Okay, good morning. So today we are doing Karx and Kar Marx is one of the most influential thinkers in human history. His contribution um to in intellectual thought cannot be um overstated. Okay. So um what I'm going to do first is I'm going to do a thought experiment.
Okay. It's it's just going to be a fun experiment. And let's pretend there are two scenarios. Okay. In scenario one, you get into a really good college and you decide to become a lawyer.
Go to law school. You do extremely well. You become a lawyer and you make a lot of money. When you make a lot of money, you can buy a big house, go on vacations to uh Bali. um you can you can um have a BMW.
Okay, so that's situation one. You're you're a super lawyer basically. Situation two is different. You're on a plane with strangers and there's 100 of you. You crash on an island.
This island, it's very poor, very scarce resources and you have to work together in order to just get by. Okay, you're not eating well, you're not living well. Every day is a struggle. you're not really sure if you'll get to the second day. All right, so those are the two scenarios.
You're on island and you're basically like starving. And so the question, the thought experiment is do you think you'll be a happier person in the first situation or the second situation? Now you of course. Yeah. So you would think obviously the answer is number one.
But um what I will show you today is that's not necessarily true. Okay, maybe for some of us the answer is number one, but for many of us the answer actually number two because as humans we want to feel as though we have a purpose in life and that we are part of a larger mission to change the world for the better. Okay. And that's the underlying thesis of Karl Marx. All right.
So let's start marks. Okay. So first understand marks we first need to review Kant and Hegel which we did last class. So Emanuel Kant Emanuel Kant's um theory of the world is this we are all endowed with the capacity to reason. Okay and it's born in us.
Um we don't learn it. It is just part of who we are. Okay. So and then this reason interacts with reality. the things in themselves and then what we see is the appearance.
Okay. So the crucial argument that Khan is making is we imagine reality around us by bringing in space and time. Reality we we do not see reality objectively okay or away from us. We see reality as part of us. And with our minds we create our own universe.
And as we discussed last class, this has been confirmed by neuroscience, by artificial artificial intelligence, micro mechanics. So it's really the dominant understanding of human psychology we have today. All right. But the problem with Emanuel Kant, there are three major issues with Emanuel Kant. The first major issue is if we can never know reality, then how do we know what's real and what's fake, right?
H how do we know we don't live in a computer simulation? And the answer is we don't know. So that's the first issue may caught. He does not give us proof of an objective reality. Okay, that's the first problem.
Second problem is the source for our reason. If we are born with the capacity to imagine space and time and shape our reality, who gives it to us? Where does it come from? and he doesn't really answer that question. Right?
The third question is a problem of uniformity which is to say how do I know that you and me and others see the world in the same way? Why aren't we seeing a different reality? Okay. And then and then Khan says, "Well, we don't know either." Okay. So this these are the three major problems created by MA Khan's philosophy of the world.
So Frederick Hegel comes along and resolves all three issues. Okay. What he says is this. He says like the underlying source of reality is called the gist. The gist is a spirit of the world.
Think of it as a god that's becoming into reality. It's growing. Okay? It's almost like the internet uh collective consciousness. And as a result, the gist is giving us the capacity to reason and to see itself and then to imagine our own reality.
Okay. So the idea of the gist solves all three problems at once. An underlying reality that gives um uh that creates the material reality. So Heggo is an idealist meaning for him what matters is ideas and spirit and the material what is created from these ideas and from spirit. Okay.
So these are the so what this is Hegel what Karl Marx will do is build on Hegel to create something called dialectical materialism which is idea of class struggle okay and he will create this philosophy based on his reading of Hegel. All right so let's um go over how Markx interprets Hegel. So again Hegel has three major ideas. The first is the idea of the gist. Okay.
The underlying superructure of reality. Second is the idea of the dialectic. Okay. So the idea of the dialectic is how does this guys become what it does? What it is?
How does this guys learn and think? And the answer is the dialectic. The dialectic is thesis, antithesis and synthesis. And the concept is just a debate among in itself. For it to know itself, it must create its opposite.
And then when it creates its opposite, it debates itself and creates a synthesis. Okay? And it's the idea of a debate where you might have a viewpoint and you engage with someone with another viewpoint that's opposite of yours. you debate and through this debate you create a symphysis of your different viewpoints. Okay.
And for Hegel this is the under underlying logic of history of how we learn of how we progress. Okay. And the third idea that Hegel proposes is ide of the master slave dialectic. And so um Hegel thinks that relationship can be broken into a master and slave. Basically I command you, you do as I say, you obey me.
But when but then what Hegel says is over time this thesis interis also becomes a symphysis. Why? Because as your master as your master I become dependent on you as my slave. In fact you're the one doing all the work. So without you I can't exist.
Okay. So in this way the relationship inverts itself and the master becomes slave to the slave right because the master is now dependent on the slave for his livelihood. All right so those these are the three big ideas that Hegel is going to take sorry these are the three big ideas of Hegel and Marx is going to take these three ideas and develop his own theory of the world. So Markx Marx is from Prussia. Um as we discussed uh before a lot of these major philosophers are from Prussia.
Hegel himself was also Prussian and he was very proud to be to be Prussian. Um and Marx when he was in university was part of a group called the young Hegelians. These are individuals uh a group of them who worship Hegel but they misinterpreted Hegel. Okay? They thought of Hegel as an atheist um because he said God is dead.
But when Hegel said God is dead, what he really meant is I am now going to reinterpret God not as this separate entity from us but as part of us in the form of the guys. Okay. Um so the young aliens will reinterpret Hegel and basically misinterpret him. So the first thing they do is they take the guys and they turn into a material thing. Okay.
economics. So Hegel thinks it's ideas that come first then material reality. But these guys, the young Hegelian, they will invert this and say it's material reality that creates ideas. Okay? It's economics, it's wealth that creates culture which gives rise to ideas.
Okay? So it's the complete opposite. Um second thing they'll do is if this is true the dialectic and the master slave relationship um then history is a history of oppression and a struggle for liberation against this oppression. Okay. And so the idea of the uh material world in struggle with itself creates the idea of dialectical materialism.
And we call this class struggle. Okay. The rich and the poor fun each each other and the poor are looking for liberation. Right? So does that make sense?
Yes. Okay. Great. So um that's right. So this is class struggle and this is the main contribution that Markx will make and by creating this idea he will lay the foundation for what we refer to as communism.
