Karl Marx
The modern world as we know it today has been shaped by the writings of two of the most prolific social scientists of the past two centuries, Karl Marx and Max Webber. Both these individuals had similar but at the same time very different ideologies. Marx states that "The history of hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle." By which he implies that history is driven by the struggle between oppressor and oppressed, and in modern times by the struggle between the bourgeois and the proletarians. On the other hand Webber believes that it is ideology that drives history. In this essay I will argue that Marx is correct in most of his predictions but his theology of communism and the prediction of workers eventually rising to replace the system lacks credibility.Comparing and contrasting Marx and Webber proved to be rather difficult as both these social scientists have very different approaches: Where as Marx is more critical and innovative, Weber is more of an analytical commentator. That is to say that while Marx gives new ideas and criticizes the current capital system; Webber is more objective and non-judgmental in his views and uses a more scientific approach of reasoning his arguments.
Moreover Marx sates that "... we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations" I agree with this as well, as we can see today, globalization has created the whole into one giant market, and also the unifying of the nations to create trading blocs such as the European Union. Thus what Marx says of the Bourgeoisie is true, "it creates a world after its own image" This is exactly what is happening and what has happened in the world, the capitalists with aid of globalization is trying to make the whole world a capitalist society. In order to exploit third world labor and recourses, so the elite could maximize their profits whilst laborers in countries like Haiti and Taiwan work absurdly long underpaid hours in sweat shop conditions. Take the cold war, the wars in Latin America all of these were fought by the western world in order to overthrow communism in the countries and in order for them to change to capitalist societies. Thirdly I disagree with Marx's view on the workers rising to replace the system, because, Marx does not take into consideration religious beliefs or nationalism. Both of these issues have a deep rooted affect on most people thus it will prevent them from rising. Moreover the modern capitalist society is very well organized especially in the first world, and most of Marx's ideas such as progressive taxation has been integrated into the capitalist society. that they can not be compared, they both share the same view that people s
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Approximate Word count = 1004
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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