 |
| A tombstone is exactly where this belongs. |
Possibly Karl Marx's second most famous quote, and definitely the most popular among people who would not in any other sense consider themselves Marxists, is the closing sentence of his Theses on Feuerbach, which also serves, in English translation, as his epitaph: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." Probably most of us have at one time or another quoted this with approval, or at least internalized its message, and professed an earnest desire to "make the world a better place."
Under Marx's atheist materialist assumptions, of course, there can be no such thing as "the point," and his statement is not-even-wrong. As Christians, though, we can attempt an objective evaluation of it. Which of these possibilities do you believe?
- God, seeing that this world could be better, put us humans into it to change it and make improvements.
- God, seeing that we could be better, created this world for us, optimizing it for our spiritual needs, so that we could live in it and learn from our experience.
Jesus said, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27). What is true of the last day of creation is true of the other six as well. The world was made for man, and not man for the world. This world is a school. If a student has an opportunity to "make the school a better place" in some way, great -- but that is definitely not, for the student, "the point" of school.
And so I propose the following Antithesis on Feuerbach: The revolutionaries have only changed the world in various ways; the point, however, is to learn from it.
8 comments:
Excellent analysis!
But both Marx's slogan (the therefore yours) need to lose 'in various ways' - which adds nothing (and detracts much!).
It is a striking feature of post 1960s in The West that every second teenager in some sense believes that he can and should singlehandedly change the world (to conform to his own ideas of what is good); yet simultaneously is a slave to every trivial fashion of body and mind, especially about what is good.
This combination is not an accident, nor is it a paradox - but makes perfect sense at the level it has been implemented.
I agree with Bruce. This is a superior post.
Our greatest collective failure to date is our unwillingness to learn from the horrific failure of atheist/materialist revolutionary thinking and its incessant desire to change the world. That Marx (as well as countless others) is still touted as a philosopher whose ideas are worth implementing speaks volumes about our collective spiritual and worldly stupidity.
@Bruce
It’s a little known fact that the spare style of the Manifesto is entirely the work of Engels. Marx’s original draft of the opening sentence was, “A specter has been observed to be frequenting various locations in Europe.”
There’s a reason Das Kapital makes such a great paperweight!
@Frank
Two American high school teachers are discussing the social studies curriculum.
“Do you think Marx should still be read today?” one teacher asks.
“He obviously should be, for historical reasons,” says the other teacher, “but realistically, most kids today are going to think of him as blue.”
A student in a political philosophy class comes to see his professor during office hours.
"Ah," says the professor, "did you have some questions about the reading I assigned, Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Rechtsphilosophie?"
"Well," say the student, "I think I understand Marx's argument well enough, but I did have one little question, so little I'm afraid you'll think I'm silly for asking. It's about the title."
"The title?" says the professor, a little surprised. "What about it?"
"I'm no expert on German," says the student, "but I just thought it was odd that every single word in the title was capitalized except for the third one, der. Is there some reason for that?"
"Oh, that," says the professor. "Of course. Well that's easily explained. It's because it begins with the letter d."
"The letter d?"
"Yes. You have to keep in mind that this is one of Marx's very early works. He wouldn't write D as Kapital for another 40 years."
@ Wm - Good jokes!
@Frank - Thanks. With Karl Marx, the jokes pretty much write themselves.
Capital puns deserve capital punishment!
Post a Comment