out
from Karl Marx's point of view regarding capitalism and the social classes that were
existed back then. Where there were two main classes back then, proletariat or
working class and bourgeoise or the capitalists. Capitalism shapes the social system as
Marx sees, he viewed the dehumanization of the working class or the proletariat as
they work a lot but did not get paid as much. The capitalists or the bourgeoise will
force the working class to produce more but paid them as low as possible.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305348724_Marxism_capitalism_and_ethics
4. How to utilise the theory

5. Why is Karl Marx is more famous now than he was alive.

Marxism was not as popular back then, even in his funeral there were not to many
people who attended his funeral. However, in 2005, Karl Marx was voted as the
BBC's millennium's greatest thinker. This shown that people in this age know Karl
Marx better than they know him back then. As capitalism is still going on in this day
 and age, therefore some of his theory is still relateable and even some said his theory
is more relevant than ever according to several well-known medias such as Vice and
The Guardian.

6. Was Karl Marx Right?

Even though Marx got more fame nowadays, the main question is was he right? Well, he did
not get everything right, but still for a theory or prediction which aged almost 200 years old.
In our case, Indonesia being a third world country become one of the proofs that Karl Marx
was right. His prediction regarding the rich getting richer and the poor staying poor as the
impact of capitalism. Another impact of capitalism that Karl Marx got right is that it will lead
to the globalization of businesses who will reach the global market.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317107923_Why_Marx_Was_Right_Third_World_
Edition

7. What are the examples?

As mentioned earlier, Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries able to prove that
Karl Marx's prediction was right. On this occasion, the theory that was proven right is
the rich will get richer and the poor will stay poor. A statistic from the World Bank in
2008 and 2009 analyzes the 10% highest income and 10% lowest income by their
income share percentage. In the table of 6 countries, Malaysia, Philipines, Thailand,
Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. From the table below, it proves that there is a massive
gap between the rich and the poor in those developing southeast Asian countries ().
Another evidence would be the comparison of the richest person's net worth per
family and the monthly minimum wage of southeast Asia countries in 2013. The
result was Indonesia has the biggest gap between the net worth of the richest person
per family and the monthly minimum wage, with $ 8.5 billion for the rich's net worth
and $88 to $227 for the minimum wage.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317107923_Why_Marx_Was_Right_Third_World_
Edition

8. Was Karl Marx wrong?

Marx may be right for several aspects, however, in every prediction it is impossible to
get things 100% spot on. Whether he is completely wrong is another thing, but in this
section, it will concern more about the problem that his theory has caused.His theory
based on the Communist Manifesto book may have created problems in current
society. The problems that may have a link with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels'
Communist Manifesto are revolutions, terrorism, wars, unhealthy competitions among
nations of the world, poverty and hunger, climate change, environmental pollutions,
gender inequalities, the class struggle for materialism and economic advantages.

9. What are the examples?

First, the exploitation of class being the driver of political-historical development.
Based on the level of production, it seems to be incapable of coexisting with the force
of production which created a state of crisis and later revolution in order to get
equilibrium of peace. This revolution being inevitable as capitalism from the Marxist
 has been unstable. Besides that, it encourages the practice of terrorism and war
because of the constant search for power and control of the world's economy. It also
viewed socialist can only be achieved through violent which later be proven wrong by
the liberalism approach. Liberalism is able to achieve socialism through democracy
and peaceful means. Another Karl Marx's misjudgment proved by the introduction of
the welfare state. The welfare state is a way for the government to distribute resources
in order to achieve one nation's welfare. What it covers are health, education, and
employment.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323018869_THE_PROBLEMS_WITH_TH
E_MARXIST_COMMUNIST_MANIFESTO

10. Is it relevant incurrent society?

http://gesd.free.fr/saadfilho.pdf

As mentioned earlier, some medias recently said that Karl Marx's s theory is more
relevant than ever. While capitalism is getting bigger than ever, what makes Karl
Marx is more relevant than ever. Socialists or communists were failed, proven by
China and Uni-Soviet due to the inability to provide their people compare to the
capitalist society. One thing to point out is the interpretation of Karl Marx's theory. It
is believed that the interpretation of his theory is able to give insights into the
problems that we face these days. Problems such as environmental degradation, long-
term unemployment, poverty amidst plenty in developed and developing countries,
the dissemination of curable or controllable diseases, illiteracy, cultural, ethnic and
economic oppression, and other problems that we have nowadays, Marx have analysis
to many potential solutions. Therefore, Marx's view and theory still somehow relevant
more than a hundred years later.

11. What point from his theory can we implement?

12. What point from his theory we cannot implement?

13. Conclussion

Sources

Reading 1 B

Christian)Fuchs)and)Vincent Mosco,)eds.)2012.)Marx)is)Back)–
The)Importance)of)Marxist)Theory)and)Research)for)Critical)
Communication)Studies)Today.

http://pombo.free.fr/sperbermarx.pdf

Faccarello, Gilbert & Gehrke, Christian & Kurz, Heinz. (2016). Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-
1883).
N
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317107923_Why_Marx_Was_Right_Third_World_
Edition

http://gesd.free.fr/saadfilho.pdf

https://delong.typepad.com/20090420_stanford-talk_karl-marx.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305348724_Marxism_capitalism_and_ethics

http://www.repozytorium.uni.wroc.pl/Content/40318/002.pdf

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npz9n