Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced
I don’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it.
While I do agree with a lot of theoretical arguments presented in this book, I found it to be less of a manifesto and more of a critique of opposing views. Critiquing is all well and good, of course, except that unless you are proposing alternate possibilities of theory or action it tends to just come across as whining; which is unfortunately how I read a lot of this.
Only the final 3 pages of the “manifesto” are actually devoted to Communist views; even then, these are presented in relation to level of support for various political parties rather than stand alone principles. The rest of the book is instead a history and analysis of class struggle.
Nonetheless, some of my favourite quotes include:
“... the proletariat — cannot attain its emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling class — the bourgeoisie — without, at the same time, and once and for all, emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class distinction, and class struggles.”
“No sooner is the exploitation of the laborer by the manufacturer, so far at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.”
“In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of entire proletariat, independently of nationality.”
“The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property... property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, activity and independence... But does wage-labor create any property for the laborer? Not a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which exploits wage-labor, and which cannot increase except upon condition of begetting a new supply of wage-labor for fresh exploitation.”
“All that we want to do away with, is the miserable character of this appropriation, under which the laborer lives merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it.”
“You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths.”
“Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation.”
“Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
While I do agree with a lot of theoretical arguments presented in this book, I found it to be less of a manifesto and more of a critique of opposing views. Critiquing is all well and good, of course, except that unless you are proposing alternate possibilities of theory or action it tends to just come across as whining; which is unfortunately how I read a lot of this.
Only the final 3 pages of the “manifesto” are actually devoted to Communist views; even then, these are presented in relation to level of support for various political parties rather than stand alone principles. The rest of the book is instead a history and analysis of class struggle.
Nonetheless, some of my favourite quotes include:
“... the proletariat — cannot attain its emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling class — the bourgeoisie — without, at the same time, and once and for all, emancipating society at large from all exploitation, oppression, class distinction, and class struggles.”
“No sooner is the exploitation of the laborer by the manufacturer, so far at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.”
“In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of entire proletariat, independently of nationality.”
“The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property... property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom, activity and independence... But does wage-labor create any property for the laborer? Not a bit. It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which exploits wage-labor, and which cannot increase except upon condition of begetting a new supply of wage-labor for fresh exploitation.”
“All that we want to do away with, is the miserable character of this appropriation, under which the laborer lives merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only in so far as the interest of the ruling class requires it.”
“You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths.”
“Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation.”
“Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
challenging
informative
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced