Idealistic Politics Essay

The history of each hitherto existing night club is the history of tell struggles, said Karl Marx, who is considered to be whizz of the worlds most seminal thinkers. Marx categorized these classes in two broad categories the middle class versus the proletariats, the upper class opposed to the lower class and the caste that have access to the factors of production against everybody else who argon compelled to sell their labor. In governmental terms the worldly-minded were the committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie (Marx, 20) and in order to reduce any friction, tension or resistance towards their supremacy they then laid down a set of ideals and values for either classes and citizens. The ultimate goal of having a mo nononous set of principles was to disintegrate existing ideals and values by instigating the proletariats to fully accept the bourgeois set of principles by susp culminationing their own. History, however, has just to see such an outcom e where the bourgeois triumph in instigating such circumstances successfully.What occurs in such circumstances instead is a conflict callable to inconsistency that occurs betwixt the dogmas of both classes whereby the reality based ideals of the proletariats clashes with the idealistic values of the bourgeoisie. These conflicts in rung affect the political ideologies and bodily functions since the politics is the arena where the battle of principles occurs, generally due to two reasons. The first being that these conflicts will non surface in the first place except in the political arena due to the austere temper and secondly the outcomes will not be accepted unless at a level were they are made public and irreversible. Evidence of these conflicts exists in our texts and films, however in differing contexts.In Antigone, Creon represents the bourgeoisie and Antigone the proletariats in A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences the humanities and sciences were the debase vales instigated by the intellectuals whilst the fierce being was the unlearned and nave proletariat, and finally in Marxs Communist Manifesto where the distinctions are extremely clear among the two classes. In the course of my penning I wish to examine the strength and weakness of each of these ideal societies and their implications to political ideology and action.The values of Karl Marxs idealist communist society whitethorn be summed up in the single sentence Abolition of private property (Marx, 34). He believed that once private ownership was abolished people would change, and this would finally end the history of all class struggles. Communism to Marx was an extension or a purer form of socialism, whereby the people owned everything and everybody worked for the system, hence no form of ain interests was vested in the system. This assumption was made by placing a gamble on human behavior, probably the most unpredictable factor to place any form of bet on. Marx was assuming that among a whole class of people no interests were separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole (Marx, 33). The society that Marx visualized was one where all the citizens desired only the interests of the society by not desiring to satisfy their personal interests.History, however, does not have a basis for pure communism where a group of people have ceased to exist without any possessions and have deceased only by the idea the closest analogy one could give would be of hunter-gatherer societies. These societies, however, existed during the prehistorical times where human attitudes and behaviours were not being invariably reshaped by the changing economic systems in which people find themselves nowadays, which Marx himself mentions as there being no such thing as fixed human nature. Therefore, communism could never work because it goes against human nature. People are subjectively more competitive than cooperative. Moreover, the misfortune for re volution to occur where the bourgeoisie were to come down in their social status to the level of the proletariats and the proletariats rise to eminence of the bourgeoisies could only occur if human nature were to be dismantled, self memories be wiped out and in other words for the revolution to occur successfully in demand to be self induced.Marx in an indirect manner implies how ones self worth has decreased with the current system when he discusses the dynamics of wage labour and whether it creates property for the laborer. He states that the system is self-defeating for the laborers, which cannot increase except upon condition of begetting a new supply of wage-laborer for fresh maturation (Marx 34). If we were to refer back to the analogy hunter-gatherer societies the fruits of ones labour were neighboring(a) when an individual hunted his reward was immediate and did not wait for his fruits or live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it (Marx. 35). In s hort mans worth and dignity has been demoralized and every individual has been converted in pay wage laborersand has reducedrelationss to a mere money relations (Marx, 21).Individuals were not bounded by the social status hunter-gatherer since everyone shared and everyone knew their worth. The advantage of this system is that it does not create any room for friction to occur because it does not include the idea of individuals desiring to wish to control the environment or vest any personal interests into the system. This can primarily be attri scarcelyed to the value the system advocates of not wishing to disparateiate people under any circumstances the system does not receipt race, ethnicity and differences of age and sex no longer have any distinctive social validity (Marx, 26), a trait of hunter-gatherer societies, which Marx so dearly desires.These values would in turn affect the political ideologies of a system trying to covert to communism by picking on the one essential co ndition for the existenceof the bourgeois class, the formation and the augmentation of capital the condition for capital is wage labour (Marx, 32). Therefore, the conflicts that would arise would be those that regarding wage labour and its supply the bourgeoisie would advocate any action that would enhance the competition between laborers the key behind keeping a continuous supply of wage labour opposed to the proletariats immediate aim of cutting off this supply and by doing so ensuring its immediate aim of overthrowing the bourgeois supremacy. Any decline in wage labour would menace the bourgeoisies capital by reducing its turnover, hence weakening their foothold in the marketplace in turn inhibiting their ability to constantly revolutionize the instruments of production in order to exist and survive (Marx, 21).The bourgeoisie quest to seek a continuous wage labour would see a shift in their political ideology they would seek to manipulate cities, provinces and other nations that are weak cause them to become dependent on them. The consequence of such political centralization would spark advance to the epidemic of overproduction, whereby the only manner in which the crises can be overcome is by the conquest of new markets, and by the and by the more through exploitation of the old ones (Marx, 25).However, such exploitation of markets can occur only to a certain limit, until other nations impose regulations confiding the system to resort to desperate measures and turmoil, which occurred with China. Chinese products