Karl Marx

The modern world as we know it today has been shaped by the writings of two of the most prolific social scientists of the past two centuries, Karl Marx and Max Webber. Both these individuals had similar but at the same time very different ideologies. Marx states that “The history of hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.” By which he implies that history is driven by the struggle between oppressor and oppressed, and in modern times by the struggle between the bourgeois and the proletarians. On the other hand Webber believes that it is ideology that drives history. In this essay I will argue that Marx is correct in most of his predictions but his theology of communism and the prediction of workers eventually rising to replace the system lacks credibility.

Comparing and contrasting Marx and Webber proved to be rather difficult as both these social scientists have very different approaches: Where as Marx is more critical and innovative, Weber is more of an analytical commentator. That is to say that while Marx gives new ideas and criticizes the current capital system; Webber is more objective and non-judgmental in his views and uses a more scientific approach of reasoning his arguments.

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Thus it would be totally unjust if they both got paid the same amount, and would ultimately lead to the world having very few skilled people due to lack of incentive. Take the cold war, the wars in Latin America all of these were fought by the western world in order to overthrow communism in the countries and in order for them to change to capitalist societies. In order to exploit third world labor and recourses, so the elite could maximize their profits whilst laborers in countries like Haiti and Taiwan work absurdly long underpaid hours in sweat shop conditions.

On the basis of free time both believed that free time was minimum, but due to very different reasons. My argument is that Marx is correct in most of his judgments of capitalism but falls short in his prediction that workers will eventually rise to replace the system. I do not agree with the idea of communism for various reasons. On the other hand Marx perceives that religion has nothing to do with it and it is solely because man is greedy.

The differences between these two are that Webber believed that religion led people to capitalism and strive for material gain. ” I agree with what he says here as this is exactly what is happening in the world today, modern society is so consumed by the illusion of material gain to the extent that even family ties have become impersonal. Thus what Marx says of the Bourgeoisie is true, “it creates a world after its own image” This is exactly what is happening and what has happened in the world, the capitalists with aid of globalization is trying to make the whole world a capitalist society. Moreover the modern capitalist society is very well organized especially in the first world, and most of Marx’s ideas such as progressive taxation has been integrated into the capitalist society.

Thirdly I disagree with Marx’s view on the workers rising to replace the system, because, Marx does not take into consideration religious beliefs or nationalism. That is he says that people went to Massachusetts for religious reasons and ended up making capital. ” The super structure is the capitalist ideology according to Marx and he calls it the “false consciousness”.

Approximate Word count = 1004
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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