Blue Umbrella Official Feb Mar 2019 issue | Page 11

Hist or y Cor n er
A bri ef l ook at th e
Communi st M ani f esto
By Nat h an V.
On February 21, 1848, the Communist
League, a revolutionary group in London,
published The Communist Manifesto, a formal
expression of its ideas and beliefs.
The Communist Manifesto (or simply The
Manifesto) was written by Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels, two Prussian political
philosophers, at the request of the Communist
League. Even though the Communist League
was located in London, Marx and Engels were
living in Brussels, Belgium, at the time.
Overall, The Manifesto states that history
is a series of ?class struggles.? For example,
?patricians, knights, plebeians, [and] slaves?
were all competing with each other for power in
Rome and ?feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters,
journeymen, apprentices, [and] serfs? were all
competing for power in the Middle Ages. Each of
these sets of class struggles, or ?epochs,? ended
with a revolution that resulted in a new epoch of
class struggles.
The Manifesto goes on to state that the
then-contemporary epoch of the Industrial
Revolution was much simpler than any previous
epoch, having only two classes: the bourgeoisie
(the rich owners of the factories) and the
proletariat (the people who worked in the
factories). Since this epoch had so few classes,
The Manifesto states, it would eventually end
with the revolt of the proletariat against the
bourgeoisie. In each country, the proletariat
would take control of the government. Then,
after a transition period, the proletarian-led
country would eventually evolve into a classless
society?a utopia where everyone would live in
abundance.
Interestingly, The Communist Manifesto is
correct in many ways. As humans, we have been
warring against each other since the Fall. We?ve
tried to govern ourselves, and it has always
failed at achieving harmony and peace. We do
need to find a new way of living that will let us be
free from fighting each other.
However, The Manifesto is also wrong in a
large way. It states that a Communistic society
(or, at least, the perfect theoretical Communistic
society that it portrays) will solve all our
problems. This will not work. We are sinful and
imperfect, and so any way we try to rule
ourselves will fail. Just look at the governments
of the past and present ? no government even
comes close to being perfect. There can be no
perfect society on Earth. The only perfect society
is the Kingdom of Heaven, where Jesus reigns
over His children, who are made holy and
sinless.
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