WEBVTT NOTE The Communist Manifesto 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 The Communist Manifesto 2 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:12.000 Among the many influential documents in existence today, which bear heavily upon life in the United States, stands the Communist Manifesto. 3 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:21.000 This is an extremely interesting document, and it would behoove us to understand at least certain things about it. 4 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:34.000 It was written, as I think possibly most of us realize, back in 1848, at the time the revolt of the Paris communes was getting underway. 5 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:47.000 Marx and Engels, who collaborated with Marx in the preparing of the instrument, felt that the Paris communal incident could be expanded and exploited into a world revolution. 6 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:54.000 Revolution, and the Communist Manifesto was written to inspire the working classes to unite 7 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.280 so that this world revolution could get underway. 8 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:02.360 It did not have the desired effect, and Marx and Engels, I presume, were always disappointed 9 00:01:02.360 --> 00:01:03.680 in that fact. 10 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:07.840 Although I don't know that they were disappointed in the document, in many ways the Communist 11 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:16.960 Manifesto is the clearest statement of the communist purpose that Marx ever put on paper. 12 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:23.720 Marx's writing tends to be a little obscure, and although many have hailed him as scientific, 13 00:01:23.720 --> 00:01:30.960 I'm happy to note that currently a much better analysis has been provided of Marx because 14 00:01:30.960 --> 00:01:35.680 they are beginning to realize that he really was a mystic and not a scientist, although 15 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.920 he claimed himself to be scientific. 16 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:46.200 Now the Communist Manifesto is, in a sense, a little bit like the Declaration of Independence 17 00:01:46.200 --> 00:02:05.960 The Declaration of Independence inspires men with the idea that each man has equal rights 18 00:02:05.960 --> 00:02:14.040 in a moral sense, and that there is no political power that has rightful control of him, rather 19 00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:38.040 The Communist Manifesto does not say things like that. It says something else entirely, and I think the instrument itself is the best evidence, so let me turn to it and see just what it does say. 20 00:02:38.040 --> 00:03:08.040 The Communist Manifesto is separated into four parts. Actually, there's a preamble that could be, that is really called the manifesto. And it's a very brief part, sort of a preamble. And then there are four other parts. The first section devoted to what is called the bourgeois and proletarians in which Marx makes a clear delineation of the difference between the bourgeois, who are the people who own property, 21 00:03:08.040 --> 00:03:16.040 and the proletarians, whom, as he sees it, are the workers who own nothing but the shirts on their backs. 22 00:03:16.040 --> 00:03:32.040 Then part two deals with proletarians and communists and tries to show the relationship between the proletarian as the working class and the communists, who theoretically, according to Marx, are to be the leaders of the working class. 23 00:03:32.040 --> 00:03:52.540 The third part devotes itself to socialist and communist literature and is subdivided to describe different types of socialism as Marx saw it, including petty-bourgeois socialism, German or what he calls true socialism, conservative or bourgeois socialism, and critical utopian socialism and communism. 24 00:03:52.540 --> 00:03:58.040 You see, all of these are related to particular types of literature, then extant. 25 00:03:58.040 --> 00:04:09.040 And finally, part four deals with the position of the communist in relation to a world revolution movement, and that's how the instrument divides itself. 26 00:04:09.040 --> 00:04:16.040 The important thing for us to realize is what the communist manifesto is seeking to do. 27 00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:24.040 And just as in the Declaration of Independence, the authors of it were setting down the proposition 28 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:40.480 So, in the Communist Manifesto, the authors are setting down the basic philosophic position 29 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:42.120 that they intend to take. 30 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:48.720 Now, the interesting thing here is that the Communist Manifesto is concerned not with 31 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:53.760 morality and not with rights, but with property per se. 32 00:04:53.760 --> 00:05:00.260 I think this is why this manifesto is so interesting because it states with great clarity what 33 00:05:00.260 --> 00:05:02.000 communism is all about. 