All right. The underlying reality of history is class struggle. The other thing that marks will take from Hegel is an understanding that all of history is theological. Teological. Okay, this is a big word, but all it means is there is an inevitability to history.
There's a purpose. There's a progress to history. Everything is being done for a reason. Okay, so let's go over the theology that marks great. All right, so we were born as hunter gatherers.
We all know this, okay? We're out in the out in the forest hunting food and small tribes and we're happy, but there's not enough food to feed everyone. So we develop agriculture, right? And then because of agriculture, we have something called surplus value. we're able to create more wealth which allows a few of us to settle down and do other stuff for example create literacy okay and this gives rise to civilization and then to justify the civilization to justify this hierarchy the fact that you have a few people who are essentially parasites of society we create the idea of religion right because the elite now are priests All right.
So that's the second stage. Then what happens is um as we develop more and more technology and the societies become larger and larger, we have to go to war against each other. Okay. To fight for resources. And so this gives rise to the master slave relationship which then gives us feudalism.
Okay. which then allows for the rise of industrial capitalism. And this is a stage Markx finds himself at. And what Markx says is this is all a linear progress driven by technological advancement, right? Agriculture is an advancement.
And then you have tools, you have weapons, um then you have castles, knights, and now you have steam ships. Okay? So it's all part of a technological plan to liberate humanity technology. Okay. Now, and he's writing the year in 1848.
Okay. Um and now now industrial capitalism will naturally lead to communism. All right. He says this this is not something that we can hope for or work towards. It's something that's going to happen because of history.
Okay. History is God. God is history. We our world has been developed through the mind of God. All right.
So um first thing he does is he uses the Heg Hegelian dialectic. Right? So feudalism is the thesis, industrial capitalism is antithesis and then together they will create communism. Why? Okay.
So for Marx embedded in capitalism is the seeds of its demise and there are three reasons why. Okay. First is industrial capitalism is imperial. It's all consumer. It expands and as a result it's going to create a global politariat.
And because they're all oppressed, they're going to come in consciousness together and recognize that only for collective action can we liberate ourselves from the capitalist class. All right? And because the polit is the majority of people, 99% then 1% have no have no chance. Okay? That's number one.
Number two is the idea of technology. Capitalism gives rise to to new technology which makes sur which creates surplus value and surplus labor. It basically makes our job easier. Okay, which case we don't have to work as hard as before in order to create value. Okay, so that's technology.
So for for example AI, right? And the third is the idea of crisis in capitalism. Okay, crisis in capitalism. And what this means is for Markx, capitalism is fundamentally unsustainable. It will collapse at a certain point.
Why? Well, there are many reasons why. Okay, so for Marks, the main problem is overp production. You're producing all these goods, but because you're impoverishing everyone, no one's going to buy these goods, in which case the markets, in which case the economy's going to collapse. Right?
That's one um possibility. Another possibility is presented by a man named Thomas Okay. And he wrote a famous book called capital in the 21st century. And he's working off marks. And what he believes the fundamental uh paradox of capitalism is is a problem of uh financialization.
So all this is saying is this at first we have to build a factory to generate wealth, right? But once we have gen enough wealth, we want to take this wealth and go invest it somewhere because it's easier for us and we can make more money that way. But over time as capitalism grows and grows, everyone wants to invest. No one wants to manufacture. And what happens then is the financial economy is growing faster than the manufacturing economy.
In fact, for picody, the financial economy will go at 5% whereas the manufacturing economy will go at 2%. This means that if you put your money in a stock market, you'll make 5% a year. But if you open a restaurant or you create a factory or you do something useful, you make 2% a year. So no one wants to work anymore, right? So for Piggity, capitalism will have to end at some point.
Then you have a name named Carol Quigley and he's a historian. Uh we discussed him uh last week, but he's a historian at Georgetown. He's dead, but he wrote of a famous book called Tragedy and Hope. And he argues that capitalism goes in phases. The first phase is consumer capitalism where companies are trying to create products that consumers want to buy.
Then that leads to financial capitalism where now companies just want to invest their wealth. But over time the final stage is the idea of monopoly capitalism where a few companies control all the resources. Okay? In which case uh we pay a lot of money for crappy stuff. and then we don't want to buy anything anymore.
Okay. So, uh for Marx and for and for Carol quickly capitalism can only lead to crisis and then because of the crisis the politer will organize um and then rebel and then create a workers's paradise. Okay. Which leads to communism. That's the logic of Marx.
That is Marx's understanding of history. Okay. All right. So what I'm going to explain now is why would this be popular? Why would this history be popular for people?
Because communism was one of the most popular movements um throughout the 20th century. Okay. And the problem that marks diagnosis is capitalism makes people miserable for three reasons. Okay. Okay.
So the issues of capitalism the first issue is that it is all encompassing all consuming. So in other words it just grows and grows and because it has to grow and grow to create value it starts worse. So you have imperialism right? Because as a factory owner you want to create new markets. You want access to cheaper goods.
You want access to cheaper labor. Therefore, you force your government to go invade other countries like China, India, Africa. Okay? So, capitalism creates wars and human misery all around the world. It's all consuming.
It's always expanding. Okay. Second problem with capitalism is that it is it consolidates consolidating. And the idea here is this capitalism can only lead to extreme inequality. Why?
Because the point of capitalism is to generate as much wealth as possible. So to do that, we want to consolidate our wealth. So maybe there's 10 of us with a million dollars each, right? Well, we're better off just put putting our money together and then investing it together, right? Which creates massive inequality.
So over time, Markx believes that because capitalism is all consuming and consolidating, it will destroy the middle class. Unless you're super wealthy, um you won't have any money. Okay? If you are just like a small factory owner, you'll be bought out by a large factory owner. And quite honestly, this is what's happening in the world today.
Okay? If you are a small house owner in America, well, um you're going to be bought out by a company and then the company's going to use your house to rent to other people. Okay? So, this this is a pattern that's happening throughout the world today. And that's why Marx is seeing a massive resurgence in our world today.
Right? Now the third problem um is alienating and here Markx explains that there are four types of alienation. Okay, the first type of alienation is the alienation of labor and what this means is this. As humans we want to create stuff. We are fundamentally creative.
We want to create art products. We want to cook. We want to teach. We want to express our individuality. Okay.
