For me, the issue is searching for redemption. The Nietzsche model is one where only redemption can come from becoming a better you. But redemption from what exactly? You still will die and suffer as humanity continues to suffer in various ways along with you.
Since the dawn of time, man has struggled to find redemption from the pain and suffering and death in this present world, and through this struggle, various philosophies have arisen to try and find this redemption. There are religious philosophies that place God at the center of our redemption, and there are secular human philosophies that reject God entirely. Two of the most famous and influential secular philosophers were that of Karl Marx and Frederick Nietzsche. The philosophies of both Marx and Nietzsche have created their own gospels of redemption.
Marx is by far the most famous and influential secular philosopher. “Marx envisions a society that needs to be transformed from a stratified society to an egalitarian one.” This method of redemption is not a spiritual transformation. Instead, it is a transformation through materialism. The redemption of Marx can only be realized if the proletariat, or workers, provoke a revolution to restructure society in the name of equality and justice. “Julius Carlebach examines the claim that Marx was a ‘secular nineteenth-century version of the Old Testament prophet’, and concludes that Marx’s passionate devotion to the proletariat is a ‘displacement of the chosen people’ and that Communism is nothing more than a reconstruction of Judaism with Marx’s theories: The equality of men as a matter of right and not of grace. Justice as a matter of principle and not convenience. Reason based on learning as a virtue and a duty, and this-worldliness which demanded the search for perfection on earth.” In short, the masses became their own deity, and in the glow of their redemption, they are enlightened and ennobled by their own divine purpose. In fact, Marx does not object to the ideals of religion as much as to the manipulations in the hands of the privileged classes, much like Christ standing up to the religious leaders and privileged classes of his day, and later crucified for it. But unlike Christ, Marx completely rejects the need for a God to find redemption from these oppressors. Instead, redemption will be achieved with world-wide socialism where everyone's equal, but primarily equal through material equality which will bring about societal happiness and utopia. Marx’s redemption must be universal and not merely on an individual basis. Either society as a whole is redeemed, or it is damned to an everlasting hell on earth, thus it must also be world-wide. This is unlike Nietzsche who preached that redemption can be found on an individual basis, and is not held hostage by the universal masses.
Like Marx, Nietzsche sought to restore humans to their true divinity. This is because Nietzsche concluded that there are those who are not worthy of his enlightened message, as well as those unable to cognitively even grasp it. “Some human beings, Nietzsche holds, are nobler than others and should serve as models for humanity, and it is these free spirits who are able to overcome themselves and rise above the all-too-human masses.” In other words, redemption comes from a small group of spiritual elites, Nietzsche, of course, leading the charge.
The philosophies of both Marx and Nietzsche were influential due to the fact that they helped form the basis of world governments. Two of the most famous world governments heavily influenced by them were the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Marx influenced both Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin as they preached redemption through the Soviet revolution of 1917. Conversely, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime were heavily influenced by Nietzsche. This can be seen as Hitler and his elites did not come to be by revolution, but through the appointment of Hitler and the democratic votes that later elected other Nazis.
In November 1932 - the last unmanipulated elections in the republic of Weimar - the Nazis got 33.1% of all votes. In the elections before they had 37.3% of all votes. They lost massive numbers of protest voters. Nevertheless Hitler became chancellor. In those days this position was much less important than today. The leader of Germany still had been president Hindenburg. With the enableing act in March 1933 it was possible for Hitler to rule with new regulations and to ignore the rule of law. But still president Hindenburg was able to block Hitler. When the old man Hindenburg died in August 1934 - never anyone tried to find out whether this was murder - Hitler became as well president and chancellor of Germany. So the complete executive power was now in his hands - and the iudicative power (the rule of law) had been helpless. And the propagandistic power of the only still existing political party was absolute. INthiose days Adolf Hitler was one of the most admired politicians in the whole world - specially also in Great Britain and the USA because the Nazis had been racists and darwinists.
They then stood out to the populace as the ideal model to be emulated. Luckily, the Nazi regime was later vanquished after World War 2 due to the evils it inflicted on the entire world, however, the Soviet regime remained and seemed to grow with more world-wide Marxist influence.
It is understandable why the Nietzsche influenced Nazi model of government fell out of favor. It was both evil and corrupt and lost a major world war. But why did the Marx counterpart seem to flourish? Was it any less evil and corrupt? No, if you consider that Stalin murdered millions more human beings than Hitler, and the fact that Marxism that later spread across the world in places like Red China and Cambodia oppressed and murdered hundreds of millions more. In fact, today those labeled a Nazi are automatically viewed world-wide as villains, however, those who call themselves Marxists
I am no Marxist
Karl Marx
seem to be revered the world over as on the cutting edge of enlightenment and social justice. Black Lives Matter is one such organization that self identifies as Marxists as corporations all around the world sing their praise and pour millions of dollars into their organization. However, do they know that Marx himself was an ardent racist against blacks?
