History Repeats Itself

As clearly pointed out by Karl Marx in the “Communist Manifesto,” the history of mankind has been nothing more than a history of “Class Struggle” between the upper class, the oppressors, and the lower class, the oppressed.  In early history, during the heyday of the Romans, it was the Patricians (aristocrats) pitted against the Plebeians (common people) who owned no land and whose only worth was the value of their labor.

Karl Marx

 During the middle ages, in Feudal society, the struggles continued between the Lords of the Manor (aristocracy)

Lord of the Manor

 and the Serfs who, again, owned no land and were veritable slaves!  A serf was required to tend the Lord’s lands and was rewarded with physical and legal Protection by the Lord and the right to work a portion of the land for his own subsistence.  The Serfs commitment to the Lord was a legal bond and the Serf did not have the freedom to move about the country or change “Lords.”

Serfs

In more recent history, specifically in “turn of the century” Russia, the battles continued between what Marx called the Bourgeois (pronounced like Booj-wah) and the Proletarians.  The Bourgeois were the upper class (Czar Nicholas & family and his cronies)

Czar Nicholas

Czarina Alexandra

Son, Alexei

Daughter, Anastasia

 who owned and controlled the means of production (industry) and, since the Proletariat owned no assets or land, their only means of support was by their labor which was only saleable to the Bourgeois.

Russian Serfs

This is the short history of man’s class struggle as described by Karl Marx.  In each of these historical societies there is a common thread that caused the eventual collapse of those societies; the lower class owned no land!  When a man has no assets he has nothing to lose!  He is more likely to reach a point of rebellion against the oppression of the upper class.

Karl Marx was in the right place at the right time.  The Czar had reduced the population to serfdom and Marx, through his manifesto, promised them equality and human rights.  Marx promised this through what he called Communism.  Initially, Communism was a Capitalistic system but Marx sought to perfect it with a few tweaks.

To Karl Marx, “Capitalism” had the seeds of its own destruction built in.  Over time, the Capitalist would continually increase his assets until the average citizen had nothing left of value except his day labor and would be forced to sell his labor to an ever expanding and oppressive Capital market.  Marx tried to circumvent this weakness in the Capitalistic system by disallowing the doctrines of inheritance and incorporation.  Under these doctrines, the power of any individual Capitalist would cease upon his death and the chance of any person or group of persons to amass overwhelming fortunes would almost be impossible.  Problems arose when the “State” became the “inherent” recipient of all those Capitalistic ventures and became the ultimate oppressor.  Once again, the common people were reduced to Serfdom!

Open rebellion in Russia, 1917

Our founding fathers built many “checks and balances” into our Capitalistic system of government but they did not dis-allow corporations or inheritance.  Legally, a corporation is a person; a person who, properly maintained, will live forever!  It is inevitable that a corporation, if left unchecked will, one day, own the entire world?  Corporations are a weakness in our form of government that past administrations have tried to mend with “Anti-Trust” legislation but it hasn’t worked.

Like all previous societies, ours is now at the stage where Russia was just prior to and after the Russian revolution of 1917.  The Bourgeois (billionaire industrialist) own all the means of production

Modern day Bourgeoise

and the Proletariat (working class) are bound to them by the sale of their labor.  We have, essentially, become Serfs!

Modern day Serfs