Communism Communism was as originally laid out by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology* that aims to establish a classless society structured upon common ownership of the means of production means of production: non-human elements used in production (factories, machines, and tools used) to produce wealth Proletariat: the class of wage earners, especially those who earn their living by manual labor *system of ideas that sometimes rigidly form the basis of policy

Socialism (elevated government control/intervention in the economy): seen by Marx as a step on the road to Communism

Communist Manifesto Predicts the Future: Bourgeoisie are capitalists who own the means of production and the proletariat are the working classes who are employed by the bourgeoisies Proletariat population would grow and they would eventually rise above the bourgeoisie and revolt against them THIS IS THE CLASS STRUGGLE (CLASS WARFARE) THAT MARX IS FAMOUS FOR. Eventually the Proletariat would displace the capitalist bourgeoisie and rule a utopian Communist state.

DOES COMMUNISM RUN COUNTER TO HUMAN NATURE?

Communist ideology 1: capitalism leads to an abundance of material wealth. This wealth is better off shared and an organizing group is required to distribute this wealth.

Communist ideology 2: economic forces ALONE drive history and society

Communist ideology 3: the abolition of all religion is needed in order to reach an ideal state o Marx’s anti-religious views were based partly on his view that religion alienated humans from reality o Quote traditionally attributed to Marx: “[Religion] is the opium of the people.”

Communist ideology 4: ideology and love-of- state will encourage people to give up their “market value” to generously assist all the people