Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto

Philosophy professor and co-host of Overthink podcast Ellie Anderson explains key ideas from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' Communist Manifesto, a text that is often oversimplified and misunderstood!

This video was created for Professor Anderson's Spring 2021 "Continental Thought" course at Pomona College.

For more from Ellie, check out Overthink podcast!

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at @overthink_pod

[drbeavis]

Criminally underviewed YT channel. Good stuff. Thank you

[minhajswati]

I have heard Communist Manifesto explained by many people, I would say this was the most simplified version of it. Thank you, Ellie!

[divyagracebenjamin]

I almost had a mental breakdown because I have an assignment on this and couldn't understand how or where to start. This video made the concept so easy to grasp! Thank you!

[viyye]

It would be great if you done a full lecture series.

[fjmacuer]

Ellie, thank you so much for this channel. is noticeable all the work behind every chapter. would you consider interviewing other philosophers and thinkers in order to withdraw bigger conclusions from the discussions. sort of old days philosophy schools. cheers and thank you again this is fantastic. keep those videos rolling.

[foysalshariar]

Thanks! I am finally starting to explore Marx, this helped.

[samuelrosander]

It's worth reading the document for yourself...with the intent to understand it, rather than the "I read it in 20 minutes and it's all garbage" nonsense that more than a few people push (at least one in this video's comments section. ~29 pages in 20 minutes says that the moron that claimed it was lying, and their other arguments likewise proved them to be dishonest parrots of propaganda). The summary in this video covers merely one facet of the manifesto. There's a lot more going on that requires time to digest and understand. A lot of people commenting here obviously haven't even tried.

One thing of note that people regularly overlook, including in this video, is what is meant by "the State." For bourgeois society, the meaning is clear; we know it because we see it every day as the system of government that rules over us. For proletarian society, it's different:

"We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy.

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible."

If you replace "the State" with what Marx elaborated, you get something that provides a wholly different meaning than is presented (and assumed): "the State" is no longer some top-down organization of power, but is instead "the proletariat organized as the ruling class" in a bottom-up organization of power, so that the proletariat, by virtue of their number and position as the ruling class, can "win the battle of democracy" by democratically achieving the goals that the proletariat itself forms...which tend towards providing some amount of social welfare, democratization of workplaces, etc.

Understanding that "the State" means something different in the socialist/communist sense than it does in the "normal" (bourgeois) sense is important to understanding why "socialism never works" and "the state in socialism never withers away like they promise it will" are ignorant statements. For socialism to work, the proletariat, not a political party, must both overthrow the bourgeois state AND replace it with bottom-up democracy. In fact, the ONLY way that the state can "wither away" is for the proletariat to collectively take on its bureaucratic, legislative, executive, and judicial functions through their workplace/community democratic apparatus, as well as through their voluntary and active participation in both the democratic process (discussion being the first and probably most important part, followed closely by both suggesting and then voting on decisions) AND the process of carrying out the decisions made, including how people will be held accountable to rule breaking, how work will get done (and by whom), etc.

It can't be under-stressed: ALL of those things are not decided by some centralized "State" controlled by some party elite, but rather through community and workplace democracy that happens at the lowest levels possible; the distribution of goods and services, as well as labor, is likewise decided through that direct democracy. Not through "endless meetings where all of the minutia are debated until everyone dies of hunger from no work getting done, " as the caricature insists, but through social interactions in every-day life, through social responsibility (which must be taught at home and reinforced in society), through social accountability (not to some police State, but to the people you call "neighbor, " both on the streets and around the world), and when things need to be worked out above that most basic level, in gatherings of the people whose input is necessary, and who might be affected by the decision in a meaningful way (like people living down-stream of an industrial facility that might create pollution).
For the state to be capable of "withering away, " as Marx/Engels famously say, that is what the State must be. For that form of State to exist, the proletariat must be the ruling class in a democracy. If the proletariat is placed below a political party, especially one that it does not directly control, then the proletariat is not the ruling party (the masses of the Russian people did not control the party, but were instead largely controlled by it. "Why" is a matter for another discussion, but despite it having a strong proletarian presence fighting for proletarian interests, as well as some bottom-up democratic efficacy, it was still a top-down system controlled by a party elite, rather than a bottom-up democracy. That alone should make any thinking individual question exactly why it should be called a "socialist" country, especially after Lenin explicitly said that it wasn't because of those and other reasons).

I realize this is a long post on a simple technicality, but to understand what is meant and what the implications are, you have to spend some time making the connections and such. You can't just read it in 20 minutes and claim to know anything, as some do, nor can you read only this work to gain a reasonable understanding of Marx/Marxism. Be deliberate in reading for the purpose of understanding; don't merely interpret things according to your own views. That's the only way to honestly learn, and to honesty criticize.

[myproxybloviator]

Alluring and compelling This makes for a very positive presentation, and very helpful for a former philosophy major still struggling to 'get it all' Thank you

[TrashyNO.]

Oh man, this is the first video I have seen and it's great. I was looking for an audiobook version of the manifesto to get a better understanding to use my words better, but these will be good 🤘

[philosophygeek]

I have long had an interest in philosophy. Thank you so much this wonderfully informative channel and your insightful talks.

[marekr.]

Like watching these lectures, few people are able to explain sophisticated things in such convinient way.

[gdth]

wow thank you Dr. Ellie! this helps me see why i feel uncomfortable and confused at any jobs: converting my abilities to monetary value simply doesn't make sense to me. i feel much relieved just knowing that about myself

[ucheosujia.u]

i must say you this really breaks down the manifesto in simple form. thank you

[Remarkablepepper]

please please please do more of this, I am ready to religiously take notes of ur explanations, buy materials and read things over and over again! :////

[Joy]

Brilliant Video. I really Love the way you explain things. This was one of the Best Videos. I have ever Heard. Thank You So Much. ❤❤❤👍👍👍.

[TheReyesTube]

Thank you, this content is very awesome 💜

[johnsimmons]

I think Marx mistake in the simplist form would be to say that he assumed that people will behave in rational ways given these truths. We are simply not rational in mass as today's social and political events are demonstrating. ...thank you for this wonderful program. One of the most impressive

[hatsumomo]

What a channel!! I'm loving your videos, professor!

[hulkhogan]

How would you explain the cultural facets people have like languages, castes, dresses, traditional continuities which are apart from the notion' base' determines everything.

[mattiapiazzolla]

thank you so much, these videos are SUPER HELPFUL