Karl, Marx. 1932. “The German Ideology.” Pp. 175-208 in Karl Marx: Selected Writings, edited by David McLellan, Oxford University Press.
- Originally written in 1844
- Notes based on version in 2nd Edition, published in 2000 (original in 1977)
Project: Reality is constructed by man and is increasingly materialistic by man’s agency, hence, man must abide by the laws of the materialistic society and cooperate for success, and this is wholly misunderstood by people mistaking money, power, ownership, and competition for nature.
OVERVIEW
Much like most of Marx’s work, especially that of Economic and Philosphic Manuscripts, an emphasis is placed on the misunderstanding man has of themselves to be products rather than sources and beings in power, detrimentally influencing their perspective on life. One’s epiphany of their sourceful power will cause the collapse of reality before their eyes and ensure their own societal awakening and appreciation of the sociological imagination. Marx puts out that man must battle with the nonsensicality of thoughts that merely exacerbate one’s entrapped condition. Marx is inspired by the German ideology he has witnessed and pushes that their society is heading toward a form of ruins if they [and others] do not try to understand his points. Their idealism is an “illusion” and must be deciphered for the betterment of themselves and other societies alike.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
- We create our reality with the material life we input into our reality… Our need to survive conveniently has caused us to formulate our physical world… Cater it to how we’d like it to be… and this is precisely what has separated us from animals…
- Marx is trying to go against the philosophy of what is common among Germans.
- Identity and all it’s associations are just in thoughts.
- Consciousness develops from our work and the material world and the society/operations we have created.
- The individual only exists within social organization and the labor process and interaction.
- A quality material life is needed for all people for a sense of belonging in a way…
- Abstract consciousness on its own cannot be without the material world, environment, and social reations.
- Human cooperation is important and needed for growth… not competition or fighting…
- We must work together to satisfy our [individual and collective] needs.
- Every mode of production is tied to needed cooperation.
- History should be rooted in exchange and industry.
- Germans lack comprehension and evidence of their senses.
- We shouldn’t strive for separation.
- We are artificial because of antagonistic competition… division of labor, smaller specified jobs for people, repetitive jobs…
- Consequence: detrimental because it divides people and workers and causes antagonism within the world of work
- Small businesses and corporations fight…
- Ideology is the concrete process of doing…
- Master-slave relationship between individuals/people and owner… division of labor and town and country
- Commerce, capital, and trade influence the state, not the other way around.
- Tribal property was beginning. Property is a singular antagonistic force with the community… bourgeoise
- Movements toward communism will be unique and different than other revolutionary turning points in history.
- We become subjugated to the power of unity…
- Conditions becoming unionized is what communism does, and nothing will exist independently of individuals…
- Capitalism strips commons from citizens, alienates what it means to be human of creation and imprint…
- Creates larger class divides, more powerful upper class
- Must look at politics via class
- Revolution is necessary with true material organizartion…*
- People must be able to live rather than just survive
- Living causes more needs
- People want to organize and reproduce
SINGULAR QUOTES
- “…the creators, have bowed down before their creations” (176)
QUESTIONS
- Marx claims that history stops happening, or has stopped happening now, and this is interesting because it is emphasized in most research that history is always occurring. What does Marx really mean by this?
Perception 