Looking for Humanism

 

 

Karl Marx has been a controversial figure in our country for a long time. Thanks to the propaganda of the capitalistic power elites, he has been discredited and called a communist and/or socialist both “bad” names. Just ask Bernie Sanders about the misrepresentations? In part, Marx’s misrepresentations are likely the result that his writings, in German, were translated only as recently in 1959 by T. B. Bottomore at the London School of Economics and Political Science. This essay focuses on Marx’s philosophy of man living in the industrialized Western society. Marx’s model does not refer to the Hunter- Gatherers, the Zuni Indians or other “non-civilized” cultures.

Karl Marx, the philosopher, wrote about man’s alienation to self, to others and to nature without the benefit of Freud’s psycho dynamic insights. According to Marx, with the development of Western industrialism, man has been transformed by automatization, and has become dehumanized.

For Marx, the existence or essence of a real individual man or who he is simply what he does. Can modern man liberate and free himself from the current economic society stranglehold and importantly realize his intellectual and physical potential? If not, he becomes alienated within and with others. In capitalism, it’s about production and consumption. For Marx, the problem was the alienation related to materialism, consumption or being in a meaningless, unproductive or alienated job.

 Marx, might have a comment or two about the fact that Bezos and Musk have accumulated more wealth than 40% of other Americans and the recent bribery scheme regarding college admissions to elite schools?  His comments along with Gates and Buffett would more than likely suggest that there is more to life’s fulfillment than acquiring more wealth than anyone else and chasing prestige and status is just the desire for money. More specifically, Marx believed that excess and immoderation becomes only a standard and are artificial needs. This need to acquire wealth is simply used to exploit others while chasing the money. Bezos’s position against unionization in Alabama is an example.  The more alienated one becomes, the more is a sense of having and using others as in exploitation and this becomes and constitutes one’s relationship to the world. In other words the more you have, the more you are alienated from self and from the world. .

 Marx also didn’t believe that accruing more wages in a meaningless job would result in man’s fulfillment.  Today’s alienation is seen in absenteeism, frequent employment changes, drug and alcohol addictions, workmen’s comp claims, depression, anxiety  and withdrawal from job seeking. Marx added that being interested in money, material or the production of useful things resulted in too many useless people.

 When man becomes productive both intellectually and physically, with intrinsic meaning, he becomes able to be productive and form fulfilling unions with other humans.  In essence, Marx’s view of man is one in which man has the potential to become fully functioning in the area of work and love and when that happens humanity for all prospers. Incidentally, Freud agreed that a healthy individual was one that was able to productively work and love.

 Marx believed that man can change and evolve because he created his own history. He also believed that there are two types of human drives and appetites. Initially he believed that there were constant or fixed ones such as hunger and sexual urges. He added that these can only be changed only in their form and in the direction they take depending upon the nature within that society. The second drives were the relative appetites which are not integral part of human nature but which in origin, pertain to certain social structures and to certain societal and economic conditions such as the appetites for power, prestige, money, possession, success etc.

 Man can be alive and fully functioning only when he is active and productive. Being receptive and passive, negatively interferes and impairs creativeness, vitality, energy, human passions in man’s relationship with women and other men. Most of what man consciously thinks, according to Marx, is false such as his beliefs, illusions, ideologies and rationalizations. These misgivings interferes with man’s actions because of his unconscious. It’s important for man to wake up, become aware and not follow just his illusions. Man can become more alive, motivated and excited with meaning when labor becomes an expression of his physical and mental pleasure.

 In our economy, a capitalist exploits because he owns the means of production and can hire a property less individual to work for him under conditions in which he is forced to accept.  Furthermore, Marx wrote that” private property has made us stupid and partial, that an object is only ours when we have it, when it exists for us as capital or when it is directly eaten, drunk, worn, inhaled, utilized in some way; the physical, intellectual senses for us have been replaced by simple alienation of all the senses, a sense of having.” On a side note, Marx hasn’t looked in our garage, gone to yard sales or visited a flea market. What has having and possessing solved? Nothing, man is still depressed and empty inside. He yearns, but does not know what he’s looking or seeking. Not surprisingly, according to the New York Times March 7, 2021, a 2013 research study found that having purpose in life may motivate one in stressful situations to deal more productively and increase one’s longevity as well.

Incidentally, Bernie Sanders Is not a Marx Socialist or communist. Promoting healthcare for all and not tying it to employment, raising the minimum wage to $15 and reducing college debt is a humanistic attitude. Hopefully, those ideas would reduce the economic chains of slavery and reduce stress and anxiety for many. Notice, I used the word “reduce.”  Would these policies allow the many to fully develop intellectually, physically, spiritually and morally? No!  Even though, would the capitalistic power elite be thrilled by employing and legislating a humanistic attitude? No, it’s about profit!

According to these humanistic ideas, the opportunity for a better world exists. Humanistic ideas are directly opposite to authoritarian, submission, conformity, irrational thinking and dependence on something else other than man relying on man. It’s a real challenge to fulfill our past history of humanistic thought. Remember, your values are not what you think they are. Values are what you do and what you do is who you are.  Perhaps, not all can take advantage of their human spirit and fully develop in today’s capitalistic society. Marx provided a roadmap. If his roadmap does not fit, create your own. Are today’s workers relevant to Marx’s philosophy?  In any event, stay tuned as next week’s disquisition focuses on the twig of Karl Marx and Steph Curry.