◆ The
nineteenth-century philosopher’s ideas may help us to understand the economic
and political inequality of our time.
 |
| Karl Marx ✆ Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich |
Louis Menand
On or about February 24, 1848, a twenty-three-page pamphlet
was published in London. Modern industry, it proclaimed, had revolutionized the
world. It surpassed, in its accomplishments, all the great civilizations of the
past—the Egyptian pyramids, the Roman aqueducts, the Gothic cathedrals. Its
innovations—the railroad, the steamship, the telegraph—had unleashed fantastic
productive forces. In the name of free trade, it had knocked down national
boundaries, lowered prices, made the planet interdependent and cosmopolitan.
Goods and ideas now circulated everywhere.
Just as important, it swept away all the old hierarchies and
mystifications. People no longer believed that ancestry or religion determined
their status in life. Everyone was the same as everyone else. For the first
time in history, men and women could see, without illusions, where they stood
in their relations with others. The new modes of production, communication, and distribution
had also created enormous wealth. But there was a problem. The wealth was not
equally distributed. Ten per cent of the population possessed virtually all of
the property; the other ninety per cent owned nothing. As cities and towns
industrialized, as wealth became more concentrated, and as the rich got richer,
the middle class began sinking to the level of the working class.