And why we want to do that is when we express our individuality, when we create things, we um support the community, right? So when I teach uh you guys, you guys learn and when you learn, you um feel good, you thank me and that confirms my humanity, that confirms my individuality. So society is a mechanism for each of us to exchange um um our creativity in a way that affirms our own individuality. Okay, does that make sense? All right.
The problem with capitalism is it takes use value, okay, what this thing is used for and replace it for like exchange value, okay, which is how much this thing is worth. And that's this is these are two different opposites. Okay. Oh, sorry. These are two different concepts.
So, use value is I cook I cook a apple pie and then I give it to you and you eat it and you say, "Wow, this is a really awesome apple pie. Thank you so much." And then you feel good. I feel good. Okay, that's use value. Exchange value is I cook this apple pie and I give it to someone who then goes sells to someone.
I never meet that person. Okay, and I'm not and and I don't know what happens to the pie, but I'm paid like $5 for it. Right? So that's the idea of exchange value. And as such, what Marxist says is this exchange of goods does not affirm our individuality.
Therefore, it makes us miserable because we don't know why we're doing anything anymore. Okay? Before we were doing things in order to support our community, in order to please other people, in order to affirm our humanity. Now we're just making stuff because of wage labor, right? Wages to get paid.
Okay? So that's alienating for us. Okay, this this makes sense, right? Great. Second is that it alienates us from ourselves.
Why? Because as human beings, we are very complex. We are multifaceted and we're always evolving. But for capitalism, what matters is division of labor, okay? Specialization because that's what allows for the most rapid industrial growth.
And so in other words, you cease to be you and you become a hand or maybe a finger or maybe an eye or maybe an ear, okay? But you cease to be complete. You just be you're you're just like a in the machine. You're just a piece of the puzzle and that alienates you from who you are really. It it it prevents you from achieving your full potential as a creative vibrant human being.
Okay, that's second issue. The third issue is it alienates us from nature. Okay. Why? Because capitalism grows by exploiting humans and by exploiting nature.
It cuts down trees. It destroys the environment. It creates air pollution. Uh we we can no longer drink drink drink clean water. Okay?
It destroys nature and it makes us feel like we must destroy nature if we are to feed our families. So it alienates us from our nature. Whereas historically we have feel we we we have been in a symbotic relationship with nature where we thank nature for feeding us but we're always replenishing we're always protecting nature right the fourth type of alienation is the alienation from humanity right so before from for most of history we were cooperating with each other we're helping each other out okay because that's the only way you could survive but capitalism forces us to compete against each other Okay. And the example of course is school where because of grades you see your classmates as competitors, right? But if there are no grades, then you might help each other learn.
You might um um tutor each other in in homework and help each other with homework and tests. Okay. Okay. So So that does that make sense? So the idea here is let's just say that um like like maybe five people are have to carry some goods to a store.
Okay, that that's your job. One person falls down, breaks his leg, and cries out for help. Well, we should go help that person, right? But the logic of capitalism is you can't the logic of capitalism is you can't do that because the manager will find you for being late. Okay, does that make sense?
All right, so that that that's why Markx thinks that this will alien us from our humanity. And this part of Markx where Markx diagnoses the problems of capitalism is considered brilliant. Okay, this is a perfect encapsulation of all the issues with capitalism that was true in the 1850s in the 19th century, but it's also true today. If you look at the world today, then we also have these issues. And if you can if you analyze Marxist diagnosis of capitalism, then it helps explain why the world is the way it is.
Okay. All right. So, and because of these pressing issues, because people are suffering so much, they see Marxism, they see communism as salvation and redemption. That's the appeal. Okay?
Because capitalism has made life so miserable for a majority of people. Okay? All right. So, but the problem is we know that this prophecy of Marx that we will naturally evolve into communism has not panned out. In fact, communism has caused a lot of human misery as well.
And so, why is that the case? And so what I'm going to show you now is even though Markx has this beautiful theory, it's also wrong. Okay, for a variety of reasons. So let's analyze his understanding of history and show how it's wrong. Okay, the first thing is um let's go back to huntergatherer agriculture transition.
The first class I ever taught um like a long long time ago is the transition from hunter gather culture didn't make any sense as a hunter gatherer. You didn't have a scarcity problem. In fact, you ate really well. You work less, you ate more. And we know because if you dig up skeletons of hunter gatherers, they're taller than farmers.
In fact, they're a lot taller. Hunter gathers were on average like six six foot. Okay, which is like really really tall, right? And farmers were like on average maybe five foot. That's a huge difference.
Okay. So the so using the economic argument of marks, this makes no sense, right? And what I explained to you before is it's not economics that drives human history. It's religion that drives human history. Okay?
So we settle down in order to practice a cult to practice a religion because maybe one place was considered divine for whatever reason. And as a result, we developed our culture which led to civilization. So the marks formulation that religion comes last is wrong. It's religion that comes first. Okay?
It's religion that leads to agriculture which leads to civilization. Right? So that's what Markx gets wrong. Also um the transition from feudalism to capitalism was not driven by technology. It was driven by religion.
All right. So let me explain. Okay. So the feudalism the dominant religion at the time was the Catholic religion. When we when we go into industrial capitalism the dominant religion is protestimism.
Okay. So as we discussed before the Catholic religion was an imperial bureaucracy uh led by the pope and there were many religious reformers who thought this was abhorrent. This went against the will of God. Okay. And so what they proposed was this.
They proposed a religion which was democratic in which everyone had access to God. Okay? Before you had to listen to the priests, you couldn't read the Bible by yourself. Now you had to read the Bible yourself in order to access God by yourself. Okay?
And there were two major different there were two major transitions. Um the first is before in order to get to heaven you had to use justification by works. All this means is you do good things. You give money to the church. you primarily give money to the church.
Okay. All right. But because the Protestants want to reduce the power of the Catholic church, they said, "No, what matters is justification by faith. It doesn't matter how much money you give to the church. What matters is do you truly believe in God?" Okay, that's what matters.
So that's the first major difference. Uh and then the process in in order to reduce the power of the church uh because the church said only if you listen to us can we guarantee you access to heaven. Right? So what the protest said is no um access to heaven is predestined. Uh so they have predestination.
In other words, at the beginning of time, God has already decided who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. He's already decided. So doesn't matter what the church tells you. It doesn't matter how much money you give to the church, you're all going to hell if you don't believe truly believe in God. All right?
