Who Is Karl Marx: Meet the Anti-Capitalist Scholar [TEEN VOGUE plug for communism]

TEEN VOGUE ^ | MAY 10, 2018 | DANIELLE CORCIONE

[MarvinStinson]

The communist scholar's ideas are more prevalent than you might realize.

You may have come across communist memes on social media. The man, the meme, the legend behind this trend is Karl Marx, who developed the theory of communism, which advocates for workers’ control over their labor (instead of their bosses). The political philosopher turned 200-years-old on May 5, but his ideas can still teach us about the past and present.

The famed German co-authored The Communist Manifesto with fellow scholar Friedrich Engels in 1848, a piece of writing that makes the case for the political theory of socialism — where the community (rather than rich people) have ownership and control over their labor — which later inspired millions of people to resist oppressive political leaders and spark political revolutions all over the world.

Although Marx was raised in a middle-class family, he later became a scholar who struggled to make ends meet — a working-class man, he thought, who could take part in a political revolution.

The Communist Manifesto is most usually the work of Marx taught in schools, and he is one of the most assigned economists in United States college classes. Many may not know that he also studied law in university. He authored three volumes of Das Kapital, which outlined the fundamentals of Marxist theory of capitalism and also organized workers through the International Working Men's Association, otherwise known as the First International. He was an editor of a newspaper that was eventually censored by the Prussian government for speaking out against censorship and challenging the government.

His writings have inspired social movements in Soviet Russia, China, Cuba, Argentina, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and more. Many political writers and artists like Angela Davis, Frida Kahlo, Malcolm X, Claudia Jones, Helen Keller, and Walter Rodney integrated Marxist theory into their work decades after his death.

So how can teens learn the legacy of Marx’s ideas and how they’re relevant to the current political climate?

Teen Vogue chatted with two educators about how they apply these concepts to current events in the classroom.

Public high school teacher Mark Brunt teaches excerpts from The Communist Manifesto alongside curriculum about the industrial revolution in his English class. He uses The Jungle by Upton Sinclair — a text published in 1906 that revealved the exploitative workplace conditions of the meat industry in Chicago and other industrialized cities many immigrants were subject to in the late 19th century — to understand what it was like to work in a factory a little more than a hundred years ago.

Brunt talks about how these factory workers did all of the leg work — including slaughtering animals and packaging meat on top of working long days with little, if any, time off — to keep the factories intact, yet had very little control over their work, including their working conditions, compared to the profiteering factory owners.

“I do a little role-playing with [my class],” Brunt tells Teen Vogue. “[I tell them,] I’m the boss, you’re my workers, and you want to try to take me down. I have the money. I own the factory. I control the police. I control the military. I control the government. What do you guys have?”

His students usually blink at him, he says, totally clueless. He insists they actually have something huge, that he, as the boss, will never have: “It’s always just one student, whose hand shoots up and goes, ‘We outnumber you!’” Brunt says.

He then introduces Marx’s distinction between the proletariat — the working class as a whole — and bourgeoisie — the ruling class who controls the workers and profits from their labor. The tension between the proletariat and bourgeoisie make up the class conflict, or class struggle, he explains.

Although ongoing teacher strikes aren’t necessarily Marxist movements, today we can see still see these tensions between classes at play in the Untied States, between state governments and striking teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Arizona, demanding higher pay and more public school funding.

However, in a Marxist revolution, the proletariat will come together to overthrow the bourgeoisie and ultimately, win the class conflict by taking control over their work, or striking. And if such a revolution occured in Brunt’s classroom, his students would overthrow him as a teacher — and the principal, the superintendent, and so on.

In his advanced class, Brunt also introduces the idea of false consciousness, which is defined as the many ways the working class is mislead to believe certain ideologies — like the belief that the boss should always be in charge, no matter what.

“False consciousness is when you think that the social conditions are different than they actually are,” he says. “You’re tricked into thinking your allies are different and your enemies are different than they actually are.”

Former Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher uses Marx to teach history through an emotional, fluid, and ever-changing lens. He challenges his students to envision a society without capitalism, reminding them that different — though still imperfect and flawed — economic systems existed before, such as feudalism. “When I teach Marx, it’s got a lot to do with questions of how to think critically about history. Marx says we live under capitalism [but] capitalism has not always existed,” Ciccariello-Maher tells Teen Vogue. “It’s something that came into being and something that, as a result, just on a logical level, could disappear, could be overthrown, could be abolished, could be irrelevant.

