BLOG #2

BLOG #2

“The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.”

           In Chapter 1 of the Manifesto of the Communist Party designed by Marx and Engels we are clearly exposed to a reality that defines the political economy of the world today. In the quote they refer to that period as modern bourgeois but let’s remember that this document is from 1848 and its impact and visionary attitude towards class struggle today are probably even more evident than it was back then. The antagonism of classes, and specifically this struggle between the rich and the poor is a direct effect of the acceleration of industries and the view that opening to the world economy under any circumstance is mutually beneficial for the national and international actors.

This political rationality discussed in the lecture in which the intentions of these individual actors is always for the benefit of all and not its self-interest has come to be proven a fallacy of the neoliberal capitalist model. Adam Smith himself spoke openly about the constant need for self-interest as an opportunity to expand profit but the reality of it is that the benefits of such self-interest never are attainable the proletariat but are held closely in the high spheres of power. The growth of industry and the constant need for greater and faster means of goods and services only increases the need for greater competition subsequent abusive practices. These are the very things that Marx was foreshadowing and basically define the our current state of affairs.   

Morgenthau expresses such ideal in his approach of political realism by defining the intentions and interests of individuals and the state itself as an evil actor seeking only the proliferation and maintenance of its own power and dominance. The global economy that is seemed as common sense today basically sees globalization as a tool of expanding profit interest and political and sociocultural influence and whoever does not adhere to such model is consumed by its own isolationism and/or international pressure. Indeed, the characteristics of the classes of this century closely define the very clash that Marx and Engels feared as a consequence of the competitive and open global economy in which the most suited and powerful actor survived and subsequently enjoyed the benefits of the system.