34 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:07.760 Let me read here from the second page of that part of the manifesto called Proletarians 35 00:05:07.760 --> 00:05:08.820 and Communists. 36 00:05:08.820 --> 00:05:11.080 This is the second part. 37 00:05:11.080 --> 00:05:17.060 The distinguishing feature of communism is not the abolition of property generally, but 38 00:05:17.060 --> 00:05:20.080 the abolition of bourgeois property. 39 00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:22.720 Now what does Marx mean by that? 40 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:44.840 What Marx is getting at here is that he wants to abolish the private ownership of the tools 41 00:05:44.840 --> 00:05:46.880 of production and distribution. 42 00:05:46.880 --> 00:05:53.160 Many says and again I quote from the manifesto, in this sense, the theory of the communists 43 00:05:53.160 --> 00:06:00.080 may be summed up in the single sentence, abolition of private property. 44 00:06:00.080 --> 00:06:02.040 In other words, that's what it's about. 45 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:10.120 The idea of communism is to destroy the idea that a private individual can own one of the 46 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:12.440 tools of production or distribution. 47 00:06:12.440 --> 00:06:14.200 That's to be passé. 48 00:06:14.200 --> 00:06:16.720 That's what the communist revolution is all about. 49 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:29.640 In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so, 50 00:06:29.640 --> 00:06:35.420 that is just what we intend. I think that's clear. There is no question at all but what 51 00:06:35.420 --> 00:06:44.260 the entire purpose of Communism is to alter the relationship between persons and property. 52 00:06:44.260 --> 00:06:50.780 It is to eliminate the private ownership of property, notably the particular type of property, 53 00:06:50.780 --> 00:06:57.660 which is called bourgeois property, or the tools of production. Marx proposes that we 54 00:06:57.660 --> 00:07:04.180 will be better off if all the tools of production and distribution are taken away from private 55 00:07:04.180 --> 00:07:10.740 persons centralized in the hands of the government, and then the government will manage them. 56 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:12.700 Now that's the idea. 57 00:07:12.700 --> 00:07:18.260 Many persons have been confused by his praxeology because he doesn't say ownership. 58 00:07:18.260 --> 00:07:23.940 He says the purpose is to abolish private property and this has caused people to believe that 59 00:07:23.940 --> 00:07:28.580 Marx was something of a madman intending to burn up all the property in the world or something 60 00:07:28.580 --> 00:07:29.580 of the sort. 61 00:07:29.580 --> 00:07:30.580 That was not his intention. 62 00:07:30.580 --> 00:07:37.300 He is actually trying to explain that what he proposes here is to abolish private ownership 63 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:38.780 of property. 64 00:07:38.780 --> 00:07:44.660 Now here is an extremely interesting point and a very vital one for us today. Many people 65 00:07:44.660 --> 00:07:51.640 in this country presume that communism is some kind of a foreign political movement. 66 00:07:51.640 --> 00:07:56.300 That is, that it has something to do with Russia and that if you are opposing Russia 67 00:07:56.300 --> 00:08:03.860 or possibly China or maybe Cuba, but some nation or possibly all three of those nations, 68 00:08:03.860 --> 00:08:09.680 If you will oppose them, you are opposing Communism. Actually you are not. Communism 69 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:18.220 is not a Russian, a Chinese or a Cuban idea. It is essentially an economic idea relating 70 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:25.320 to the redistribution of economic goods. And it can be held and is held by many persons 71 00:08:25.320 --> 00:08:31.240 of many nationalities. It has no national boundaries at all. Communism is just an economic 72 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:37.800 Theory. That's all it is. And if you approach it as though it has some kind of national implications, 73 00:08:37.800 --> 00:08:42.920 then you get yourself in the unfortunate position of those people who feel that they are fighting 74 00:08:42.920 --> 00:08:51.160 communism when they start killing, say, Viet Cong. That doesn't fight communism at all. That kills 75 00:08:51.160 --> 00:08:56.840 people. And the ideas of communism could even spread as a result of killing these people. 76 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:00.920 You don't eliminate an idea by killing a person who happens to have the idea. 77 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:07.720 On the contrary, that may be a very effective way of spreading the very idea that you're trying to 78 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:13.560 kill. I might point out to you that that same effort was made by the Roman government in its 79 00:09:13.560 --> 00:09:19.400 effort to suppress Christianity. They started out to torture and kill Christians, and they gave 80 00:09:19.400 --> 00:09:24.920 Christianity such a shot in the arm with all of the Christian martyrs that were created that a great 81 00:09:24.920 --> 00:09:30.200 Mass Movement ended up moving into the Christian area because the whole proposition wasn't 82 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:35.080 fair and people sympathized with the martyrs and they joined hands with them. 83 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:40.300 The same sort of thing has happened in this country and not only in this country but around 84 00:09:40.300 --> 00:09:42.920 the world in respect to communism. 