ON MODERN IDEOLOGY: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MARXISM TODAY & THE FUTURE

Communists and socialists, who adhere to Marxist theory and their derivatives
share among others, a defining characteristic – the rejection of capitalism in
favour of a common ownership of production. Putting aside the intricacies in
order to summarise, the Marxist argues under capitalism, freedom is not true
freedom, democracy is not real democracy, because it is enjoyed by a minority
(the capitalist) who possess privileges through their ownership of the means of
production (known as property). This privilege is further cemented by the
exploitative and drastically unequal relationship between the labourer and the
capitalist. The labourer is forced to sell their ability to labour (labour-power)
below their value (cost of producing the ability to labour; e.g. basic subsistence
for survival, education required for skills etc.) to the capitalist for survival, of
which the capitalist profits precisely from this underpayment of labour-power.
Therefore, it is paramount to the communist or socialist to overthrow capitalism,
to abolish privately-owned property through a revolution, in order to truly achieve
true liberty and democracy. Alongside the disappearance of exploitation and
unfair labour, comes also the disappearance of poverty, as the compensation of
labour no longer falls below the basic level of subsistence.

A worker uninformed of Marxism in the modern capitalist economy,
especially one whose wages are of an adequate amount to save them from
impoverishment, may find socialists, communists, and henceforth, Marxists, a
peculiar existence. In capitalism, there should be equal opportunity to wealth for
everyone, so as long they are willing to work for it. There should be more
freedoms than in any preceding era of humanity, protected by the conceptions
of constitutions and electoral democracy. The development of capitalism
empowers the proliferation of industrial production and modern commerce,
bringing all of humanity an abundance of goods in terms of quantity, quality and
variety. Progress in society and technology should accelerate at a pace never
seen before in humanity’s existence, through the force of competition inherent
within capitalism itself. To this uninformed worker, the revolution has already
happened – the world grows increasingly towards realising the “ideal” ideology
that is capitalism, and authoritarian governments will eventually collapse or
soften under pressure of the capitalistic demand for liberal democracy.
Fundamentally, capitalism, liberal democracy, and other conceptions or ideas
that come with them are the perfections of ideology. Those who are
impoverished, or demonstrate a contrast to these supposed ideals can blame
nothing but themselves. Dismissing in specific the criticism of capitalism as the
source for most political or socio-economic problems, it is instead the
malpractice of capitalism, such as too much state intervention, or “corruption”
that leads to social ills at a macro scale, and “human nature” such as “laziness”
and “selfishness” that leads to personal strife at a micro scale. Thus, Marxism
appears to be “unrealistic” because of this “human nature”. Private property and
capital is necessary because humans are “lazy” and require a constant threat of
their survival to manifest motivation. Marxism’s promotion of co-operation
instead of competition is unrealisable because humans are “selfish” and
civilisation will fall into disarray without the capitalist hierarchy.

On that account, does it mean that the never-ending civil strife in Burma,
the genocide of an entire people in Gaza, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the
lack of affordable healthcare in the United States, the frequent starvation that
occurs in Africa and more, are to be accepted as products of “human nature”,
and that there is nothing to be done?

Before the non-Marxist can be educated about Marxism and dispose of
misunderstandings towards it, it must first be dispelled the notion that “human
nature” can be pinned as the answer (which it really isn’t an answer) to seemingly
complex, unresolvable problems and contradictions present in all systems of
political economy not limited to capitalism. It is futile to explain to an individual
who refuses to be convinced through sensible, logical discussion; anchoring
religiously to “human nature” as a peculiar consolation to all ills that exist, that
affect themself to varying degrees. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in a
manuscript titled German Ideology dispelling this notion through their criticisms
of philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach’s “passive materialism”. According to them,

“As an example of Feuerbach’s acceptance and at the same time
misunderstanding of existing reality…… we recall the passage in the
Philosophie der Zukunft where he develops the view that the existence of
a thing or a man is at the same time its or his essence, that the conditions
of existence, the mode of life and activity of an animal or human individual
are those in which its “essence” feels itself satisfied. Here every exception
is expressly conceived as an unhappy chance, as an abnormality which
cannot be altered.” – Part I. Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealistic Outlook. B. The Illusion of the Epoch.

