Saturday, November 5, 2011

Karl Marx's Rhetorical Approach involving the idea of Communism.

       In my Rhetoric if Literature class this week, I learned about a very important individual who made an important contribution to philosophy, politics, and ways of presenting important topics. That individual was the German philosopher Karl Marx. I along with my classmates learned quite a bit about Marx and his lessons in the text "Rhetoric and Human Consciousness."There in the text book, I read parts of the chapter titled "Identification, Dialectic, and Dramatism," which not only described Marx's philosophy, but also made a brief comparison between him and psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud. The chapter analyzes the two men's approach to human conscious, but mostly Karl Marx and his in depth theory on his approach to economics and social order with communism.
      The chapter dealing with Marx brings many fascinating and significant information on his ideas. For example, to compare him with Freud the chapter states, " Marx provides a remarkable balance to Freud. If Freud is the therapist for the individual psyche, then Marx seeks to be the therapist for the world's political psyche" ( Smith, 268). So from what I am able to read here, I'm going to take the approach by stating that Marx acted as a person studying the mind of the world's social position, hierarchy, and economics. He tried to evaluate it as best as he could and provide solutions to whatever problems the world's  consciousness was facing. Marx used his study and knowledge of economics to make a stunning conclusion to the problems that the world was facing. In the text, there is a mentioning of Marx's idea about economic effects on the world when it reads, " Marx argued that material forces-capitol, labor, production, land-are responsible for the twists and turns of history"( Smith, 268). He was a sympathetic supporter of the common worker of society. I can also agree that every great nation around the world has emerged from the masons, brick layers, construction workers, and ditch diggers who helped build the great buildings and provide enough wealth for all of the upper class or royalty that profited the most from their hard labor. during Karl Marx's time.
     One of the most  historically important pieces of writing that Karl Marx wrote was Manifesto of the Communist Party. It was a book that Marx wrote along side factory worker Friedrich Engels. This book described the basic ideas for what Marx envisioned the Communist party to be before Russian revolutionaries such as Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin adopted his ideas for popular support and their own need for power. In the text it says, "The "Manifesto" claimed that "the proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains." They have the world to win. "Workers of all lands unite!"'(Smith, 269). The German thinker and philosopher certainly knew how to appeal to the working class. Offering ideas of opportunity and equal share of social power. However, Marx was not too happy with a certain class system that I'm too well familiar with. In the text it mentions. " he denounced the middle class for deserting an alliance with the working class" (Smith, 269). My whole life, I've known the middle class and the working class to be equally the same or in close contact with one another. To there is no real difference between the two so called classes. The truth is I don't like the idea of labelled classes. I would like to think that there are people with more connections and opportunities than others. But I also know that in America, people work hard and fight for whatever  they desire in life. At least that's what I believe.
     Back on point, In the Rhetoric and Human Consciousness text the points of Communism are brought up in ways that deal with rhetoric. There they bring up questions such as "Who has the power to speak? Who can afford to speak and who controls the means to get messages to the society? What is being said? What lies behind the promises being made?," or "What communalizing strategies are in place?" ( Smith, 270-272) These questions being asked are being brought up from Marx communist understanding and changes the way we  plan a speech, present a speech, and listen to a speech. People are considering rhetoric approaches like they haven't ever before. Each of the questions asked above are connected with examples of rhetoric in today's society. Whether they are  used for advertising or politics, Karl Marx's socialist way of approaching rhetoric have changed speech and politics in history.

     

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