Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #56 - What Marx Got Wrong

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Civilization #56 - What Marx Got Wrong

Good morning. So today we are doing Car Marx. And Car Marks is one most influential thinkers in human history. His contribution to intellectual thought cannot be overstated. So what I'm going to do first is I'm going to do a thought experiment. Okay? It's just going to be a fun experiment. And let's pretend there are two scenarios. Okay, instead of one, you get into a really good college and you decide to become a lawyer. Go to law school, you do extremely well, you become a lawyer, and you make a lot of money.

And you make a lot of money, you can buy a big house, go on vacations to Bali. You can have a BMW, okay? So that's situation one. You're a super lawyer, basically. Situation two is different. You're on a plane with strangers, and there's about 100 of you. You crash on the island.

This island, it's very poor, very scarce resources, and you have to work together in order to just get by, okay? You're not eating well. You're not living well. Every day is a struggle. You're not really sure if you'll get to the second day. All right. So those are the two scenarios.

You're an island and you're basically like starving. And so the question, the thought experiment is, do you think you'd be a happier person in the first situation or the second situation? Now you... Yeah, so you would think obviously the answer is number one, but what I will show you today is that's not necessarily true, okay? Maybe for some of us, the answer is number one, but for many of us the answer is actually number two. Because as humans, we want to feel as though we have a purpose in life and that we are part of a larger mission to change the world for the better. Okay, and that's the underlying thesis of Karl Marx. All right, so let's start Marx.

Okay, so first understand Marx, we first need to review Kant and Hegel, which we did last class. So Immanuel Kant. Immanuel Kant's theory of the world is this. We are all endowed with the capacity to reason. Okay, and it's born in us. We don't learn it. It is just part of who we are. Okay.

So, and then this reason interacts with reality. The things in themselves. And then what we see is the appearance. Okay. So the crucial argument that Khan is making is, we imagine reality around us by bringing in space and time. Reality, we don't see reality objectively, okay, or away from us, we see reality as part of us.

And with our mind, we create our own universe. And as we discussed last class, this has been confirmed by neuroscience, by artificial intelligence and quantum mechanics. So it's really a dominant understanding of human psychology we have today. But the problem of Immanuel Kot, there are three major issues with Immanuel Kot. The first major issue is, if we can never know reality, then how do we know what's real and what's fake? Right? How do we know we don't live in a computer simulation?

And the answer is we don't know. So that's the first issue of Emmanuel Kot. He does not give us proof of an objective reality. That's the first problem. Second problem is the source for our reason. If we are born with the capacity to imagine space and time and shape our reality, who gives it to us? Where does it come from? And he doesn't really answer that question.

The third question is a problem of uniformity. Which is to say, how do I know that you and me and others see the world in the same? way. Why aren't we seeing a different reality? And then Emmanuel Khan says, well, we don't know either, okay? So these are the three major problems created by Emmanuel Khan's philosophy of the world. So Frederick Hago comes along and resolves all three issues. And when he says is this, he says that the underlying source of reality is called the geist. The geist is the spirit of the world. Think of it as a god that's becoming into reality. It's growing, okay?

It's almost like the internet, collective consciousness. And as a result, the Geist is giving us the capacity to reason and to see itself and then to imagine our reality. Okay? So the idea that geist solves all three problems at once, an underlying reality that gives, that creates the material reality. So Hegel is an idealist, meaning for him, what matters is ideas and spirit. and the material was created from these ideas and from spirit okay so these are the so what this is hagel what Karl Marx will do is build on Hegel to create something called dialectical materialism which is idea of class struggle okay and he will create his

philosophy based on his reading of Hegel all right so let's go over how Marx's interpret So again, Hegel has three major ideas. The first is the idea of the geist, the underlying superstructure of reality. Second is the idea of the dialectic. Okay, so the idea of the dialectic is, how does this guise become what it does, what it is? How does this guise learn and think? And the answer is the dialectic.