85 00:09:42.920 --> 00:09:48.920 Communism in the early part of the century was getting nowhere and then certain people 86 00:09:48.920 --> 00:09:55.720 People who were anti-communists began charging that it was a Russian plot, and the whole 87 00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:58.920 thing took on nationalistic overtones. 88 00:09:58.920 --> 00:10:04.160 And presently, if you were a good American, you had to hate Russia and Russians. 89 00:10:04.160 --> 00:10:06.800 And that is supposed to make you an anti-communist. 90 00:10:06.800 --> 00:10:08.320 It doesn't at all. 91 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:14.720 And it could actually take and make a number of martyrs political victims of sacrifice 92 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:21.420 who happen to believe in the communist idea and suddenly then you have many people moving 93 00:10:21.420 --> 00:10:26.440 into the area of communism and beginning to believe it and accept it simply because they're 94 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:34.540 sympathetic to the victims of a government that will persecute people for their beliefs. 95 00:10:34.540 --> 00:10:40.320 Now it happens that I think it could be demonstrated on all kinds of scientific ground that the 96 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:46.240 Communism ideas are fallacious. You really don't have to worry about them. They're completely 97 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:52.560 unscientific. The whole communist idea is as full of holes as a piece of good Swiss cheese 98 00:10:52.560 --> 00:10:58.480 and wouldn't stand for a minute, excepting it has adherents who have become martyrs, 99 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:03.120 and then you'll have sympathy, and then the next thing you'll have is a major movement, 100 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:08.640 and of course that has happened. But let me get back to the instrument itself because, again, 101 00:11:08.640 --> 00:11:18.960 This is its own best evidence. Mark sets down, and this is in the second portion, which is 102 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:27.160 really the meaningful part of the manifesto, the process by means of which a country that 103 00:11:27.160 --> 00:11:31.760 is not particularly communistic and which does believe in a certain amount of private 104 00:11:31.760 --> 00:11:38.640 Property could be moved into a position where private property is virtually eliminated. 105 00:11:38.640 --> 00:11:43.760 He sets down the ten steps, and I'd like to just go over these briefly with you, and 106 00:11:43.760 --> 00:11:49.720 as I do, you ask yourself how many of these steps have been taken by the American government, 107 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:52.880 which nominally is opposed to communism. 108 00:11:52.880 --> 00:11:56.480 In actual fact, I don't think I'll have to say too much about it. 109 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:03.880 If you concentrate on these points that Marx set down in 1848, you may be stunned to discover 110 00:12:03.880 --> 00:12:07.800 that the American government has adopted most of them. 111 00:12:07.800 --> 00:12:10.040 But let me establish that with you. 112 00:12:10.040 --> 00:12:13.560 Here is the manifesto again, and I quote, 113 00:12:13.560 --> 00:12:19.760 The Communist Revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional property relations. 114 00:12:19.760 --> 00:12:25.720 No wonder that its development involves the most radical rupture with traditional ideas. 115 00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:30.360 We have seen above that the first step in the revolution by the working class is to 116 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:38.240 raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy. 117 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:40.080 Now that's a very interesting phrase. 118 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:44.200 Let me pause here, digress momentarily, to comment on this. 119 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:49.720 Notice that Marx is calling for the working class to take over the government. 120 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:55.680 You see, as Marx saw it, and remember he is writing back right at the time that the industrial 121 00:12:55.680 --> 00:13:25.680 The industrial revolution has come to a close, and he doesn't see the future, he only sees the past, that's all any of us see, he looked to the past and he saw that the people who owned the property were the ruling class, the privileged class, about two percent of the people, for instance, in England owned about eighty percent of the property, and this he was conscious of. Actually, that condition had already begun to change very radically, but he didn't know that, he wasn't aware of it, and so he presumed that the same ruling class, 122 00:13:25.680 --> 00:13:26.680 and so on. 123 00:13:26.680 --> 00:13:35.280 And so what he wanted to do was to organize a revolutionary group which would seize power 124 00:13:35.280 --> 00:13:39.800 to become the new ruling class and to win the battle of democracy. 