"There’s this myth of the free market, but Marx shows very clearly that capitalism emerged through a state of violence.

"Some examples of violence that aided in the establishment of capitalism in the United States include stealing the land of Indigenous people and trafficking Africans through slavery.

"We’re oftentimes taught that history moves slowly, but many Marxists disagree with that notion, and believe that that the current socioeconomic system is precarious and can be overthrown at any time.

“Dialectics means that the history moves forward not slowly or gradually or bit by bit, but it moves forward through the sort of crushing blows of struggles between generally two opposing ideas or groups or concepts or people,” Ciccariello-Maher says.

While you may not necessarily identify as a Marxist, socialist, or communist, you can still use Karl Marx’s ideas to use history and class struggles to better understand how the current sociopolitical climate in America came to be. Instead of looking at President Donald Trump’s victory in November 2016 as a snapshot, we can turn to the bigger picture of what previous events lead us up to the current moment.

[ETL]

Jan 1, 2018 2:29PM EST

Entertainment

Barack Obama Reveals Favorite Books and Songs of 2017

Lauren Rearick

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Following a festive finish to 2017 that included Christmas caroling and an adorable family photo, Barack Obama was feeling sentimental and shared his favorite books and songs from 2017.

In a December 31, 2017 post on Facebook, the former president revived a tradition he started while in the White House, and shared his reading list and playlist from 2017. He explained that, "it was a nice way to reflect on the works that resonated with me and lift up authors and artists from around the world." He joked that since he has some "extra time on his hands" this year he decided to bring the lists back.

There's no shortage of great works to discover on this year's list with Obama beginning with some of his favorite reads including, "The Power" by Naomi Alderman, "Janesville: An American Story" by Amy Goldstein, "Dying: A Memoir" by Cory Taylor, and two bonus books for "hoops fans," "Coach Wooden and Me" by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and "Basketball (and Other Things)" by Shea Serrano.

[IronJack]

This sounds like it was written by a 9th-grader for a current events assignment. It has all the depth of a parking lot mud puddle, and the insight one would expect from a bored teenager more interested in mascara than political philosophy.

[frank ballenger]

taught by a Marxist wannabe

---

Having worked at 2 universities between 1968 and 2017, I can assure you that these “educators” insult and demoralize and marginalize any student who defends America or capitalism or freedom in class.

Eric Bolling wrote: I’m supposed to have my daughter lectured to about what’s wrong with America by a beatnik professor? Not on my dime!

[frank ballenger]

taught by a Marxist wannabe

---

Having worked at 2 universities between 1968 and 2017, I can assure you that these “educators” insult and demoralize and marginalize any student who defends America or capitalism or freedom in class.

Eric Bolling wrote: I’m supposed to have my daughter lectured to about what’s wrong with America by a beatnik professor? Not on my dime!

[frank ballenger]

I recall an article about the tiny minority of conservative professors given tenure. One outspoken board member in the article said: Instead of examining if they shouldn’t have been given tenure, examine how the system failed. Right wingers should have been weeded out and if necessary sabotaged before they reached the tenure vote. That’s how it is supposed to work.

[Rome2000]

Washington DC and the WASHINGTONIANS are the enemy.

They are fooling less and less people every day.

[MarvinStinson]

SEE ALSO

What “Capitalism” Is and How It Affects People [TEEN VOGUE]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3654879/posts

[snoringbear]

“This time round, the kids won’t be brainwashed unless they want to be. The net has plenty of alternative, reality-based, views of communism”

Put these snow flakes on a collective farm, sleep in un-air conditioned barracks, eat in a mess hall, perform KP and laterite duty, etc, and give them a taste of real communism. Hmm, this kinda reminds me of boot camp come to think of it, lol!

[econjack]

The trend I see is, when an assistant prof starts to prepare their tenure documents, the university gives them notice that their contract will not be renewed. That serves several points: First, they are replaced with junior people who cost less, Second, they do not get locked in to an individual, and Third, they hire younger people who are generally more liberal. This is especially true in easy-to-find Ph.D.’s, like liberal arts majors. Business and Computer Science faculty are a little harder to find.

[Nifster]

So you’ve posted this crap twice

It’s useless

[Koracan]

Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto in January 1848.