To Feuerbach, anything in reality that does not match the supposed idea, or
supposed “nature” of things (in his words, “existence” is not equal to “essence”)
is an unfortunate reality. This unfortunate reality therefore becomes the “essence”
of things. But the explanation that all contradictions or “unhappy chances” to the
purported “essence” of things are inevitable is unacceptable for Marx & Engels.
To them, this is not more different than the idealism of the Young Hegelians. To
quote,

“The explanation that all such contradictions are inevitable abnormalities
does not essentially differ from the consolation which Saint Max Stirner
offers to the discontented, saving that this contradiction is their own
contradiction and this predicament their own predicament, whereupon
then, should either set their minds at ease, keep their disgust to
themselves, or revolt against it in some fantastic way. It differs just as
little from Saint Bruno’s allegation that these unfortunate circumstances
are due to the fact that those concerned are stuck in the muck of
“substance,” have not advanced to ‘absolute self-consciousness and do
not realise that these adverse conditions are spirit of their spirit.’” – Part I.
Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealistic Outlook. B. The Illusion of the Epoch.

According to Marx & Engels, Feuerbach fundamentally misunderstands material
reality as something static and unchanging, of which this misunderstanding
causes error on his methodology on analysing material reality. But material
reality is always changing – the industrial revolution has brought forth drastic
changes in social structure, and in the modern day, the advent of AI is changing
the role of human labour. It is precisely this assumption that leads to conclusions
like the toils of the working class are the “essence” of the working class – those
who work for coin must forever remain poor and starve. In the eyes of Marx &
Engels, Feuerbach does not criticise anything about material reality. It is
“passive” precisely in this regard – material reality becomes something merely
contemplative, an “object of the senses”. When encountered with something that
is contradictory or uncertain (in Feuerbach’s own terms – it disturbs the
“harmony of things”), instead of criticising reality, Feuerbach regresses to the
discussion of “higher” philosophy – by changing the definitions of things, hence
altering the “essence” of things to fit material reality.

“The contemplation of the sensuous world, he necessarily lights on things
which contradict his consciousness and feeling, which disturb the
harmony he presupposes, the harmony of all parts of the sensuous world
and especially of man and nature. To remove this disturbance, he must
take refuge in a double perception, a profane one which only perceives
the ‘flatly obvious’ and a higher, philosophical, one which perceives the
‘true essence’ of things. He does not see how the sensuous world around
him is, not a thing given direct from all eternity, remaining ever the same,
but the product of industry and of the state of society… and therefore only
by this action of a definite society in a definite age it has become
‘sensuous certainty’ for Feuerbach.” – Part I. Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealistic Outlook. B. The Illusion of the Epoch.

In a perfect parallel to Feuerbach’s reliance on “external nature” for
“sensuous certainty”, placing blame on human nature, or even external nature
and the supernatural (e.g. God), for the faults of capitalism at the present day,
rather than critiquing capitalism itself is provides no criticism but a detrimental
conclusion that humanity will never improve beyond the state of strife and toil of
many humans across the globe. It presupposes that evolution never happens –
which is rightfully the opposite. The point of politics, the study of history and
society is therefore to act upon it – to change it, and not remain static – only to
catastrophically crumble in a frantic reaction towards the unstoppable tides of
change. Human nature will therefore cease to exist as an obstacle, because it
was never an obstacle to begin with – it is a material reality that must be changed.
Capitalism’s flaws will cease to be something philosophically unresolvable but
something that can be changed. To quote, “Incidentally, when we conceive
things thus, as they really are and happened, every profound philosophical
problem is resolved, as will be seen even more clearly later, quite simply into an
empirical fact.”

The deconstruction and demystification of “human nature” naturally allows for
the true scrutiny of ills present under the capitalist system. No longer capitalism
is a system that will bring prosperity to all humanity. No longer capitalism will
bring liberal democracy and stop corruption. Because in reality, capitalist states
that are ruled with the iron fist by the few and corrupt while a vast population
struggle to survive, too weak to depose of their tyrannical states are aplenty, and
capitalist states that ignore humanitarian principles murder and rape an entire
people to elimination continue to cement their hegemony. And where modern
ideology – which is liberal capitalism, fails to respond, or answer to the horrors
suffered by real people, Marxism takes its place and disposes of ideology
altogether, for it wishes to provide real solutions to the real questions and
problems of our time, thus requires real analysis of material reality, rather than
the cultures, religions etc. that enshrine it through abstractions. This discussion
of politics, history, and thus of society, will therefore be regarding the basis, or
premises, of material conditions of humanity. Only then, we can start to discuss
about modern ideology and its origins, and deconstruct what politicians and
academics say about “democracy”, “freedom”, “international law”, just to name
a few.

In solidarity,

FurInform