125 00:13:39.800 --> 00:13:41.640 Now why did he say that? 126 00:13:41.640 --> 00:13:43.480 Well it was obvious. 127 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:47.000 If you're going to put everything to a vote, it follows that there will always be more 128 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.660 workers than there will be employers. 129 00:13:49.660 --> 00:13:56.240 So the more that you can get things settled by public voting, the more surely will you 130 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:00.340 destroy the idea of bourgeois property. 131 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:05.780 Because limited numbers of persons will own productive property, and many more people 132 00:14:05.780 --> 00:14:10.140 will work at jobs where they themselves do not own the property. 133 00:14:10.140 --> 00:14:15.200 Consequently, if you can put things up to a public vote, then the working class, or 134 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:19.140 as Marx calls it, the proletariat, will inevitably win. 135 00:14:19.140 --> 00:14:24.220 He's right on that. He's perfectly correct. If you are going to have things settled by 136 00:14:24.220 --> 00:14:29.140 popular vote, the working class will win every time. All you have to do is give it enough 137 00:14:29.140 --> 00:14:33.940 time and it will positively win. No question about it. He sees that and so that's what 138 00:14:33.940 --> 00:14:40.460 he's recommending. He's recommending the advance of democratic processes so that a 139 00:14:40.460 --> 00:14:47.220 revolution can come about through the democratic process in which the proletariat will win 140 00:14:47.220 --> 00:15:04.100 The Proletariat will use its political supremacy to rest by degrees all capital from the bourgeoisie, 141 00:15:04.100 --> 00:15:09.700 to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e. of the proletariat 142 00:15:09.700 --> 00:15:14.640 organized as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly 143 00:15:14.640 --> 00:15:15.640 as possible. 144 00:15:15.640 --> 00:15:17.760 Now that's clear. 145 00:15:17.760 --> 00:15:19.280 Now let me go to the ten points. 146 00:15:19.280 --> 00:15:23.680 He says, these measures will of course be different in different countries, nevertheless 147 00:15:23.680 --> 00:15:27.720 in the most advanced countries the following will be pretty generally applicable. 148 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:33.960 Now here are the ten steps to be taken which Marx recommends as a means of destroying private 149 00:15:33.960 --> 00:15:38.320 ownership of property and centralizing that property in the hands of the state. 150 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:44.960 Point one, the abolition of property in land and the application of all rents of land to 151 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:53.800 to Public Purposes, the abolition of all private ownership of land and the application of all 152 00:15:53.800 --> 00:15:58.080 income from land to public purposes. 153 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:03.240 If you think about that, you will see in the last several years how our government has 154 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:09.300 moved in more and more using eminent domain and other processes to take primary control 155 00:16:09.300 --> 00:16:32.300 A heavy progressive or graduated income tax, the abolition of all right of inheritance, 156 00:16:32.300 --> 00:16:45.700 The Abolition of All Right of Inheritance, The Confiscation of the Property of All Emigrants 157 00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:58.020 and Rebels, The Centralization of Credit in the Hands of the State by Means of a National 158 00:16:58.020 --> 00:17:12.140 Central Bank with State Capital and an Exclusive Monopoly, Centralization of the Means of Communication 159 00:17:12.140 --> 00:17:25.220 and Transport in the Hands of the State, Extension of Factories and Instruments of Production 160 00:17:25.220 --> 00:17:34.980 Extension is the increase in the numbers of factories and instruments of production owned 161 00:17:34.980 --> 00:17:35.980 by the state. 162 00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:39.740 In other words, the state is to get into more and more businesses. 163 00:17:39.740 --> 00:17:45.820 The bringing into cultivation of wastelands and the improvement of the soil generally 164 00:17:45.820 --> 00:17:48.180 in accordance with the common plan. 165 00:17:48.180 --> 00:17:54.020 What's wrong with bringing the cultivation of wastelands and the improvement of the soil 166 00:17:54.020 --> 00:17:55.020 generally? 167 00:17:55.020 --> 00:18:24.940 8. The equal liability of all to labor. In other words, full employment. 