Friedrich Engels was his Comrad (both German born), his father was an owner of a large textile factory at Manchester, England,
Child Labor and general bad worker conditions in the early industrial age ignited the communist Philosophies of Marx & Engels

If Karl Marx was the Designer
then these 2 were the Application Engineers

Vladimir Lenin... 1917
Pol Pot ............... 1976..(extreme)

The declared enemy was the century old Aristocracy and its Enforcers, the "Bourgeoisie"
a social class that came to own the means of production.
The Bourgeoisie was not the "middle class", as so often mentioned today.

The Aristocracy was the big Land Owner, the Bourgeoisie, the 'wanna-be's' , today's Corporation
The Middle Class is a new Construct in modern times, generally the Employer - Employee age

The whole discussion is not over yet, due to this:
...Nearly half of American millennials (44 percent) would rather live in a socialist society than a capitalist one
...The majority of millennials would prefer to live in a socialist, communist or fascist nation rather than a capitalistic one
...First published as a 23-page pamphlet in 1848,‎ a full 167 years later it is still a best-seller.
...#1 Landowner 2018.... Queen Elizabeth II... Land: 6.6 billion acres of land worldwide including Great Britain...£17,600,000,000,000 (approx)....the world's total land mass consists of 36.8 billion acres of inhabitable land.

[STXOUTLAW]

” When I teach Marxism I skip over the 100 Million dead in mass graves across the globe”

[catnipman]

“Teen Vogue” should organize group tours of teens to tour thoroughout Venezuela to show how superior a socialist dictatorship is compared to capitalist America ...

[I want the USA back]

“communism, which advocates for workers’ control over their labor (instead of their bosses”
That’s not communism. Communism is when the government is the sole employer. The employees do not have control over their work.
I expect nothing more from this rag of a mag.

Kidees, communism is what brought you venezuela and cuba. If you want more of that, then go there.

[windsorknot]

I like to refer to ol’ Karl as Skid Marx.

[GuavaCheesePuff]

It looks like Teen Vogue likes communism.

[elbook]

The man whose ‘philosophy’ turned the Bread Basket of Europe into a famine ridden failure ...

The New Czars didnt even have the common sense of the Old ones using this mans ideas (ans murdering in his name in a way that made Hitler look like an amateur)

[Jan_Sobieski]

Amen! I taught project management courses at an extremely liberal Big Ten University for 6 years until I was booted for the crime of being a conservative. The only professors that would talk to me were Mormons, and that was only in Secret.

[Impy]

Scholar?

If Marx was a “scholar” I guess Hitler was a “statesman”.

[MarvinStinson]

The “painted word”.

The staple of left wing propaganda.

Remember

Obama was a “professor” of “constitutional law”

Michelle Obama is “beautiful” and “stylish”

Trump is “crazy”

Trump “breaks the law”

Mueller, Rosenstein, Comey, Eric Holder “enforce the law”

Illegal aliens are “good”

Anyone who objects to the overrunning of the US by illegal aliens is a “racist,” a “hater” and “against the children”

Muslims are “oppressed” They are all “children” Especially the 26 year old muslim mass murderers.

The “motive” of any muslim mass murderer who yells “alahu akbar” as he kills is a great unsolvable mystery.

Obama is a “Christian”
Ask George Stephanopoulos

Homosexuality, transgenderism are the mosty important thing in the world.

Israel is the boogie man of the world.
Israel owns most of the land in the world.
Obama, Hillary, the US State Department tried to be kind to Israel, but Israel didn’t appreciate it.

The ‘palestinians’ are the most oppressed people in the world. Everyone should spend at least an hour a day crying for the ‘palestinians.’ The palestinians represent “peace.”

Saints Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were lovely 12 year old children who were murdered by racist whites.

Colon Kapernick is the greatest football player of all time.

George Soros. WHO???? WHO???? Are you a “racist”?

Marijuana is good for your “health”

Anyone who points out what Obama, Eric Holder, Van Jones, la Raza, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, New Black Panthers did and does is a “racist.”

Obama was the greatest president of all time.
Anyone who says different is a ‘racist’ and member of the Klu Klux Klan.

The CIA was always the boogey man but now with Brennan and Clapper spitting at Trump, the CIA is the greatest of all time.

The FBI was always the boogie man, but now that Comey, McCabe, and other heroes are pointing out the evilness of Trump, the FBI is the greatest of all time.

The Iran deal kept Iran from building the bomb, but now Trump wants to ruin that.

TEEN VOGUE will fill you in on the rest of what you are supposed to think.