Understanding Marxism: The Enemy of Being is Having | 5 Minute Video — Transcript

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1. 0:02Why does anyone still care about
2. 0:03Marxism?
3. 0:05Karl Marx has been dead for well over a
4. 0:07century.
5. 0:08Everywhere Marxism has been tried, it
6. 0:10has left death and destruction in its
7. 0:12wake. In fact, nothing in the last
8. 0:15thousand years comes close to the amount
9. 0:17of tyranny, terror, and mass murder
10. 0:19brought about by Marxist regimes.
11. 0:22Yet Marxism lives. It may present itself
12. 0:24today as postmodernism,
13. 0:26multiculturalism, feminism,
14. 0:28environmentalism, or critical race
15. 0:30theory.
16. 0:31But it's still Marxism.
17. 0:34So, there must be good reasons why it
18. 0:36has endured, even flourished in the face
19. 0:38of unremitting failure.
20. 0:40Say what you will about Marx the
21. 0:42economist, he was a master psychologist.
22. 0:46He recognized that there are many people
23. 0:48in every society who are motivated by
24. 0:50envy and resentment.
25. 0:52Marx speaks directly to them. He tells
26. 0:55them that the responsibility for the
27. 0:57misery in their lives belongs to the
28. 0:59capitalist system. If we can just get
29. 1:01rid of that, he promises, we can
30. 1:03eliminate poverty, inequality,
31. 1:06exploitation, class conflict, war, and
32. 1:08alienation. Not a bad list if you're
33. 1:11looking to start a revolution.
34. 1:13But there's more.
35. 1:15Marxism assures us that this socialist
36. 1:17utopia is close at hand, available to
37. 1:20all, not in some distant future or in
38. 1:23the next life, but here and now.
39. 1:26All we have to do is overcome one little
40. 1:29obstacle,
41. 1:30human nature.
42. 1:32Marx expressed his deepest views on this
43. 1:34subject in his economic and
44. 1:36philosophical manuscripts of 1844.
45. 1:39They can be summed up in one phrase,
46. 1:42the enemy of being is having.
47. 1:45In other words, the desire to own things
48. 1:48makes you a bad person. However, you're
49. 1:51not to blame. The blame belongs to
50. 1:53capitalism.
51. 1:55The most common interpretation of Marx's
52. 1:57philosophy suggests that he opposed
53. 1:59capitalism because it creates an unjust
54. 2:03world of inequality, exploitation, and
55. 2:05class conflict.
56. 2:07Marxism, according to this view, is all
57. 2:10about equalizing income and social
58. 2:12status.
59. 2:14This is true,
60. 2:15but it doesn't go far enough.
61. 2:17Marx saw the accumulation of material
62. 2:20wealth as dehumanizing.
63. 2:23The more money and material possessions
64. 2:25one acquires, the more estranged one is
65. 2:28from his true humanity.
66. 2:30And what was that?
67. 2:32In the philosopher's socialist paradise,
68. 2:34one gets to eat, drink, and go to the
69. 2:37theater free of charge and without
70. 2:38having to earn a living.
71. 2:40Best of all, you get to do it without
72. 2:42the guilt of being a moocher.
73. 2:45All you have to do is enjoy yourself.
74. 2:48Or, as Marx put it, you can do one thing
75. 2:51today and another tomorrow. Hunt in the
76. 2:54morning, fish in the afternoon, and rear
77. 2:57cattle in the evening.
78. 2:59Yes, rear cattle in the evening. That's
79. 3:02how in touch Marx was with reality. But
80. 3:05who cleans out the sewers, does the
81. 3:07dirty jobs that keep a society
82. 3:09functioning?
83. 3:10Ironically, in the evil capitalist
84. 3:12society, the sewer cleaner freely
85. 3:14chooses to take on his job. In the
86. 3:18socialist paradise, coercion is almost
87. 3:21always required.
88. 3:23Marx never bothered with such messy
89. 3:25details. He left that to others.
90. 3:28Unfortunately, those others always turn
91. 3:30out to be megalomaniacs like Lenin,
92. 3:33Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, and Hugo
93. 3:36Chavez. They were the ones who brought
94. 3:39Marx to life and in the process caused
95. 3:41tens of millions to suffer and die.
96. 3:45Contrary to Marx's claims, work freely
97. 3:48chosen brings both money and dignity.
98. 3:51Furthermore, most people best when they
99. 3:54pursue their own self-interest, an idea
100. 3:57Marx despised.
101. 3:59To him, self-interest turns everyone
102. 4:01into Ebenezer Scrooge, greedy, grasping,
103. 4:04and unfeeling. Not only is money, that
104. 4:07is capital, inherently corrupting, but
105. 4:09the acquisition of it can't be done
106. 4:11honestly or fairly.
107. 4:13The rich got rich by exploiting the
108. 4:15worker. For Marx, there's no other
109. 4:17possible explanation. For many today,
110. 4:20there is no other possible explanation.
111. 4:22For these people, Marx offers a
112. 4:24philosophical justification for their
113. 4:26anger, even their rage.
114. 4:29From generation to generation, the
115. 4:30formula never varies. Only by bringing
116. 4:34the privileged down can the
117. 4:36underprivileged be brought up.
118. 4:39The venom that pours out of Marx's pen
119. 4:41stems ultimately from the fact that
120. 4:43reality wouldn't conform to his
121. 4:45worldview. It never seems to have
122. 4:47occurred to him that people are complex
123. 4:50beings with different talents,
124. 4:52ambitions, and desires.
125. 4:54It may be more accurate to say he didn't
126. 4:57care. If people wouldn't conform to his
127. 4:59worldview voluntarily, then the state
128. 5:02would just have to use other methods of
129. 5:04persuasion, like murder and terror.
130. 5:08It all made sense to the philosopher as
131. 5:09he toiled away in a corner of the
132. 5:11British Museum or in his squalid London
133. 5:14apartment.
134. 5:15What is astonishing is that millions
135. 5:17came to believe him. What is tragic is
136. 5:19that millions more suffered and died
137. 5:21because they did.
138. 5:22What is scary is that millions continue
139. 5:25to believe.
140. 5:26I'm Brad Thompson, Professor of
141. 5:28Political Science at Clemson University
142. 5:30for Prager University.
143. 5:33Thank you for watching this video. To
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