The dialectic is thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. And the concept is just a debate in itself. For it to know itself, it must create its opposite. And then when it creates its opposite, it debates itself and creates a synthesis. And it's the idea of a debate where you might have a viewpoint and you engage with someone with another viewpoint that's opposite of yours, you debate,

and through this debate you create a synthesis of your different viewpoints okay and for Hegel this is the underlying logic of history of how we learn of how we progress okay and the third idea that Hegel proposes is either of the master slave dialectic and so um haigle thinks that relationship can be broken into a master and slave basically i command you you do as i say you obey me but when but then what Hegel says is over time this thesis into vices also becomes a synthesis why because as your master I become dependent on you as my slave in fact you're the one doing all the work so about you I can't exist okay so in this way the relationship inverts itself and the master becomes

slave to the slave right because the master is now dependent on the slave for his livelihood. So these are the three big ideas that Hegel is going to take, sorry, these are the three big ideas of Hegel, and Marx is going to take these three ideas and develop his own theory of the world. So Marx. Marx is from Prussia.

As we discussed before, a lot of these major philosophers are from Prussia. Hegel himself was also Prussian, and it was very proud to be Prussian. And Marx, when he was in university, it was part of a group called the Young Hegelians. These are individuals, a group of them, who worship Hegel, but they misinterpreted Hegel. They thought of Hegel as an atheist because he said, God is dead. But when Hegel said God is dead, what he really meant is, I am now going to reinterpret God,

not as this separate entity from us, but as part of us in the form of the guise. So the young Hengalians will reinterpret Hegel, and basically misinterpret him. So the first thing they do is they take the guise and they turn into a material thing. Okay, economics. So Hegel thinks it's ideas that come first, than materiality.

But these guys, the young Hegelians, they will invert those and say, it's a materiality that creates ideas. It's economic, it's wealth that creates culture, which gives rise to ideas. So it's a complete opposite. Second thing they'll do is, if this is true, the dialectic and the master's slave relationship, then history is a history of oppression and a struggle for liberation against this oppression. And so the idea of the material world and struggle with itself creates the idea of dialectical materialism.

And we call this class struggle. The rich and the poor funding each other, and the poor are looking for liberation. So does that make sense? Okay, great. So that's right. So this is class struggle. And this is the main contribution that Marx will make,

and by creating this idea, he will lay the foundation for what we treat they refer to as communism. The underlying reality of history is class struggle. The other thing that Marx will take from Hegel is an understanding that all of history is theological. Theological. This is a big word, but all it means is there is an inability to history. There's a purpose.

There's a progress to history. Everything is being done for a reason. Okay, so let's go over the theology that Marx creates. All right. So we were born as hunter-gatherers. We all know this. We're out in the forest hunting food and small tribes. And we're happy, but there's not a food to feed everyone.

So we developed agriculture, right? And then because of agriculture, we have something called surplus value. We're able to create more wealth, which allows a few of us to settle down and do other stuff. For example, create literacy. And this gives rise to civilization. And then to justify the civilization, to justify this hierarchy, the fact that you have a few people who are essentially parasites of society,

we create the idea of religion, right? Because the elite now are priests. So that's the second stage. Then what happens is as we deal up more more technology and the societies become larger and larger, we have to go to war against each other, okay, to fight for resources. And so this gives rise to the master slave relationship, which then gives us feudalism, which then allows for the rise of industrial capitalism. And this is the stage Marx finds himself at.

And what Marx says is, this is all a linear progress given by technological advancement, right? So agriculture is an advancement, and then you have tools, and you have weapons, then you have castles, knights, and now you have steamships. Okay, so it's all part of a technological plan to liberate humanity. technology, okay? Now, and he's writing the year in 1848, okay? And now industrial capitalism will naturally lead to communism. All right? He says this is not something that we can hope for or work towards. It's something that's going to happen because of history. History is God. God is history. We, our world's being developed through the mind of God. All right.

So first thing he does is he uses the Hegelian dialectic, right? So feudalism is the thesis, industrial capitalism is antithesis, and then together they will create communism. Why? So for Marx, embedded in capitalism is the seeds of its demise. And there are three reasons why. First is industrial capitalism is imperial. It's all consumer.

