Marx was man's most influential scholar
A new study is out and, according to the Smithsonian Institution, the most influential scholar in history is Karl Marx.
Karl who?
Karl Marx, you know the theoretical genius who thought up the classless society called socialism … and its stepchild, communism. Apparently, Marxism is “cool”.
I guess Francis Fukuyama was right and history ended in 1989 … or did people just stop learning history.
Granted, I will agree, in theory the socialist doctrine sounds ever so wonderful. It would be great to live in world where everyone had their needs met and everyone contributed to society according to their ability to contribute. I mean that would be utopia … unfortunately, utopia’s really are only fantasies because they tend to forget the most important element in society: The human individual.
Now, maybe someone, somewhere has the magic wand that is going to change the basic tenets of human nature and make people want to sit together and sing songs but that is not the world I live in. I might want to live in that world, but it is not the world that I do live in.
The problem with the socialist/Marxist model is that it forgets a few things about people that you have to deal with.
First, needs are endless. Please, don’t laugh, because what I mean is that once you get past enough to survive, then everything else is a luxury and how much do you need to survive? Not much. Mankind did pretty well for tens of thousands of years with not much more than a stick and a cave to hang out in.
Unfortunately, we as people have progressed far beyond that point now. We need to have clothes, lots of food, housing that would put kings to shame a century or two ago, vehicles for personal transportation, computers, lights, the internet, health care, etc., etc.
Point two: People are not going to work to the best of their ability unless they get some reward out of it. Nope, people aren’t made that way and all your huffing and all your puffing is not going to change that reality.
Point three: Resources are limited and there always will be competition for those resources as they have to be “rationed”. (Some people don’t like it when I use that term because they associate it with coupons, etc., but there are other ways to ration things … like by price)
So far, in the last century, various forms of Mr. Marx’s socio-economic model has been tried several times and guess what … they all seem to have failed miserably. In fact, in a few cases it has failed with disastrous results – like with millions upon millions of people paying the ultimate price for its failure.
What was it Einstein (probably a more influential intellect, but what the heck) said about insanity: It is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
I am not saying that capitalism as outlined by John Locke and Adam Smith (two other very accomplished social scientists) is all milk and cookies. It isn’t. However, I suspect that more people have seen their lives improved under their precepts than have under Mr. Marx’s precepts.
To me, the problem is that people want life to be milk and cookies … but they don’t realize that it ain’t gonna be that way. Never has been and – barring some miraculous shift in human nature and the discovering of unlimited resources – it never will be.
Sorry folks, but things like greed, jealousy, sloth, selfishness, narcissism and the like will make your perfect utopia impossible.
Now, we can accept that reality and try to work with it; or we can ignore it and face the already demonstrated consequences.
My challenge to people is not to try or even hope to change human nature (it is like fighting the tides, you always lose), but let’s design a social system that takes those negatives into account and, if possible, figures out a way to take advantage of them and use them to improve the lot of mankind.
Ironically, capitalism actually does that. You may not like the fact that not everyone gets the benefits, but life is like that: There are winners and there are losers. You may wish to live in a world where everyone is a winner, but like light and dark, good and bad, pass and fail, there really are only two options (with a lot of grey areas in between, fortunately) because without one you can’t have the other.
Lastly, you do know that the Smithsonian is an institution that was created by the US Congress (based on a bequest from an Englishman) and, although owned by the US government, is administered as a charitable trust with a board of regents, 11 of the 17 are government officials.
I guess the US government is putting its stamp of approval on the rehabilitation of Mr. Marx and his policies.
I mean it, you can’t make this stuff up.
Nuff said.
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