Karl Marx was a German intellectual, philosopher, journalist, and atheist Jew who wrote anti-government publications and radical pamphlets and dense analyses of economic, political, and social philosophy. After being exiled from France, he lived in Britain. His collaborator in his most famous and approachable work, Communist Manifesto, was Friedrich Engels. Marx was a utopian thinker who thought he had the solution for the plagues of humankind: oppression, poverty, conflict, war. It was Communism.

Marx argued that the history of humankind involves social and economic conflict between the rich (lords, aristocrats, nobles, business owners, factory managers) and the poor (slaves, serfs, peasants, laborer, factory worker/wage earners). He argued that by his time of the 1800s, class division was highlighted by the conflict between the business owners/factory managers and the laborers/factory workers. The former he called the bourgeoisie, and the latter he called the proletariat. The former were owners, managers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, professors, government leaders; all who owned or controlled the superstructure of society: education, government, hospitals, transportation, communication, military. They were the minority of the population but possessed the majority of the power. The Proletariat on the other hand were the propertyless: the majority of people; they don’t own anything, they live according to the work of their hands and the wages they received as a consequence. The worker who became too old or became disabled–tough luck, there were no government institutions to help.

The Bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat, because the proletariat does all the work but has no wealth, no power, no decision-making, no security. Marx called for revolution, the revolution of the proletariat, where they would rise up, take control of superstructure of society, the money, the power; the bourgeoisie would have to accommodate the proletariat or die. The Proletariat will create a dictatorship; they will assume complete control over everything. The Bourgeoisie destroyed, a classless society will result. Without classes, without division of money and property, conflict will come to an end. War will come to an end, because war is caused by different countries attempting to control the resources of other countries. With only one class there will be no nations, no states, but the entire world will be united. Marx’s ideas required world communism.

The plan as he outlined it was this: destroy industrial capitalism via revolution, which results in a world dictatorship: Socialism—but this is temporary. Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the government will work itself out of existence, and this results in Communism.

Government only exists because of class differences; government solves disputes between the rich and poor. If there no longer are the rich and poor, there will be no reason for government.

Classes have always been based on private property. Private property, private ownership will come to an end. All will be shared by all people. No reason anymore for money.

The needs of all will be equally met. Humans will be the same.

Government before it dissolves itself will change how humans think, it will change human nature. The crux of Marx’s philosophy is education, which is the basis to change human nature. All babies born will be raised alike together and educated together. Same clothing. Same hairstyle. Same name. No presents. No ownership. No toys. This will eliminate the desire for private possessions, which is the bane of society, and the cause of class conflict.

Marx ultimately argued that human nature will change, and a communist society will be the result.

These steps are clearly outlined in the Communist Manifesto. Those who read the pamphlet and believed it knew what they were in for: the terror and murder of the Soviet Union and Communist China, for example.

Marx’s most dangerous idea was this: “Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man’s ideas, views and conceptions, in one word, man’s consciousness, changes with every change in the conditions of his material existence, in his social relations and in his social life?”

Hitherto, most philosophers would argue that what makes each human different was a sense of self, a sense of individual consciousness that was God given: this is what makes humans unique, different, specific individuals. A most profound statement of this philosophy is found in Psalm 139 in the Old Testament: God know everything, everyone, and there is no place an individual can hide from God, because God is the creator of the human self.

But Marx argued the atheistic point of view that human consciousness or the human self is based on the material conditions of life. Materialism: this is Marx’s philosophy. Change the environment, change the human.

It is almost impossible to be a Marxist and a Theist. The ideas are so completely contradictory.