Understanding Marxism: From Each According to His Ability... | 5 Minute Videos — Transcript

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1. 0:02in a remarkably short period of time the
2. 0:04philosophy of Karl Marx changed the
3. 0:07course of history at the height of its
4. 0:09power half the world fell under its
5. 0:11Dominion kept there by a combination of
6. 0:14fear Terror and Brute Force then
7. 0:17suddenly in the late 1980s it imploded
8. 0:21by All rights this should have been the
9. 0:22end of Marxism but it hasn't turned out
10. 0:25that way from environmentalism with its
11. 0:27rejection of free markets to critical
12. 0:29race Theory which sees white patriarchy
13. 0:32as the source of all evil you'll find
14. 0:34Marxism at its root the leaders of black
15. 0:37lives matter for example openly
16. 0:39acknowledge their Devotion to Marxist
17. 0:42ideology how do we explain this
18. 0:44Fascination for something that has so
19. 0:46utterly failed everywhere it's been put
20. 0:48into
21. 0:49practice we can find answers in one of
22. 0:52Marx's most enduring
23. 0:54epigrams from each according to his
24. 0:56ability to each according to his needs
25. 1:00Marx was a poor Economist but a talented
26. 1:03journalist the only actual job he ever
27. 1:05had he knew how to turn a phrase but
28. 1:08what does this slogan even mean
29. 1:11according to what ability according to
30. 1:13what need and who determines anyone's
31. 1:15ability or anyone's need Marx never
32. 1:17bothered to answer these obvious
33. 1:19questions he had much bigger things on
34. 1:21his mind nothing less than the creation
35. 1:24of an entirely new kind of world for an
36. 1:27entirely new kind of human being
37. 1:30Marx believed that by altering man's
38. 1:32economic and political institutions he
39. 1:35could alter or even better rewire the
40. 1:37human brain he could conjure a new
41. 1:40Consciousness that would replace the old
42. 1:43false one this new man would be less
43. 1:46selfish and acquisitive and more
44. 1:48altruistic and communal in short he
45. 1:50would be a superior type of man of
46. 1:53course this new man could only Reach
47. 1:55This goal if he wasn't preoccupied with
48. 1:58having to earn money according to Marx
49. 2:01money and the pursuit of it ruined
50. 2:03everything Marx hated money maybe
51. 2:06because he never found a way to make it
52. 2:09getting rid of it was Central to his
53. 2:10world viw once a person's subsistence
54. 2:13one's Daily Bread was distributed on the
55. 2:16basis of need rather than greed man's
56. 2:19natural communal affections long
57. 2:22suppressed by his capitalist overlords
58. 2:24would be
59. 2:25renewed this is Mark's channeling the
60. 2:2818th century French social thinker Jean
61. 2:31jaac rouso one of the few people Marx
62. 2:34admired according to Russo this is what
63. 2:37you must do if you want to create a new
64. 2:40Society He Who Dares to undertake the
65. 2:42making of a people's institutions must
66. 2:44feel himself capable of changing human
67. 2:47nature of transforming each individual
68. 2:50who by himself is a complete and
69. 2:53solitary whole into part of a larger
70. 2:56hole from which the individual receives
71. 2:58his life and his being
72. 3:01understand this and you understand not
73. 3:03only a key feature of marxist thought
74. 3:06but the dark history of the 20th
75. 3:09century Marx took rouso literally human
76. 3:13nature had to be returned to its
77. 3:15allegedly pure selfless State before
78. 3:18capitalism with its Enlightenment and
79. 3:20judeo-christian values corrupted him but
80. 3:23creating this new man would be a
81. 3:24formidable task Marx anticipated that
82. 3:28many would object especially the owners
83. 3:30and managers that had a large stake in
84. 3:32the capitalist system Friendly
85. 3:34Persuasion wasn't going to get the job
86. 3:36done only the ruthless application of
87. 3:40state power would be up to the task Marx
88. 3:44was all for it private property wage
89. 3:47labor competition and profits these
90. 3:49would have to go the state now run by
91. 3:53the workers themselves the dictatorship
92. 3:55of the proletariat as Marx called it
93. 3:57would control production and prices
94. 4:00it would wisely manage the economy from
95. 4:03each according to his ability to each
96. 4:06according to his needs and imagine how
97. 4:09wonderful it would be no more ego no
98. 4:11more self-interest instead everybody
99. 4:14working for the benefit of everybody
100. 4:15else peace love and harmony for many
101. 4:20it's a very seductive idea who wouldn't
102. 4:23aspire to live in such a world look
103. 4:25around a Marxist might say the powerful
104. 4:28exploit the weak crushing the the
105. 4:29majority's noble aspirations your
106. 4:32aspirations just so they can have more
107. 4:36it's unfair and unjust how much better
108. 4:39if we just start over start
109. 4:42clean that's the Marxist socialist dream
110. 4:46in real life it's a nightmare needs
111. 4:50become demands and demands become rights
112. 4:53the best are mocked and the worst
113. 4:55exalted Innovation Withers while the
114. 4:58government grows ever larger larger
115. 5:00eventually the productive become virtual
116. 5:03slaves to the unproductive and the
117. 5:05society collapses economically
118. 5:07intellectually and morally and then the
119. 5:10Real Horror starts if you think I'm
120. 5:13exaggerating just ask someone who fled
121. 5:16the Soviet Union or Cuba or Venezuela
122. 5:19for all its risk and inequities they
123. 5:22prefer freedom and we should too I'm
124. 5:26Brad Thompson professor of political
125. 5:27science at Clemson University for Prager
126. 5:31University thank you for watching this
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