Blog #23: “Brave New World and Karl Marx”

Question #1: “Why did Karl Marx think class conflict was inevitable in a capitalist society?”
Karl Marx believed in the idea of communism, which is basically the abolishment of private property. He believed that in a capitalist society or one of “free trade,” that capitalists work to protect capitalism, while workers work to destroy it. This is in essence, the foundation for the inevitable class conflict that Marx described. What he means, is that the business owners and CEOs of large companies (in today’s world) are only concerned with making a profit, and will do whatever is necessary to ensure that they do, indeed, profit. While at the same exact time, the workers that make it possible for the CEOs to make large profits want as much compensation for their work as possible. They try to destroy the system that pays large business professionals in order to increase their own personal wealth. This battle over money and power is the root of all class conflict, and has been throughout history.

Question #2: “Do you agree or disagree with Marx?”
Being the American citizen that I am, I have to say that I disagree with Marx because I believe in the free-enterprise system that we currently have in place. Sure, it is flawed, but so is every other kind of system in our world. I also believe in the freedoms that communism takes away. The concept of private property is at the foundation of what our country stands for, and I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to be the best that they can be, and therefore make the amount of money that they so desire. With a free enterprise system, it may not be easy to make a reasonable fortune, but at least it is not impossible.

Question #3: “How does his theory on class conflict connect to the World State’s view of class in Brave New World? What similarities do you see between the two?”
Marx’s system is designed to eliminate all class conflict by taking away the initial cause that stems from selfishness. However, in Brave New World, the elimination of class conflict is also evident. In the book, new babies are assigned to classes and taught to like nothing but whatever class they happen to end up in. The people have no say in what happens, which is a lot like communism and Marx’s theory relating to class conflict. Without any choice, people have nothing to argue over and in essence, conflict is avoided.