German Ideology by Karl Marx
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
According to Marx, "the last antagonistic form of the social process of production," is private property, in other words, capitalism. Private property is just one of the many forms of ownership that Marx talks about in The German Ideology. Private property is however, the last form of ownership before communism comes into being. "Division of labour and private property are, moreover, identical expressions" (The German Ideology, pp.160). Division of labour is termed "specialization" by Marx. This specialization causes "stupefication" in the working class. Essentially, Marx believes that each individual works in a certain specialization and is stuck in that area of expertise because of the structure of capitalism. For this reason, the workers become stupid and are not able to realize their potentiality. The entire process of capitalism, according to Marx and Engels is structured in such a way that it will bring about its own downfall...