Lesson 6: The German Ideology

I hold weekly meetings for interested parties here in Hendersonville, NC. This is a synopsis from our sixth meeting.

Synopsis of Week 6 Meeting:

1. After the collapse of Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, Marx, still living on the Rue Vaneau, began writing for what was then the only uncensored German-language radical newspaper in Europe, Vorwärts!. Based in Paris, the paper was run by many activists connected to the revolutionary socialist “League of the Just,” within a few years to be renamed the Communist League.

2. In Vorwärts!, Marx continued to refine his views on socialism based upon the Hegelian and Feurbachian ideas of dialectical materialism (see previous synopses), whilst at the same time criticizing various liberals and other socialists operating concurrently in Europe. Marx was in some avenues a genius, mainly in his extrapolations from Hegel, but also in the gift he had been given which enabled him to force competing ideas into the box of Marxism. However, regarding the intramural philosophical purge just mentioned, one should probably conclude this as more clever than intelligent. For once street activism and mob mentality is employed, even between two individuals at a table, one has traded that innate ability to quantify for an acquired skill at qualification, justification and (more pertinent here) manipulation. Politically, then, Marx had already become an adept.

3. By his talents, both intellectual and political, Marx came again to the attention of the Prussian king, who pressured the French government to shut down Vorwärts! and to furthermore expel Marx himself from France.

4. Forced from France and Germany, Marx emigrated to Brussels, Belgium. As a governmental condition, he was however not permitted to publish on the subject of contemporary politics. In Brussels, he associated with other exiled socialists from across Europe, including Moses Hess, Karl Heinzen and Joseph Weydemeyer. Engels joined them shortly thereafter.

5. In 1845, Marx and Engels visited the leaders of the Chartists, a socialist movement in Britain, using the trip as an opportunity to study in various libraries in London and Manchester. In collaboration with Engels, Marx also set about writing The German Ideology, a book which is often seen as his best treatment on the concept of historical materialism. This book was not published during Marx’s lifetime but only saw the light of day in 1932 (just in time for a certain rising German to notice it).

6. The German Ideology identified once and for all that Marxism is a German, not Russian, orthodoxy.

7. One of the arguments in The German Ideology is that men distinguish themselves from animals as soon as they begin to produce their means of subsistence; what individuals are coincides with their production in both how and what they produce. The nature of individuals depends on the material conditions determining their production. How far the productive forces of a nation are developed is shown by the degree to which the division of labor has been carried.

This is dangerous. If the sum total of an individual is his productivity, and the society is free, the sky’s the limit for personal advancement and achievement. If, however, the society is ordered, as in communism, the individual is not only stereotyped and forced into certain endeavor by early inclinations (in order to prevent unwanted energy expended towards treating a “productive force” as a “person”), but an individual may also be termed “detrimental” to the society by his or her lack of certain ability, as predetermined by that society. In other words, the special nature of each human is broken down to a specific communal working value. The logical end result of this man-ordered valuation system is eugenics.

8. Whereas the free society incorporates God as a basic building block of liberty and freedom, The German Ideology criticizes the religious aspect of that provincial German life, regarding it as an unnecessary and divisive component. However, Marx seems to make an argument for a natural religion over a man-made religion. There appears to be some contradiction in his acquiescence that human thought constructs all things human (natural religion), the basis of productivity, when compared with that human construct (man-made religion) as a detractor. Marx’s goal with such statements (or thoughts, if you like) appears to be connivance. For having no better standpoint than to criticize a society which oppresses his ideas, he has apparently promoted himself to the position of Almighty Judge.

The German manifestation of this Marxist ideal came later. Once the Prussian empire dissolved to the more recognizable Germany of today, its ideology of productivity as the identifier of a person’s worth became entrenched. Marx made the observation that the British and French had already taken such a necessary evolutionary societal step, and one should think he was referring to the concepts of guilds, but his message appears garbled in this respect (perhaps this is why The German Ideology was not published until later).

9. Consider this passage: “The setting-up of a communal domestic economy presupposes the development of machinery, of the use of natural forces and of many other productive forces – e.g. of water-supplies, of gas-lighting, steam-heating, etc., the removal [of the antagonism] of town and country. Without these conditions a communal economy would not in itself form a new productive force; lacking any material basis and resting on a purely theoretical foundation, it would be a mere freak and would end in nothing more than a monastic economy – What was possible can be seen in the towns brought about by condensation and the erection of communal buildings for various definite purposes (prisons, barracks, etc.). That the abolition of individual economy is inseparable from the abolition of the family is self-evident.”