So so the Protestant religion was a direct response to the Catholic religion. Now this creates a new problem. Okay, the problem is this. How do you know you truly believe in God? How do you know that you are one of the elect?
How do you know that you were chosen by God to go to heaven? This creates anxiety, right? Anxiety as we know leads to OCD, obsessivecompulsive disorder, right? So how do you compensate for OCD? Well, you make a lot of money.
But not only do you make a lot of money, but you don't spend it. Because that wealth now is an indicator to you and to others that you are truly one of the elect, that you are saved by God, that you were chosen by God to go to heaven. And that's the birth of capitalism. Okay? Does that make sense?
All right. It was not technologydriven because the technology at that time was everywhere. But it was only in Europe did you have industrial capitalism. It was because of the Protestant faith. That's what drove it.
like making so many wealth can be a promise to God. Okay. Um so you're generating this wealth not to appease God but to impeach your anxiety. Do you understand this? You won't give money to this to God because God doesn't need your money.
Okay. But having this money is confirmation to yourself that you will go to heaven because this money can only be made because of your faith in God. Do you understand? Okay. How do you know you believe in God?
because you worked hard and God made you wealthy and that's the logic driving capitalism. So Markx missed this. Okay. So um so let's summarize and say look Marx made three fund fundamental mistakes. The first is people care about religion not economics.
Okay it's religion that drives human history not economics. That's the first mistake he made. Second mistake that he made is people care about God, not heaven. Okay? In other words, we're going to heaven not because we think it's a fivestar hotel with like lots and lots of like I don't know like lobsters and steaks and all you eat buffets.
That's not the reason we're going to heaven. We're going to heaven to be with God because God represents eternal truth, eternal salvation. We want to be with God. Okay. The third is people care about status not class.
So in other words um throughout most of human history we didn't have a concept of money. So for example the Vikings um when they went off to steal they stole lots of gold right but the but when they got back to the village they would host hold a big feast for everyone and they would waste all this money. You understand? Because the point because you there there's absolutely no point in having money. You couldn't spend it.
If you died, you couldn't keep it. So So you you made money. You generate wealth in order to raise your status within the community. Okay? And that's why you wore gold because the gold signify that you're of high status within the community.
All right? So throughout most of of human history and still even today, we seek status, not class. The class the concept of class is created because of industrial capitalism, because of the free market. Okay, because now people were mobile. Okay, but before it was about status.
Okay, and so what this means is this. Because Marx interpreted history incorrectly and he didn't really understand human psychology. What he could not predict is when we did achieve communism it would be it would become bureaucratic hierarchies with core of personalities include in the Soviet Union you had Stalin right it was in charge of a bureaucracy and in China you had Maon who had who was in charge of bureaucracy. North Korea the same same situation. Why?
Why? Because of these three factors, right? Ma Stalin all understood that people want a religion. They want to be they want to feel close to God. So they made themselves God.
Okay? And people want status. And that's why it's important to have a bureaucracy. So that's why colon communism became the way it became in the 20th century. All right.
Okay. So does this make sense? All right. Great. All right.
So the So even though the Mark's philosophy is very appealing, it's very clear, it's very direct, it's very sexy, he got he got the history wrong and and and and because he got the history wrong, the consequences were huge. Okay? Because um communism created a lot of wars and it led to a lot of disasters like famines and stuff. Okay, any questions before I move on? some of the faults of emp China and so okay yeah so that's a really good question Um and so the question is the role of religion should be obvious to people, right?
Why do they believe in economics? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um that's a great question.
And you know what? I don't have an answer, but I think a clue is this. Capitalism and communism are the same religion. Okay? So as capitalism grows, it reinforces communism.
As communism grows, it reinforces capitalism. Why? Because both believe that economics, materialism is the underlying reality. Okay? Religion doesn't matter.
So, capitalism spreads by making everyone uniform, by turning everyone into an economic animal, right? Because today, we don't ask you to believe in God. We ask you to go buy things. Does that does that make sense? Communism is the same way.
Communism believes that as long as there's equality, as long there's no property, everyone will be happy. So, it's ironic that these two ideas, capitalism and communism, even though they were mortal enemies in the 20th century, the underlying basis of the religion is the same. And as they develop, they reinforce each other. Okay, that does that make sense? All right.
So, but that that that's a great question, right? So we instantly understand that religion is more important than economics. But because capitalism and communism were able to spread so fast, we've been brainwashed into thinking that only economics matters. Okay? So for example, when you read the newspaper, it's always what's the GDP this year?
What's the employment rate this year? What's the inflation rate this year? What's the price of eggs this year? It's never how do people feel spiritually? How how are how how are people religiously?
Okay, it's never about your psychology. Never it's never about your spirituality. It's always about how much money do you have? Okay. So so communism and capitalism together conquer the world.
Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Great. Any more questions before I move on?
But why this kind of is fit for China or not? Okay, this is a great question. So Markx himself um believed the revolution will happen in Germany first because Germany had the most advanced proletariat. Um but it never happened in Germany. It didn't happen in France.
It didn't happen in Britain. It happened in China and the and Russia. And in fact, if Markx were alive today, he would be appalled by the fact that happened in Russia and China because it wasn't supposed to happen in Russia and China. You needed a proletariat in order for the revolution to happen. But Russia and China were peasant nations, right?
So what had happened in um uh Russia and China, okay, the main reason is this. Um and we'll go more into this next week. Okay, the main reason is this. Because a communist revolution was not a communist revolution. It was a peasant revolution with the veneer of communism.
So communism was the ideology, the religion that they practiced, but it was essentially a peasant rebellion that's no different from previous peasant rebellions in Chinese history. Okay. Does that make sense? All right. But but I'll explain this later on.
All right. Great. But great question. And any more questions be before I move on? Great.
All right. So what but was this clear to you this history? Okay. All right. Good.
And it's very important because um it really helps you understand the world we live in today because even though uh Marx's theory of history is wrong, his understanding of capitalism is is perfect. Okay. Uh and it it really helps you think about why things are happening the way they are today. Especially the constellation of wealth. All right.
