• Question: do you believe that Marx would’ve rolled over in his grave knowing what happened to his socialist revolution, and what the proletariat has come to today with the rise in inequality?

    Asked by anon-215357 to Laura, Kathryn, Ian, Chris, Bogdana, Alex on 17 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Bogdana Huma

      Bogdana Huma answered on 17 Jun 2019:

      I believe Marx, if he was aware of historical events passed his death, would be first and foremost ashamed of and outraged by how his ideas have been misused to justify and ground communism across Eastern Europe. There is research that suggests that social inequality has decreased over time (albeit slowly!!!!) but, at the same time, due to globalisation and connectivity through technology and media, inequalities across the world have become more visible. So we are more aware of the problems than previous generations, but actually things are slowly improving. We need to keep trying to accelerate the decrease in global inequality, but also learn from past mistakes, such as the failure of communism to bring about social equality.

    • Photo: Ian Cookson

      Ian Cookson answered on 17 Jun 2019:

      I don’t really know enough about Marx to answer that question.

    • Photo: Laura Fisk

      Laura Fisk answered on 17 Jun 2019:

      I think he’d be disappointed – and I imagine he would want to problem solve, and try to make his theories work in new contexts. It is really interesting to think how different the world is now from when he wrote his book Das Kapital, and to consider what made the different efforts to implement his theories more or less effective in different contexts. I think we can definitely see that the story of communism shows how the translation of theory into practice is a complex undertaking – and it doesn’t always go to plan.
                 ‎‏‪‫‬‭‮ 
      This probably sounds a bit weird, but that’s why I love being a clinical psychologist – it’s all about applying theory to practice (real life people’s lives). Sitting in an office or laboratory coming up with ideas is all very well, but it’s no use unless they actually work in real life. That’s the stuff I find the most interesting 🙂

    • Photo: Alex Lloyd

      Alex Lloyd answered on 18 Jun 2019:

      I think Marx’s views would have developed if he had seen the changes that have happened since his era. The working environment is very different to the industries he was used to so I would be interested to see how his ideas changed to fit this new landscape (if they changed at all!).

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