168 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:35.940 Everyone will work. They boast in Russia, where they also boast that they have accepted communism, that there is no unemployment. You wouldn't dare. 169 00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:44.940 So, you have equal liability of all to labor, establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. 170 00:18:44.940 --> 00:18:52.780 9. The combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, a gradual abolition of the distinction 171 00:18:52.780 --> 00:18:58.460 between town and country by a more equitable distribution of population over the country. 172 00:18:58.460 --> 00:19:06.260 And 10. Free education for all children in public schools. That means, of course, that 173 00:19:06.260 --> 00:19:10.940 the children are to be sent by schools that are owned and operated by the government. 174 00:19:10.940 --> 00:19:15.900 And that means, of course, that the government will inculcate its ideas into the minds of 175 00:19:15.900 --> 00:19:21.340 the children and will exclude them, looking like so many pieces of hot metal, where they've 176 00:19:21.340 --> 00:19:25.540 all been simply formed to fit the government pattern. 177 00:19:25.540 --> 00:19:31.540 And continuing with point 10, abolition of children's factory labor in its present form, 178 00:19:31.540 --> 00:19:36.400 the combination of education with industrial production, in other words, don't teach children 179 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:42.720 to think, teach them to work, see that they get a job and that they work at their job 180 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:47.600 and that the job of course is going to be managed by the government and that way you 181 00:19:47.600 --> 00:19:53.280 combine education with industrial production. Now those are the ten points and I leave it 182 00:19:53.280 --> 00:19:59.280 to you to analyze that yourself and to figure out what the effect of that type of thing 183 00:19:59.280 --> 00:20:04.260 has been right in this country where in a very large measure if you will examine it 184 00:20:04.260 --> 00:20:26.860 Let me turn now to point number four, which is the last part of the manifesto, and this 185 00:20:26.860 --> 00:20:28.220 is what it says here. 186 00:20:28.220 --> 00:20:33.180 This is the culmination, the summation of the instrument. 187 00:20:33.180 --> 00:20:39.300 In short, the communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing 188 00:20:39.300 --> 00:20:42.420 social and political order of things. 189 00:20:42.420 --> 00:20:48.500 May I point out that where they use the term social, they mean economic. 190 00:20:48.500 --> 00:20:51.300 Socialism is a kind of collectivized economics. 191 00:20:51.300 --> 00:20:52.500 This is what they're getting at. 192 00:20:52.500 --> 00:20:57.780 So they say a revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of 193 00:20:57.780 --> 00:20:59.000 things. 194 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:05.080 In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property 195 00:21:05.080 --> 00:21:08.520 question, no matter what its degree of development at the time. 196 00:21:08.520 --> 00:21:14.500 Finally, they labor everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of 197 00:21:14.500 --> 00:21:16.420 all countries. 198 00:21:16.420 --> 00:21:19.760 The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. 199 00:21:19.760 --> 00:21:25.680 They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of 200 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:32.800 Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. 201 00:21:32.800 --> 00:21:35.560 The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. 202 00:21:35.560 --> 00:21:37.360 They have a world to win. 203 00:21:37.360 --> 00:21:40.480 Working men of all countries unite. 204 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:43.680 And that is the close of the manifesto. 205 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:48.580 You'll notice these interesting observations that you should underline. 206 00:21:48.580 --> 00:21:52.880 The communists do not propose to abolish government. 207 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:57.760 Many people have been so struck by that word forcible that they imagine that the Communist 208 00:21:57.760 --> 00:22:01.240 Party is out to overthrow the government of the United States. 209 00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:05.760 In fact, a law has been passed in this country that makes it a criminal act to attempt to 210 00:22:05.760 --> 00:22:09.280 overthrow the government of the United States by force and violence. 211 00:22:09.280 --> 00:22:11.160 But the communists never said that. 212 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:16.940 What they say is the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. 213 00:22:16.940 --> 00:22:19.920 And by social conditions, they mean economic conditions. 214 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:24.500 So they are making war on the economy, not on the government, and the whole communist 215 00:22:24.500 --> 00:22:30.540 movement is aimed at taking over the government and using it in order to conduct an economic 216 00:22:30.540 --> 00:22:31.820 revolution. 