It expands. And as a result, it's going to create a global politariat. And because they're all oppressed, they're going to come in and clotsons together and recognize that only for collective action can we live with ourselves from the capitalist class. All right? And because the politariat is the majority of people, 99%,

then the 1%. have no chance okay that's number one number two is that you have technology capitalism gives rise to new technology which makes surplus which creates surplus value and surplus labor it basically makes our job easier okay in which case we don't have to work as hard as before in order to create value okay so that's technology so for example AI right And the third is the idea of crisis in capitalism. Crisis in capitalism.

And what this means is for Marx, capitalism is fundamentally unsustainable. It will collapse at a certain point. Why? Well, there are many reasons why. So for Marx, the main problem is overproduction. You're producing all these goods, but because you're impoverishing everyone, no one's going to buy these goods, in which case the market, in which case the company is going to collapse, right? It's one possibility.

Another possibility is presented by a man named Thomas Piccaddy. And he wrote a famous book called Capital in 21st Century. And he's working off Marx. And what he believes, the fundamental paradox of capitalism is a problem of financialization. So all this is saying is this. At first, we have to build a factory to generate wealth, right? But once we had to generate wealth,

We want to take this wealth and go invest it somewhere, because it's easier for us, and we can make more money that way. But over time, as capitalism grows and grows, everyone wants to invest, no one wants to manufacture. And what happens then is the financial economy is going faster than the manufacturing economy. In fact, for Piccaddy, the financial economy will go at 5%, whereas the manufacturing economy

will go at 2%. This means that if you put your money in a stock market, you'll make 5% a year. If you open a restaurant or you create a factory or you do something useful, you make 2% a year. So no one knows work anymore, right? So for Piggity, capitalism will have to end at some point. Then you have a name,

named Carol Quigley. And he's a historian. We discussed him last week, but he's a story not Georgetown, he's dead, but he wrote a famous book called Tragedy in Hope. And he argues that capitalism goes in phases. The first phase is consumer capitalism. capitalism where companies are trying to create products that consumers want to buy.

Then that leads to financial capitalism where now companies just want to invest their wealth. But over time, the final stage is the idea of monopoly capitalism, where a few companies control all the resources. In which case, we pay a lot of money for crappy stuff. And then we don't want to buy anything anymore, okay? So for Marx and for Piccady and for Carol quickly, capitalism can only lead to crisis. And then because of the crisis, the politic will organize and then rebel and then create a worker's paradise, which leads to communism.

That's the logic of Marx. That is Marx's understanding of history. All right. So what I'm going to explain now is why would this be popular? Why would this history be popular for people? Because communism was one of the most popular movements throughout the 20th century. And the problem that Marx's diagnosis is capitalism makes people miserable

for three reasons. So the issues of capitalism. The first issue is that it is all encompassing, all-consuming. So in other words, it just grows and grows. Because it has to grow and grow to create value, it starts wars. So you have imperialism, right? Because as a factory owner, you want to create new markets, you want access to cheaper goods, you want access to cheaper labor.

Therefore, you force your government to go invade other countries like China, India, Africa. So capitalism creates wars and human misery all around the world. It's all consuming. It's always expanding. Second problem with capitalism is that it is, it consolidates. consolidating and the idea here is this capitalism can only lead to extreme inequality why because the point of capitalism is to generate as much wealth as possible so to do that we want to consolidate our wealth so maybe there's

ten of us with a million dollars each right well we're better off just put putting our money together and then investing it together right which creates massive inequality so over time Marx believes that because capitalism is all-consuming and consolidating, it will destroy the middle class. Unless you're super wealthy, you won't have any money. If you are just like a small factory owner, you'll be bought up by a large factory owner. And quite honestly, this is what's happening in the world today. If you are a small houseowner in America, well, you're going to be bought out by a company. And then the company is going to use your house to rent to other people. So this is a pattern that's

happening throughout the world today. And that's why Marx is seeing a massive resurgence in our world today. Now the third problem is alienating. And here Marx explains that there are four types of alienation. The first type of alienation is the alienation of labor. What this means is this. As humans, we want to create stuff. We are fundamentally creative.