flooded the world market until recently and now they have been rejected entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and do not enjoy the benefits of sinless trade. Therefore, China have used enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces (Marx, 25) to decrease their output, which has lead to a lot of turmoil inside the solid ground with dogmas of the government political stability and international recognition and the working class su bsistence and a better life clashing against each other further demoralise the situation.Like Karl Marx, J.J. Rousseau also painted a picture of ideal society. In his Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences he condemns how societies have succumbed to arts and sciences that have molded our behavior, and taught our passions to speak an artificial language (Rousseau, 6) with the desire to please one another with performances worthy of their mutual approbation (Rousseau, 4). He believed that individuals were imprisoned in the values and ideals of society that the arts and sciences strengthened, whereby everyone followed and nobody dared to be prompted by their inner selves in order not be seen as outcasts, resulting in man losing his individuality.In a nutshell, Rousseau believed that the arts and sciences had tainted origins and they reinforced our crimes by fostering our desire for comfort by transforming individuals into sugar coated pills, whereby jealousy, suspic ion, fear, coldness, reserve, hate and fraud lie constantly concealed under the uniform and deceitful veil of politeness (Rousseau, 7). He in turn pictured a society were he believed man was innately pious was not restrained by societys decorum therefore abandoning the possibilities o the vices that evolve in modern societies are nonexistent. He mum virtue in terms of bravery, courage and strength in other words he saw it in raw armed forces power.The weaknesses in Rousseaus painting of the ideal society are the assumptions that are embedded in the question that he was addressing Whether the restoration of the arts and sciences has had the effect of purifying or corrupting morals? Rousseau has to assume that there has been a revival in the arts as well as assume a relationship between pluck and applied knowledge with morality that being the human behavior and customs a society embraces. Such assumptions lead Rousseau to base his argument on a set of contradictions. He idealized the values of the Persians, Germans and Spartans who had an unusual social structure where there was no study of abstract education, no accumulation of property and military virtues were emphasized. The idealizations of such societies contradicted his resentment for etiquette or what he referred to as the veil of politeness, since there exists no organization whereby more discipline, etiquette or order to our rude but natural morals is required than military organizations.Throughout the discourse the theme of man becoming corrupt once he enters society and losing his individuality because they all act the same under the same circumstances alike (Rousseau, 6) is repeatedly emphasized. This argument in itself is self-defeating because if it is the grouping of people that induces people to conceal themselves and live among uncertainty, Rousseaus ideal society would truly only function for isolated individuals since such a level of purity could not occur in the natural dynamics of human societies. When individuals interact, the views and ideals of others will indeed affect the way the individual will live his life, since it is part of human nature to conform to the rules and regulations of others, which are a collection of ideals and values that compromise the principles of society.For a society to function in harmony there has to be some common ground whereby all the different members of that society must conform to and must sacrifice some of their individual ideals for the betterment of the society. Rousseau argues that man would not have to sacrifice his own ideals if he was not placed in the blasphemies of modern societies since he assumes humans are sincerely good and everyone would approve of the actions of others. This in itself breaks Rousseaus argument since there is exists no yardstick to measure good and even if there were to exist such a measure, differences on which good is appropriate would in turn cause conflicts.The simplicity of the society Rouss eau describes is its initial strength the simpler ones life, the palette on which he is to express his bad perspectives becomes less like the American savageswho live entirely on the products of the chaseand yoke, indeed, cannot be imposed on men who stand in need of nothing (Rousseau,5). In a society where the needs do not exceed the raw material physiological, safety and social needs and are readily satisfied the room for corruption becomes minimal. Therefore, I believe Rousseaus attack on the arts and sciences is not so much on their origins or sources but more so on how it manages to widen our needs to include self-actualization and self-realization needs, which are needs that are satisfied by luxuries and how we appear in relation to the people surrounding us a need where the veil and corruption required to have those needs satisfied.Rousseaus painting of such an ideal society would not require a political system, however if all his assumptions were suspended the political imp lications would be drastic. In politics rarely is something said literally and in a society where the members innately believe that everyone is sincerely good, would not be capable of reading between the lines and would end up in turmoil since other nations would manipulate their naivety. Furthermore, in a society where abstract knowledge such a geometry and economics is not taught the politicians will be incapable of drawing upon actions that will be favour their society, since politics is the evil of all sciences and without a good base in its radical terminology that being the abstract sciences one will be incapable of mastering it and using it to his advantage.Speak from their heartoffend someone.do not plight careIn Antigone the Greek tragedy, morals, egos, and gender issues were the epics around which principles were based upon.Follow one manHarun Al Rashid..Mamluks..they use to be all loyal disgrace class has less say in the political era in order to stop the formation of proletariats which is so important for the revolution to occur.Political laws that shelter private propertyEnhance competitiveness (p.21)Dependence of poor countries on rich (.23)Eradicate opposition immediatelyStrength of prletarits p.28 trade unionsp.32 existence cadaver on capital1) Basecaus they lay down ideals that seem utopian only to them, they forget2) Might have noticed that there are more cons than pros some(prenominal) of our texts paint images of ideal human society. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these imagined societies. How do these imagined ideal societies interact with political ideology and political action.BibliographyMarx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York Bantam, 1992.Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays Antigone, Oedipus The King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. RobertFagles. New York Penguin, 1977.Communism Could Never work Because it goes against human nature. People are naturally more competitive than cooperative. http//www.wsu. edu/brians/hum_303/nature.html