Why Marx was Right [View all]

[Taverner]

Marx was right. Seriously, he was.

Did you read Das Kapital?

I did. And then I read it again.

Then I read reviews of it, because let's admit it. Karl Marx was not the best writer in the world.

I come from the journalistic tradition, like Hemingway.

Keep it Simple, Sir.

Anyway, Marx says that the workers will gain power through the dialectic, that is communication.

It doesn't happen all at once, but the communication eventually communicates class consciousness.

This is the key - realizing you are part of a class, and you will be lower than the 1%, as long as they can help it. Now think about any liberation movement - whether civil rights, anti-apartheid or the American labor movement.

Once they got organized, they went out and antagonized their oppressors so much, they gave them a few things in recognition for their slavery.

Sometimes this lifted that group out of slavery, sometimes it didn't.

But as long as a group is oppressed, they will complain about said slavery.

Thus, it is important that class consciousness happens.

As they say, the first rule about holes. When you realize you are in one, stop digging.

We are in a hole, and various groups are starting to realize this.

They will fight for their group's rights, and eventually, as long as we keep vigilant, we will move forward towards a more egalitarian system.

The problem is that the 1% do not want to give this up. They want to continue to rule like kings.

So it takes vigilance. The American Labor Movement has been stymied since the 1970s.

As every last one of us is a worker, we should combine our forces and work towards this goal, so that the progress of history continues towards where it should go, rather than where it shouldn't.