Let's do the history. Okay. All right. So um okay we did Kant and Hegel um on Tuesday we're doing Markx today next Tuesday we do Freud okay why are we doing these four thinkers because you're the ones each of them who created intellectual revolution that fundamentally changed the way we see ourselves and society okay so remember Kant made us subjective okay he taught us that the world does not exist is outside us. Hegel taught us that there's a gist that uh compels us into okay we we are just a manifestation of this guys.
Okay. But the gist is everything. Markx teaches teaches us it's class struggle that's the underlying force of history. Okay. And what he also believes is the class struggle can only end in communism.
Why? Because that is the will of God. because God manifests itself in our history. All right. So Markx is really building on top of Hegel.
What what we will learn next Tuesday is Freud. Okay. So and Freud is going to work on all three to build a new theory of the world. And the theory is um amazing because what he does is um he takes all these theories and teaches us that we are our own universe. effing that happens is because of our memories and our psychology.
Okay, but that's next Tuesday. Um, but just to give you a heads up. All right, so um the entire lecture is about why was Markx wrong. Okay. And as explained the marks I mean he was like a prophet, right?
Um he comes from a Jewish family. He himself was an atheist but he came from a long line of Jewish Jewish rabbis. And when I say that, you're like, "Oh, okay, that doesn't sound that impressive." But it was basically the equivalent of saying he came from 10 generations of Harvard professors. That's really impressive, right? So, I mean, uh, he was a genius.
His entire family were geniuses. Remember, the Jews are very intellectual people. They were the people of the book. And the rabbis are the most intellectual members of the community. They're the leaders of the community.
So, Markx comes more ex he's basically an aristocrat. Okay. Um, so he's he's almost like a prophet. I mean he is a prophet he's a poet prophet who's preaching of a new world to come and he's very uh certain he's very clear and he's very optimistic and that's his appeal okay but I explained that's al that was also his downfall he was too simple in his understanding of human history all right so um industrial capitalism is coming to Europe and it makes everyone miserable uh it's it's it's destroying society because it's taking all these people from the villages and transporting into the cities without adequate housing, without adequate health care, uh um work safety. The they're they're in these slums.
They don't have access to clean water. A lot of them are dying. Um their children are being forced to work um from age five or six. It's all polluted. Okay?
So, people are living in absolute misery. Okay? Especially children. And this is causing a lot of anger. What really does it is in the 1840s there's a massive potato famine all across Europe.
Okay, so remember um in the 16th century the Europeans, the Spanish discovered the new world and they brought back the potato. Why is that important? Because a potato will allow Europe to grow its population very very fast in order to uh feed its economic needs. The problem though is when you rely on a single crop, the potato, it's prone to disease. Okay.
So the potato because of it lack of diversity um it it it created a famine throughout uh Europe. Tens of millions of people died in this famine and so a lot of them uh immigrated over to the new world America and South America. Okay. Uh the worst hit part of Europe of course was Ireland. So as you can see only Dublin ma ma managed to maintain or increase its population.
Everywhere else saw a massive decrease in its population. The red represents a population decrease of 30% or more in the span of a few years. Okay. From 1841 to 1851, 10 years. Okay.
So this was a massive traumatic event in Europe and this led to um sorry this led to massive uprisings throughout Europe. Okay. And this is what inspired Markx and angles to write the communist manifesto because they believed a new order was coming and we have to prepare for it. Okay. Now what will happen is the 1848 revolutions are calling for three things.
They're calling for nationalism nation states based on France. They're calling for liberalism more political rights and socialism more worker rights. And it's all happening throughout Europe. But and so Markx and angles is convinced paradise is coming but ultimately the authorities crack down but marks and angles are still convinced paradise is coming at any point. Okay.
So they dedicate their entire lives to um um imagining this new world. The communist manifesto was published in 1848 um in in in anticipation of this polit victory over the capitalist class. Okay. And it is an amazing document. It's beautifully written.
I I I don't think they get enough credit for how wonderful this is written. Okay. But but but let's read the beginning, right? A spectre is haunting Europe. The spectre of communism.
So the spectre is important because remember it's the gist, right? Hegel said that the underlying force of the world is the gist. And what they're saying is the gist is communism. Communism is the future. It is what will happen.
Okay. All the powers of old Europe have entered into into a holy alliance to exercise inspector Pope Ensar. Okay. So all the authorities of the world are afraid of this guys. But this guys is God.
So it will triumph eventually. Okay. Um let's read the end. To this end, communists of various nationalities have assembled in London and sketched the following manifesto to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish, and Danish languages. This is really important because this is the one of the first international revolutions.
It's going to sweep all around the world. Okay, replace capitalism. Capitalism is only the building block for communism. Okay. Um, the communist manifesto, it is powerful.
Uh it's wonderfully written. It's poetry. And I think that over the next few years as the cap economic crisis worsens around the world, people are going to refer back to the communist manifesto. Okay. But this is really the best part of communist manifesto where Marx and Angles diagnose the problems of capitalism.
Okay. The bourgeozi, the capitalist class, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal patriarchal ideic relations. It has pitously torn a shunder the mildly feudal ties that bound men to his natural superiors and has left remaining no other nexus between men and men than naked self-interest than callous self cash payment. Okay. So remember capitalism it is an all expanding all encompassing allconsuming alienating force and it's destroying the world.
But for marks and angles this is good because it will lead to the rise of communism right this is part of the thesis antithesis symphysis part of history. Um the so the bor are engaged in uh imperialism. It's destroying all that we've known before to create a new man, an e economic man only based on self-interest. It's even destroying the family. Okay?
So, you no longer see yourself as a son or a father as a husband. You see yourself as a man who makes $10,000 a year or $50,000 a year and is able to buy, I don't know, a car or whatever. Okay? So, that's the power of capitalism. But again for Marx angles this is good because now it will lead to communism where this new consciousness will transform into a class solidarity.
Okay this makes sense right? Okay so Markx's most famous work is capital and he spent decades running writing this. The problem with Markx is that he's a brilliant man. He's he's one of the most brilliant men who ever lived but he's extremely undisiplined. He procrastinates all the time.
So he actually never finished this book in his life. It's Frederick Engles who um who was his best friend, his collaborator, but Frederick Engles was a very disciplined individual. So it's Frederick Engles who put this book together. Okay. All right.
All right. So as I mentioned, what's really important for us to understand is that Markx he's a prophet. He doesn't think of himself as a prophet. He doesn't know he's a prophet, but he's really a prophet. And as such, what he's really doing is he's just building on top of Christianity.
