Who was Karl Marx?

[Gary Childress]

Some see Marx as a pivotal figure in human culture and history--a possibly humane response to the brutal excesses of the early industrial revolution. While others point to the excesses of governments claiming to be sympathetic to Marx's views and writings.

So who is right? Is it possible that Marx is overrated or even an impediment to his own ideas of a "classless" society? Or is it possible to understand Marx sympathetically and charitably without making the same mistakes made in the attempts of some to create his vision of a "classless" society? Or is there entirely another or better way to look at Marx in a historical perspective?

[Immanuel Can]

Some see Marx as a pivotal figure in human culture and history--a possibly humane response to the brutal excesses of the early industrial revolution.

Wow. You clearly haven't read a single biography of Marx.

His detractors list his many, many vices, and even his greatest admirers confess he was a difficult man. As a young man, he wrote lavish hate poetry against all existence. He was not a worker, but upper-middle class, by birth, and lived off his inheritance until it was gone. He was famously abusive to anybody who crossed him, and contemptuous even to his friends. He was a sponge who never added anything to the world but his demands for a free lunch. He was an unapologetic racist. He refused to bathe, and had torturous boils, as a result. He would not work. He knew only one prole in his entire life, and his disabled housekeeper whom he sexually molested and then abandoned his own bastard son. Two of his daughters, Laura and Julia, and his son-in-law killed themselves...and none of this is even contested.

"A humane response"? By any reasonable account, he was a greedy egotist, a parasite on society and a despiser of mankind, even by the kindest accounts. There was not one thing "humane" about the man.

The question might be whether to say so is merely ad hominem, and despite his personal vileness he managed to suggests good ideas. But there's no possibility of making Marx into a saint in his personal conduct. "Humane" he never was.

That's who Karl Marx was, to answer your question. Check it out and see if I'm telling you the simple truth.

[Impenitent]

Some see Marx as a pivotal figure in human culture and history--a possibly humane response to the brutal excesses of the early industrial revolution.

Wow. You clearly haven't read a single biography of Marx.

His detractors list his many, many vices, and even his greatest admirers confess he was a difficult man. As a young man, he wrote lavish hate poetry against all existence. He was not a worker, but upper-middle class, by birth, and lived off his inheritance until it was gone. He was famously abusive to anybody who crossed him, and contemptuous even to his friends. He was a sponge who never added anything to the world but his demands for a free lunch. He was an unapologetic racist. He refused to bathe, and had torturous boils, as a result. He would not work. He knew only one prole in his entire life, and his disabled housekeeper whom he sexually molested and then abandoned his own bastard son. Two of his daughters, Laura and Julia, and his son-in-law killed themselves...and none of this is even contested.

"A humane response"? By any reasonable account, he was a greedy egotist, a parasite on society and a despiser of mankind, even by the kindest accounts. There was not one thing "humane" about the man.

The question might be whether to say so is merely ad hominem, and despite his personal vileness he managed to suggests good ideas. But there's no possibility of making Marx into a saint in his personal conduct. "Humane" he never was.

That's who Karl Marx was, to answer your question. Check it out and see if I'm telling you the simple truth.

why would someone so in love with humanity not desire to give humans the perfect system of governance?

-Imp

[Immanuel Can]

Some see Marx as a pivotal figure in human culture and history--a possibly humane response to the brutal excesses of the early industrial revolution.

Wow. You clearly haven't read a single biography of Marx.

His detractors list his many, many vices, and even his greatest admirers confess he was a difficult man. As a young man, he wrote lavish hate poetry against all existence. He was not a worker, but upper-middle class, by birth, and lived off his inheritance until it was gone. He was famously abusive to anybody who crossed him, and contemptuous even to his friends. He was a sponge who never added anything to the world but his demands for a free lunch. He was an unapologetic racist. He refused to bathe, and had torturous boils, as a result. He would not work. He knew only one prole in his entire life, and his disabled housekeeper whom he sexually molested and then abandoned his own bastard son. Two of his daughters, Laura and Julia, and his son-in-law killed themselves...and none of this is even contested.

"A humane response"? By any reasonable account, he was a greedy egotist, a parasite on society and a despiser of mankind, even by the kindest accounts. There was not one thing "humane" about the man.

The question might be whether to say so is merely ad hominem, and despite his personal vileness he managed to suggests good ideas. But there's no possibility of making Marx into a saint in his personal conduct. "Humane" he never was.

That's who Karl Marx was, to answer your question. Check it out and see if I'm telling you the simple truth.

why would someone so in love with humanity not desire to give humans the perfect system of governance?

-Imp

Yes. Good question. And here are fragments from two of his "love poems" to the human race.

“Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well.
My soul, once true to God, Is chosen for Hell.”
—The Pale Maiden, 1837

“Look now, my blood-dark sword shall stab
Unerringly within thy soul…
The hellish vapours rise and fill the brain,
Till I go mad and my heart is utterly changed.
See the sword—the Prince of Darkness sold it to me.
For he beats the time and gives the signs.
Ever more boldly I play the dance of death.”
—The Player, 1841

And in his play, Oulanem (yes, Marx wrote a play), he penned the lines,

"If there is a something which devours, I’ll leap within it, though I bring the world to ruins—the world which bulks between me and the abyss I will smash to pieces with my enduring curses".

Caaaaan you feel the loooove tonight?