In a letter Marx wrote to his friend Friedrich Engels in 1866, Marx writes that his black acquaintance Tremaux “proved that the common Negro type in the degenerate form of a much higher one.” So are the Marxists of today willing to ignore the pain and misery their ideology has inflicted upon mankind that is steeped in systemic racism so that they can try and attain his long term goal in mind of universal secular redemption, or are the simply unaware of it? It is hard to say. But the question must be asked, can redemption really be found in an ideologies of Marxism Nietzsche that has already taken humanity to the lowest depths of hell?
Karl Marx: Five things he had ahead of his time
by Christine Lehnen
How modern was Karl Marx? An exhibition at the German Historical Museum shows how he became one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century - with a body of work that is still read today.
1. Marx married a partner on an equal footing
Without her, his work would not have been possible: Jenny Marx (1814 - 1881), born Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny von Westphalen, was not only a journalist, but also Karl Marx's first critical reader. She discussed with him as well as with the publicist and philosopher Friedrich Engels and collaborated on the "Manifesto of the Communist Party." In the only handwritten version of the Manifesto that has survived, the first lines are written by her.
As a journalist, she wrote texts about the March Revolution in Germany and reviews of William Shakespeare for the renowned "Frankfurter Zeitung," and she also negotiated with publishers and spoke a number of foreign languages - better than her husband. This was a good thing, because the Marx family had to spend most of their lives in exile. Friedrich Engels called her and her husband the two "highly gifted natures" and said of Jenny after her death that "her bold and wise counsel" would be bitterly missed from now on.
2. Marx helped to make the eight-hour day a reality
In 1866, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels helped to make the eight-hour day the official demand of the International Workers' Party. As early as the 1810s, the Welshman Robert Owen is said to have coined the slogan in Great Britain, which is also depicted on this pocket watch from the exhibition: "Eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, and eight hours of leisure and recreation."
In Britain, however, the eight-hour day for permanent employees was never legislated. In Canada, on the other hand, it has been enshrined in law since 1899, in France since 1919, and in the U.S. since 1938. The eight-hour day was also introduced by law in Germany, for the first time in 1918. Since then, however, the law has been softened again. In the meantime, six-hour days are being tested in several European countries.
3. Marx is an icon of the modern "Occupy" movement
On September 17, 2011, demonstrators under the slogan "Occupy Wall Street" occupied Zuccotti Park in New York's banking district. They protested against an economic system in which a few are getting richer and richer while the vast majority are getting poorer and demanded greater political control of the banking and financial sector. The "Occupy" movement soon expanded around the globe. It made a portrait of Marx its own and, equipped with the catchy slogan "I told you I was right," gave him the status of a modern icon.
For especially since the banking crisis in the 21st century, Marx's writings are once again receiving worldwide attention. He is still considered one of the most important critics of capitalism. His legacy, however, is ambivalent: Socialist dictatorships such as the Soviet Union or the GDR repeatedly appropriated Karl Marx as an economist to justify their unjust state. His attitude towards Jewish fellow citizens is also controversial. His writing "On the Jewish Question" (first published in 1844) was used for purposes of anti-Semitic propaganda, for example by the Communist Party in 1920s Germany.
4. Marx conducted research at the highest level - and still inspires today
Many economists around the world still draw on the writings of economist Karl Marx today. For example, in 2013, French economist Thomas Piketty published his book "Capital in the 21st Century," with direct reference to Karl Marx's seminal study "Das Kapital" (1867).
Drawing on Marx's analyses, Piketty concludes that since the mid-20th century, a few people in industrialized nations have owned more and more wealth. This increase in inequality is part of capitalism, he concludes, and this endangers democracy. His book sparked debates around the world about the future of capitalism.
The first original edition of "Das Kapital" from Marx's possession with his handwritten notes has been part of UNESCO's World Document Heritage since 2013. This was UNESCO's response to a joint proposal by the Dutch and German governments.
5. Marx was a citizen of the world
Marx influenced political debate in many countries - such as France, Great Britain, the United States, India and Russia - and lived in some of them as well.Several times he was expelled from the country for sedition. The mastermind of a "proletarian revolution" spent almost his entire life in exile as a stateless person. After his marriage he went to Paris with Jenny Marx.There he also began his collaboration with Friedrich Engels, the son of a wealthy factory owner.When the Prussian government demanded his expulsion, Jenny and Karl Marx moved to Brussels, followed by Friedrich Engels.There they began work on a programmatic pamphlet that would become the Communist Manifesto.It ends with the now world-famous call, "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" The Marx family was also expelled from Belgium and finally found refuge in London in 1849. Here Jenny and Karl Marx lived until their deaths. Jenny died on December 2, 1881, Karl on March 14, 1883. Almost 200 years after his death [the author liked to say "birth"], his work is selling better than it has in a long time.
source:
Karl Marx: Fünf Dinge, die er seiner Zeit voraus hatte – DW – 10.02.2022
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