Okay? He's just extending the logic of Christianity, right? So let let's see how let's see what he does. Christianity is a passive religion. You don't really have to do anything.
Just don't commit any sins and then you go to heaven. Okay? But for Markx, what's important is that we participate in the revolution. That we are responsible for our lives. Okay.
Second difference is Christianity argues that only a few can go to heaven. You they argue about who will go to heaven but only a few okay only a minority of the people. Okay that's why you have he hell purgatory and heaven three different places but for marks he believes that work is paradise can be achieved for everyone. Okay. Um and the third difference is Christianity offers a heaven with God.
Markx offers a utopia about God. The problem is this. No one wants utopia about God. Okay, we we discussed this where if heaven was just a five-star hotel where you can eat all the best food in the world, no one would want to go. People are going to heaven for God.
Okay, and this is why uh Mars cannot anticipate the rise of people like Stalin and Madon. Okay. Um this is a letter that Markx wrote in his early years and it is probably in my opinion his best piece of writing because it really shows you his thinking his optimism his idealism. Okay. So so let's read it together.
Supposing that we have produced in human manner in this production each of us would have doubly affirmed himself and his fellow man. I would objectify in my production my individuality and its peculiarity and would thus have enjoyed in my activity an individual expression of my life and would have had also had and look at the object the individual pleasure of realizing that my personality was objective. Okay, does that make sense? So you're creating something. This thing is the perfect expression of your individuality, of your personality, of your creativity.
And then you share with other people and they enjoy it. And that and and because they enjoy it, that process affirms your individuality and your creativity, your validation basically. Okay. Right. I would have been for you the mediator between you and the species and thus have been felt by you and acknowledged as a completion of your own essence and a necessary part of yourself and I would then thereby have realized that I was confirmed both in your thought and in your love.
Okay. So when I cook a meal and you enjoy the meal um you're not only affirming my individuality but you're affirming my connection to all of humanity. Okay? Because you're telling me that I contribute positively to the species. Right.
Um the problem is this pre presupposing private property my individuality is so far ex externalized that I hate my activity. It is a torment to me and only the appearance of an activity and thus also merely a force activity that is laid upon me through an external arbitrary need not an inner and necessary one. Okay. So this is complicated but all all he's saying is this. I cook you a meal.
I spent days preparing this meal. Okay. I put it's a labor of love. I cook the best food in the world. Okay, I give it to you.
You have you are blown away. You are you you're in love, okay, with this food. And then you're like, here's $1,000, right? That's disgusting, right? All you have to do is say thank you, but then say you give me $1,000.
And you think, wow, I'm giving you $1,000. That's a lot of money, man. I pay you know I don't pay this much at a restaurant. Okay. So that's what Markx is saying.
The moment you put money into the equation, it destroys all human relations, right? So he's talking about extrinsic motivation whereas versus intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic intrinsic motivation is what makes us fundamentally human. Extrinsic motivation is what makes us slaves. Okay.
So that's what Markx is saying. Capitalism makes us slaves because it der deprivives us of our humanity. Okay. That's what money does. So, so does this make sense to you?
Yeah. Great. All right. So, again, um let's just summarize what the failings of capitalism are. Okay.
Uh it creates inequality, it exploits, and it alienates, right? So, for Markx and Engles, the antithesis will be class solidarity and this will lead to a classist workers paradise. Okay? That's the very logic of Marxism. Um so again marks what he will do is he will invert Hegel right so for Hegel it's the ideas that come first then this will lead to the material reality for Markx it's the material reality that gives rise to ideas okay what what so the ideas is called the superstructure the base uh the base is the economics okay so this is a very important idea of um Markx so Marx diagnoses the problems of capitalism really really Well, okay.
And he offers solutions. And what's really important is one reason why communism has failed is capitalism has actually adopted a lot of these policy changes. Okay? Including universal child education, including uh the univers universal right to work, including ab abolition of child factory labor. Okay?
So in many ways communism has won out and Marx didn't really predict this because he thought that capitalists are idiots. Capitalist all they care about is money. So there's like servants to capital. They're not really in control. And if you're a capitalist and you have any empathy for the working class, guess what?
You're bought out or you're pushed out of the capitalist class. Okay? So it's only the worst people who can thrive within the capitalist system. But because communism was such a huge threat to the ruling elite, they had no choice to make compromises. Okay?
And that's why after World War II, most countries in the world became socialists even though in name they were still capitalists. Okay. So let's we summarize and this is really important for us. Okay. But what are the four things Markx got wrong?
Okay. The first thing is Markx believed that history is a linear progress. It's it's a straight line of in ineability of progress but that's not true. Okay, history repeats itself. That's the first issue.
Second issue is um Mark's belief in the inability of history but there's always randomness built into history. Okay, things happen and we don't expect these things to happen. Third is Markx believe class struggle with everything but people care actually a lot more about religion than they care about economics. All right. And you know, this is a huge issue in America because with the rest of Donald Trump, the Democratic Party, they don't know what to do about this because they're like, you know, Trump says that he will lower the price of eggs, but he hasn't lowered the price of eggs.
So, like, stop voting for him. And what the Democrats don't understand is people want to believe in God. People want a leader. People want a religion. And Trump for all his feelings he understands that and gives people what they really want which is emotional solidarity.
Okay. A belief in a better world. Last thing Marx believe a vanguard need to lead the politariat into a into a paradise. Okay. So Marx really believed that you need an elite of intellectuals, scientists, technocrats to create the perfect society.
But then the question then is why would they give power? Right? Once they had once they have this power, why do they give it up? And the answer is they wouldn't give it up. Okay?
And that's why communism ultimately fails in the Soviet Union and in China. Okay? All right. This makes sense, right? All right.
So, so, so, so let's um go into specifics. Um, in this class, what you learn is it's not class struggle by itself that causes discontent. It's three other things. Okay. The first is elite over overp production.
So a really important principle is history is not fought over between the poor and the rich. It's fought over between the very rich and the not so rich. Okay? The upper nobility and the lower nobility. Right?
Because Marx came from Jewish aristocracy. Angles his father was a very wealthy capitalist. Okay? These are people with a lot and they wanted more. Does that make sense?
