Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Karl Marx, the father of Marxism, was a German philosopher, as well as a sociologist, political theorist, historian, economist, journalist, and socialist revolutionary. Karl was a jack of all trades and the oldest surviving boy of nine children. Karl’s father wanted him to focus his studies towards law school, but Karl rebelled against the idea. Instead, he focused the majority of his studies towards philosophy. Despite not favoring law school, he was a previous law student and philosophy student at the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin. One of his most famous works entails "The Communist Manifesto ''. Some of his greatest contributions and ideas include his historical materialism. He believed that society worked in ways of pattern. To further explain, society's mode of production is fundamentally how human organization and development functions. The Communist Manifesto is one of the most influential political documents written up to date. Shortly after this information was released, it began to gain significance after the revolutions of 1848. Karl held a lot of great beneficial political ideas that are still referred to today. His political way of thinking was not for power nor greed. Karl's capitalist system was reasoned for beneficial long-term effects. Political leaders and socioeconomic thinkers of many generations are influenced in many ways from Marx. He will especially be known for how hard he fought and stood his ground towards capitalism and the anarchist wing. One of my personal favorite theories he has is called alienation. Marx describes how workers in capitalist systems become alienated with their work. Becoming alienated is a result of workers having lack of control of production processes as well as the outcomes of their work. In simple terms, the systems politicians have set up, caused them to no longer have control over time, affecting citizens in the long run.