217 00:22:31.820 --> 00:22:33.320 And that's what it's about. 218 00:22:33.320 --> 00:22:38.440 Also, I think it's interesting to note that they say, finally, they labor everywhere for 219 00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:42.080 the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries. 220 00:22:42.080 --> 00:22:46.800 I know some people today who are so snide as to suggest that it's hard to tell the 221 00:22:46.800 --> 00:22:51.040 the difference between a Republican and a Democrat in this country without a program. 222 00:22:51.040 --> 00:22:58.060 And of course there is basic agreement among Democrats and Republicans in certain areas. 223 00:22:58.060 --> 00:23:03.340 Both agree on massive taxation and massive regulation of the population. 224 00:23:03.340 --> 00:23:08.700 The place that they differ is fundamentally at the area of how you will spend the goodies 225 00:23:08.700 --> 00:23:10.400 that they have collected. 226 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:16.780 The Republicans tend to favor taxing everyone and then spending the money in terms of improvement 227 00:23:16.780 --> 00:23:33.780 The Democrats tend to favor the taxing of everybody and the spending of money on welfare and hot lunches for the children and things of this sort. 228 00:23:33.780 --> 00:23:45.780 But both of these positions are in essence sustained by the idea of taxing and regulating everybody, that's fundamental, and then you go ahead and spend it the one way or the other. 229 00:23:45.780 --> 00:23:54.780 In a very real sense, then, there is an agreement between the democratic parties of this country, the very thing that Marx called for. 230 00:23:54.780 --> 00:24:07.780 I know that it seems a shocking thing to say, but I would have to point out that in this country the official position of our government has never really been opposed to communism. 231 00:24:07.780 --> 00:24:12.780 It may have been opposed to a number of communists, but not to communism as a doctrine. 232 00:24:12.780 --> 00:24:21.780 And that is essentially the area that we would have to be concerned with if we are concerned with understanding what is going on today. 233 00:24:21.780 --> 00:24:27.780 Now if you will take the Declaration of Independence and the Communist Manifesto and compare the two, 234 00:24:27.780 --> 00:24:33.780 I think you'll see how remarkably different these two instruments are. 235 00:24:33.780 --> 00:24:39.780 The Declaration of Independence, which is a document of inspiration, as the Manifesto is, 236 00:24:39.780 --> 00:25:09.780 sets forth the proposition, however faultily it may have done so, but it sets it forth that every human being is endowed with certain equal and unalienable rights and these rights don't come from government and they don't come from other people, you simply have them as a result of the fact that you are a human being and no one has any right over you whatever and you don't have any right over anyone else whatever and you are 237 00:25:09.780 --> 00:25:16.500 The proposition of moral worth is assured, providing you limit your volitional actions 238 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:21.560 in terms of your own person and property, and that's what the Declaration of Independence 239 00:25:21.560 --> 00:25:22.560 sets forth. 240 00:25:22.560 --> 00:25:28.940 Now, the Communist Manifesto sets forth the proposition that property should not be privately 241 00:25:28.940 --> 00:25:34.100 owned particularly if it is industrial or productive property. 242 00:25:34.100 --> 00:25:40.540 Any property that is for the use of production or distribution is to be owned by the state, 243 00:25:40.540 --> 00:25:42.940 but it is not the state as it then existed. 244 00:25:42.940 --> 00:25:49.440 It is to be a new kind of state in which the workers have won the battle of democracy and 245 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.780 taken over as the new ruling class. 246 00:25:52.780 --> 00:25:56.100 Now that is supposed to inspire people too. 247 00:25:56.100 --> 00:26:02.300 It is to inspire the workers with the idea that they have been grossly abused, that the 248 00:26:02.300 --> 00:26:07.980 The reason that they don't have as much property as they ought to have is because people like 249 00:26:07.980 --> 00:26:15.180 capitalists, employers, the management team, per se, has really taken advantage of them 250 00:26:15.180 --> 00:26:20.460 and exploited them and thus injured them. 251 00:26:20.460 --> 00:26:28.340 And the whole communist idea is to rectify that injury by creating a new ruling class, 252 00:26:28.340 --> 00:26:33.580 which would be the class of proletariat in a position of power, and then from that time 253 00:26:33.580 --> 00:26:38.520 on the major property, the most meaningful property would be in the hands of the state 254 00:26:38.520 --> 00:26:44.380 and then the state would distribute on the basis of need. In fact, that was Marx's summation 255 00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:52.060 of his own position. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. 256 00:26:52.060 --> 00:26:58.980 And there you have, in essence, the communist ethic as opposed to the individualistic ethic 257 00:26:58.980 --> 00:27:03.300 as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.