So when you have too many people seeking too much wealth and status, it creates conflict. Okay, that's the first thing. Second thing is the idea of rat utopia where people live too long. They live too long, they refuse to give up power, they refuse to innovate, they refuse to seed status to the young. Okay.
The third is the idea of financialization as we discussed um um Thomas Pity and Carol quickly provide this idea where over time to make to make more money all capitalists will do is force everyone into more debt. Okay. And these are the three factors that cause society to um ultimately destabilize. Right? Clear?
Great. All right. So, let's look at three examples. All right. You look at Soviet Union, you look at um China, you look at France.
How was it possible for the Soviet Union to defeat Germany? And Germany was at that time the most advanced military in the world, right? How did China the Chinese economy boom after the cultural revolution? And how did Napoleonic France defeat all of Europe? Okay, so what we need to understand is these were not communist revolutions.
Okay, these were just revolutions that destroyed the old elite. And all this is saying is this people are playing a game in society. Over time you have a few winners who monopolize this game and this causes discontent. What revolutions do is they reset the game and that creates a lot of energy, right? Right?
Because people now want to work hard to win the game. Because of this energy, they're able to defeat their opponents. The same thing with the cultural revolution where the cultural revolution removed the old elite, the bureaucrats. So in the 1980s when trying to open up, you have these young people with entrepreneurial drive to start companies. But without the culture revolution, this entrepreneur entrepreneurial drive could not have succeeded.
Okay? Does that make sense? All right. All right. Um this is really complicated.
Okay. But for marks the only the what gives rise to industrial capitalism and the boujo is just technology and the progress of history. But as we learn in this class it's actually much more complicated than that. Okay. So this is really important.
Okay. What what what we're going to do is we're going to review what we learned previously and put them together to explain what gave roles what gave rise to industrial capitalism. First thing is the monophysic revolution. Okay. So remember before societies were paganistic or polytheistic then with Constantine um God became the Holy Trinity.
Okay. The Holy Trinity is the weirdest idea in human history. The Holy Trinity is this God is nothing and everything. Okay? And what this means is God is both real and not real.
God is a symbol and reality itself. And because of this idea, people are now forced to think abstractly about the world. And it gives rise to money, nation state and science. Okay. People are now forced to think abstractly about the world.
Whereas people were were before could think very concretely about the world. Okay. Does that make sense? All right. Sec.
Second thing is gunpowder revolution where nation states countries were forced to compete against each other which led to more industry more population growth and more centralization and this paves the way for the borine now. Okay? Because now you need the bor to produce industry. Okay. And the third is the pro reformation.
We discussed this, right? Where you now have anxiety created by this new religion. They needed to uh force themselves to believe they are the elect. Okay. And then the age of exploration where the old world Europe could go and create new markets and steal new steal gold and bring the potato corn and tomato back into Europe which allows for population growth.
Okay. Okay. So in other words, history is a very complicated process with a lot of randomness built in. And this is something that Markx didn't really understand. Right?
All right. So to summarize, what people want is status, not class. Okay? People want to feel distinguished, feel superior, feel uh that they've achieved a great deal. The money doesn't really matter.
The money is just a symbol of this. Okay? People want religion, not economics. People want God, not heaven. Okay?
And and the proof again is what happens um when communism wins. Okay? So both the Soviet Union and China became theocracies with coder personalities. Okay? They were not communist societies.
They were theocracies. They were religious. They were no different in many ways than Catholic Europe during the m during the middle ages. Okay? Um, Soviet Union fell apart because the party elite no longer believed in the system and chose to monetize their status in power.
Okay. And then the third example is North Korea has a fertility rate of 1.79 while South Korea South Korea has a fertility rate of 0.78. Okay. So North Korea it is a theocratic society. South Korea is a capitalistic society.
So what do you mean by the code of oh code of personality is you believe this person is the manifestation of God all your hope all your emotions are invested in this one person right so um so Stalin right his pictures were everywhere and in school you learn about how great he was you worshiped him he was god to you but same thing with China during the mong era okay does that make sense so we call this a call of personality okay like a new religion based on one person. All right. Um, so North Korea, which is poorer than South Korea, has more children, right? Why? Well, because people in North Korea, sorry, in South Korea are miserable.
They have money, but they don't have religion. They don't have a purpose. They don't have any meaning. It's all competition. Okay?
So, this is like capitalism run a mock. Um then you go to North Korea and he's president. Okay, he's dead but he's still president. Why? Because he's divine.
He's God. He is the forever present. Okay. Kim Ilsun. Okay.
Right. Um and I mean like I hate to say this, but if you go to North Korea, they're probably happier than they are in South Korea. Okay. And um the other thing about North Korea is they're not fighting Ukraine. So these are people who are willing to die for what they believe in.
So I would say if if I had to bet which nation um had the best future, I would bet North Korea over South Korea. Okay. Um let's talk about um the vanguard idea. So for Markx a really important idea is you need an intellectual lead to lead the politarian into paradise and and this is this is a name named a man named Macau Buchanan. Okay Buchanan um and he was an anarchist.
He was he was he was not a communist he was an anarchist. The difference is this they both believe in the same thing Marx and Buchanan but Marx said you need a vanguard whereas Buchanan said no a vanguard would destroy everything. Okay, it has to be spontaneous. It has to be from the people. Okay.
Um, Buchanan is also lower nobility. His father was a uh Russian aristocrat. Uh, and Marx and Buchanan, they were colleagues, but they hated each other. Right. All right.
Um, so Buchanan believes a lot of things that Marx believes, right? The freedom of every other individual does not limit my own as the individualist claim. On the contrary, it is confirmation, realization and human dignity of all persons to see and feel my freedom confirmed, sanctioned and balancely expanded by universal agreement is happiness. It is human paradise on earth. So for freedom to be fully achieved, everyone must be free.
Everyone must be equal. Otherwise um no one can be truly free. All right. So um Buchanan will explain why a bureaucratic elite will destroy communism. All right.
So this is a very important passage from Buchanan. Available to everyone will be a general scientific education especially the learning of a scientific method. The habit of correct thinking the ability to generalize from facts and make more or less correct deductions. But of encyclopic minds and advanced sociologists there will be very few. It would be sad for mankind if at any time theoretic speculation became the only source of guidance for society.
If science alone were in charge of all social administration, life would wither and human society would turn into a voiceless and survile herd. The domination of life by science can have no other result than the brutalization of mankind. Okay, this is a very important passage. All this saying is this. Before we were intellectuals, we were curious about the world.