Recently, Elizabeth Warren borrowed extensively from this premise when she said that successful businesses owed their thriving nature to the worthwhile productive activities of the community-at-large. Contrast her remarks (paraphrased) “you delivered your goods on roads the rest of us built” and “you manufactured your goods with people educated by the rest of us” with Marx and you will see little to differentiate between his historical dialectic and her strident anti-monastic polemic.

Note also that “the abolition of individual economy (that is, self-interest) is inseparable from the abolition of the family” (where individualism begins). If you believe that Marxism is not at work in every aspect of your life, you are sadly mistaken. Its influence has been irrigated into churches, elementary schools, libraries and various other places that children congregate; and for one purpose: the dissolution of the family.

You may think that within the walls of your home you are safe from propaganda, but there is television, radio, the Internet, newspapers, and even neighbors with which to contend. In order to escape the infiltration of Marxism there must be a community of a singular mind separate from the modern world. Unfortunately, whether one chooses the Amish or the leftist commune, that singular mind is mostly communitarian, depending on man-made interpretation rather than truth (ironically, just as Marx postulated in The German Ideology). Therefore, in order to defeat Marxism, the forces of liberty must organize a head-on collision.

The problems with this proposition are many:

(1) Individualists are by definition not capable of efficient organization. The root of this weakness is the desire to remain independent in thought and deed. Marxism therefore has a distinct and powerful advantage in its willingness to trade the self for the collective mind.

(2) Conflicts are not the milieu of the liberty-minded. Most people lean towards compassion and tolerance, desiring the same for themselves. “Judge not” becomes a watch-phrase that deteriorates into a fear of reprisal. Thereby, political correctness is able to be enforced on every level, and physical confrontation is considered a last resort, if any. The Marxist, on the hand, welcomes every chance to promote revolution, even through violence. The individualist’s desire for law and order is a related goodness which nevertheless enervates his passion and capability.

(3) History has not been kind. The purging of ideologies deserves its criticism and our disgust for any more. The label “witch hunt” is apt where it concerns even the removal of Marxism. However, there is at some point no choice. When is it appropriate to remove vagrants from our parks? When they occupy without a permit? When they disgrace themselves by their behavior? When their noise level becomes overbearing to everyone else’s peace? When they are violent? When they mobilize to blockade the food supply chain? While demagoguery is a vice we ought to avoid, there is nevertheless counter-protest which is both appropriate and godly.

(4) The appetite for utopian promises never ceases. It doesn’t matter if by this we mean the adolescent daydreams of worldwide brotherhood or the evil notions of “master race” nations – the Marxist is always ready to accommodate our fever. This is quite satanic and we ought to be teaching at every opportunity our children the dangers of falling prey to those who say that wish fulfillment is just around the corner. But the deeper concern is that adults put themselves in precarious positions, both personal and financial, which necessitates some relief of escape. Once ensconced, grievances of this sort become willing accomplices to the aim of the Marxist, that is, POWER. Yes, folks, your grumbling and unwillingness to take on personal responsibility is the leverage by which your liberty is always threatened. Whining is a disease.

(5) We have unattached from the true rule of law, which is God’s Law. Torah is the foundation for our Constitution and for Christianity. Marx, however, discovered the key to disabling the power of Torah, and therefore the capitalist society: (a) blame economic woes on capitalism, (b) blame capitalism on the Jews, (c) blame society for adopting the capitalism of the Jews. By pure hatred and historical precedent, Marxism takes every superstition and racist molecule and combines them to create a global Victim, a global Oppressor, and a global Savior. Do you think I’m too conspiratorial? All you need do is visit Google News and see for yourself the rising tide of anti-Semitism within the Occupy Wall Street movement and its supporters, now including the Muslim Brotherhood, David Duke, the American Communist Party, the Nazi Party, and various anti-New World Order folks who blame the “Jewish bankers” for all.

That I invoke Torah as the solution is not a “Jewish” remedy but in actuality the advice from Christ. One has only to read the New Testament to notice that doing “the commandments” (Torah) commends one to eternal life, makes one to be called highest in heaven, and gives one the right to come in through the door and have access to the Tree of Life. In contrast, those who teach against the least commandment will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. It is not sin which can be avoided (we all fall short) but it is the instruction against God’s Law which receives the worst punishment. For our current conversation, this means the destruction of our beloved civilization.