In the 1800’s, as John Locke and other optimistic philosophers
were gaining popularity and as America
was growing and bursting with hopefulness and optimism, along came a German philosopher named
Immanuel Kant. Kant believed that people
were stupid and could NOT be trusted to self-rule. He believed that in order
for society to flourish, people needed to be told what to do, they needed to be
ruled. He believed people were born basically evil (there’s that pessimism
again).
Karl Marx, another German philosopher came along shortly
after Kant.
Marx is recognized for his book “The Communist Manifesto”
which was published in 1848. He hated religion and individualism, and appealed
to the envious, the weak, the disillusioned, turning people against each other
by bringing back the idea (broached by Plato and then Thomas More) that everyone
should be treated the same. Though that’s what he said he believed, his actions said otherwise: Marx lived off the
money of Friedrich Engels, who came from a wealthy family that owned cotton
factories and history shows, treated his employees very poorly. Marx had 7
children. Only 3 of those children lived to be adults; the other 4 died young
from the effects of living in poverty and off of handouts from Engels. Though
he had never worked, Marx concluded that a working man was selling his soul to
his boss. Karl Marx lived off the toil of factory workers while bemoaning their
fate and 'thinking' of how it ought to be. Marx was like those people we call “Monday
morning quarterbacks” – people who watch Sunday football but don’t play
football, but believe they know better than the actual people on the field,
playing the game.
Marx’s theory stirred up envy, divided people, and operated
on fear and hate and the false promise of security. But Marx was a hypocrite
because what he was really saying was not that everyone is the same, but that a few are born superior, everyone ELSE is born evil or senseless, and it’s up to those who
are ‘better’ to control society.
John Locke’s ideas gave men confidence and faith in
themselves, courage, and independence. Locke basically said: We are ALL
significant and trust that we can individually make choices that are best for ourselves.