Now we are technocrats. We're engineers. We're taught a very specific skill and we're taught to see the world in a very specific way. Okay? And we're run by technocrats and this has led to the brutalization of mankind because it has led to the alienation of mankind, right?
We are now just parts of a machine. So um an example of course is AI. So these people in charge now want to make AI the dominant religion of the world. They want to they want to make humans slave to AI. Okay?
And that's what Bkan is warning against. Anytime you let a bureaucratic elite take over, they will think of ways of how to reinforce the power for technology. And this has led to the rise of AI. Okay. Does it make sense?
Okay. And this is describing China very well, right? The bureaucrats in charge, they are they have no imagination. They have no empathy. All they care about is okay, are we checking checking off the boxes?
Do you have enough food to eat? Right? Do you have a job? Well, if you have a house, if you have a job, you have health insurance. Why are you complaining?
Right? So, that's what what Buchanan is saying. All right. Um, the last thing I want to talk about is this, and you brought this up earlier, okay? It's a great question.
Is the question we're looking at today is why is China so similar to America? Right? America is a capitalist nation. China is a communist nation. But if you talk to Chinese people today, they all want to go to America to study and possibly even to live.
Chinese want to become American. So in many ways, America has conquered China. And so why is that the case? And the answer, and I mentioned this before, is it's because communism and capitalism reinforce each other. They share a similar ideology.
They share a similar background. Okay? They're all actually branch of Christianity really if you think about it. Okay, they should and they have a similar worldview, right? A belief in progress, a belief in class struggle, a belief that you need a technocratic elite to run the world.
All right? So, in other words, communism in China paved the way for American capitalism. And that's why today you have this going on. Okay? what China is doing to children is unconscionable, right?
Because we make kids sit in school for like 10 hours a day. They have no childhood. They have no freedom. They have no happiness. Um most of these kids will um develop depression by age 14, right?
the ma vast vast majority there last week there was a there's a huge news that a nine-year-old kid in Beijing killed himself nine years old. Yeah. Jumped off a building. 9 years old. Um that's that's incredible because my oldest son, he's like seven, turning eight.
Okay. I can't I mean I mean like how miserable does did he have to be to want to kill himself, right? Even if the kid succeeds and goes to like Baya or Chinua, he'll develop depression because he'll never achieve what he wants in life. Okay? So, all that's happening is we're forcing our kids into depression, into suicide.
Why? Because this has become an evil religion almost, right? the belief that through education you can make more money and even though everyone else will probably develop suic will probably probably develop suicide of depression in the process you won't. Okay, that that that I'm betting you won't. Okay, it's it's it's it's insane.
I mean what what what's happening uh in education today it it it's just unconscionable and evil what we're doing to our children in China, right? And um why we're doing this is because in China we've combined communism and capitalism to create the worst possible society. Okay. All right. All right.
So, um yeah. Any questions? I have a question to the previous like the uh I'm talking about like the North Korea if they really like have such kind of power even somehow Nazis also have well they are still Uh okay. So why is North Korea so poor? Okay.
Um so that's part of the capitalist brainwashing where you measure the su success success of society based on its wealth. Okay. But wealth is really um just the willingness to exploit your resources. Okay. and also your capacity to engage in global trade.
So, first of all, North Korea is heavily sanctioned. They're not allowed to trade with the world. Okay, that's the first problem. Um, second problem is um they focus on their religion is called self-reliance. They want to be independent of the world.
Okay. So, they purp purposely choose not to engage in the world in order to maintain the unity of their people. Okay? So that's why we call them the hermit kingdom. For for them what's important is to maintain their independence and sovereignty from from from the world and but that does not mean people are not happy where they are.
Okay. I would argue that even though China was a lot poor during the cult revolution, people were a lot happier during the cult revolution than they are today. Maybe not maybe not not us, okay, but for most ordinary Chinese, they were a lot happier during the cult revolution. um than they are today because for them life was simple and clear and certain. Today you have globalization, you have the internet, you have noise, you have you it's very confusing for people, right?
And one piece of evidence is young people don't want to have any children today. Whereas in the cultural revolution, people didn't want to have children because they felt that regardless of poverty, people were going into a certain life. They had health care. They had a job guarantee for them. They had a sense of community.
There was solidarity going on. Okay. So, um that really is the trick of capitalism to make everyone think the same way, which is like money is everything. Okay. Does does that make sense?
Yeah. Great. Any more questions? These are great questions, by the way. So, so so thank you for for for asking them.
Markxelves a bit of idealistic. Yeah. Um so was Markx too idealistic? Um Markx didn't think it was idealistic. He thought it was extremely realistic.
Why? Because he was studying all this history. who was saying all this economics and he was coming up with a scientific understanding of the world. Mark saw himself as a scientist first and foremost. He saw himself as unveiling the truth to people.
He was do you understand for him it was science. It was certain. It was it had to happen. Okay. Um but the thing about Marx is this.
Marx is also a person that if you if you were to like jump forward today and he saw the world created by communism, capitalism, he would be utterly disgusted. He wouldn't be like, "Oh, wow. I'm famous now. I, you know, I'm the most famous person, one most famous person in the world. I'm like Jesus." Okay?
He He wouldn't be like that. He'd be like, "What have we done to humanity? This is far worse than the industrial revolution. what's happening where everyone now is a is a slave as a consumer right in your mind all that matters is I go to school I make a lot of money and I buy a lot of things that's it and this would have been unimaginable to Markx and anyone actually 100 years ago okay it's it's it's it's a fact that humanity has chosen to enslave themselves for like no particular good reason. Okay.
And so the question then we're looking at next class is why this happened. And what I'll show you next class is Simeon Freud had a lot to do with this. Psychology had a lot to do with this because before we were focused on the collective consciousness, right? The world as it is, the community. But with coming through psychology, we now shift our focus to ourselves.
So we come to believe that for our own eternal struggle we can be happy. Others don't matter. We ourselves if we're happy we're good. And what Buchanan and Marks have taught us is if if everyone is unhappy, you must be unhappy as well. It's only if people are free and happy together can they be free and happy by themselves.
Okay? And that's the thing that we've forgotten and that's what's led to the world we live in today. Okay? But that's something that we'll discuss next class. Okay, any more questions?