Extensive Reading Excerpts: Speeches of the Wisest Men in History. (x- ) "Speech at the inaugural meeting of the newspaper Volks" (Germany) Karl Marx ("Volksblatt" was a week sent by the British Charter

Extensive Reading Excerpts: Speeches of the Wisest Men in History. (X-)

"Speech at the Inaugural Meeting of the People's Daily"

(Germany) Karl Marx

(The People's Newspaper was a weekly magazine run by the British Charter, founded in London by Marx and his friend Er jones.) ）

In our time, everything seems to contain its own opposite. We see that machines have the miraculous power to reduce human labor and make it more productive, yet they cause hunger and excessive fatigue. The source of newly discovered wealth has become a source of poverty by some strange and incredible magic. The triumph of technology seems to have come at the expense of moral corruption. As man becomes more and more in control of nature, the individual seems to become more and more a slave to others or to his own despicable deeds, and even the pure brilliance of science seems to shine only against the dark background of ignorance. The result of all our discoveries and advances seems to be the intellectual life of material forces, and the transformation of human life into dull material forces. This confrontation between modern industry and science and modern poverty and decadence, between the productive forces of our time and the relations of society, is an obvious, inevitable and indisputable fact. Some parties may weep over this; others may wish to abandon modern technology in order to get rid of modern conflicts; and still others may think that such a great advance in industry will be supplemented by the same huge political setbacks. But we will not mistake the cunning elf who often appears in all these contradictions. We know that for the new forces of society to function well, they can only be mastered by the new people, who are workers. The worker, like the machine itself, is a product of modernity. In the midst of the phenomena that frighten the bourgeoisie, the aristocracy and the poor retrogressive prophets, we recognize our good friend, the good man Robin, the old vole who will quickly mow the earth, the glorious gong ping-pong--revolution. The British workers were the first children of modern industry. Of course, they will not be left last in support of the social revolution caused by this industry, which means the emancipation of their own class throughout the world, a revolution of the same universal character as the rule of capital and the system of wage slavery. I know how heroic the struggles of the English working class since the middle of the 18th century have been, which are not familiar to the world only because bourgeois historians have covered them up and concealed them. In retaliation for the crimes of the ruling class, there was a secret court called Vehmgericht ("Femmer's Court") in medieval Germany. If a house is painted with a red cross, everyone knows that the owner of the house has been sentenced by Vehmgericht. Now, all houses in Europe are painted with the mysterious Red Cross. History itself is the judge, and the proletariat is the executioner.

"Speech at Marx's Tomb"

(Germany) Engels

Just as Darwin discovered the laws of the organic world, Marx discovered the law of development of human history, that is, a simple fact that has always been hidden by complex ideologies: people first eat, drink, live, wear, and then engage in politics, science, art, religion, and so on; therefore, the production of direct material materials is constituted as a basis at a certain stage of economic development of a nation or an epoch; and it is on this basis that people's state system, legal views, art, and even religious concepts develop Therefore, it must also be explained by this basis, and not the opposite, as has been done in the past

Not only that, but Marx also discovered the modern capitalist mode of production and the special laws of movement of the bourgeois society it produced. As a result of the discovery of surplus-value, it is suddenly enlightened here that all the previous research done by both bourgeois economists and socialist critics has been groping in the dark.

In Marx's view, science is a revolutionary force that has played a driving role in history. Every new discovery in any theoretical science, even if its practical application is even unforeseeable, gives Marx a heartfelt delight, but when there is a discovery which will have an immediate revolutionary effect on industry, on the development of history in general, his joy is quite different. For example, he had paid close attention to the development of various discoveries in electricity, and not so long ago he had paid attention to Marcel. Delep found.

For Marx was first and foremost a revolutionary, participating in some way in the cause of overthrowing capitalist society and the state system it had established, in the cause of the emancipation of the modern proletariat, of realizing for the first time his own position and demands, of the conditions of its own emancipation — this was in fact his life's mission. Fighting is something he can do with it. And the enthusiasm, tenacity and fruitfulness with which he fought were rare.

Because of this, Marx is the most hated and most vilified person. And I dare to say that he may have had many enemies, but not necessarily one personal enemy.