We want to create art products. We want to cook. We want to teach. We want to express our individuality. And why we want to do that is, We express our individuality, when we create things, we support the community. So when I teach you guys, you guys learn. And when you learn, you feel good, you thank me, and that confirms my humanity.

That confirms my individuality. So society is a mechanism for each of us to exchange our creativity in a way that affirms our own individuality. Does that make sense? All right? The problem with capitalism is it takes use value, okay? What this thing is used for, and it replaces it for like exchange value, which is how much this thing is worth.

And this is these are two different opposites, okay? Oh, sorry, these are two different concepts. So use value is I cook, I cook an apple pie, and then I give it to you and you eat it and you say, wow, this is a really awesome apple pie. Thank you so much. And then you feel good, I feel good, okay? That's use value. Exchange value is, I cook this apple pie, and I give it to someone who then goes, sells to someone.

I never meet that person, okay? And I'm not, and I don't know what happens to the pie, but I'm paid like $5 for it. All right? So that's the idea of exchange value. And as such, what Marx says is this exchange of goods does not affirm our individual, therefore it makes us miserable, because we don't know why we're doing it. anything anymore. Before we're doing things in order to support a community in order to please other people in order to affirm our humanity. Now we're just

making stuff because of wage labor, right? Wages to get paid. So that's alienating for us. This makes sense, right? Wait. Second is that it alienates us from ourselves. Why? Because as human beings, we are very complex, we are multifaceted, and we're always evolved. But for capitalism, what matters is division of labor, specialization, because that's what allows for the most rapid industrial growth. And so, in other words, you cease to be you

and you become a hand, or maybe a finger, or maybe an eye, or maybe an ear, okay? But you cease to be complete. You're just like a cog in the machine. You're just a piece of the puzzle. And that alienates for you from who you are really. It prevents you from achieving your full potential as a creative, vibrant human being.

Okay, that's a second issue. The third issue is it alienates us from nature. Okay, why? Because capitalism grows by exploiting humans and by exploiting nature. It cuts down trees. It destroys the environment. It creates air pollution.

We can no longer drink clean water. It destroys the nature. And it makes us feel that we must destroy nature nature if we are to feed our families. So it alienates us from our nature, whereas historically we have been in a symbolic relationship with nature where we thank nature for feeding us. But we're always replenishing, we're always protecting nature. Now, the fourth type of alienation is the alienation from humanity. All right? So before, for most of history, we were cooperating with each other, we're

helping each other out. Okay, because that's the only way you could survive. But capitalism forces us to compete against each other. Okay, and the example, of course, is school, where because of grades, you see your classmates as competitors. Right? But if there are no grades, then you might help each other learn. You might tutor each other in homework and help each other with homework and tests. Okay? Okay.

So that doesn't make sense. So the idea here is let's just say that like maybe five people are, have to carry some goods to a store. That's your job. One person falls down, breaks his leg, and cries out for help. Well, we should go help that person, right? But the logic of capitalism is you can't, the logic of capitalism is you can't do that

because the manager will find you for being late. Does that make sense? All right? So that's why Marx thinks that this will alien us from our humanity. And this part of Marx, where Marx that the problems of capitalism is considered brilliant, okay? This is a perfect encapsulation of all the issues with capitalism.

That was true in the 1850s, in the 19th century, but it's also true today. If you look at the world today, then we also have these issues. And if you analyze Marx's diagnosis of capitalism, then it helps explain why the world is the way it is. Okay? All right. So, and because of these pressing issues, because people are starting so much, they see Marxism, they see communism as salvation and redemption.

That's the appeal, okay? Because capitalism has made life so miserable for a majority of people. Okay? All right. So, but the problem is we know that this prophecy of Marx that we will naturally evolved into communism has not pan out. In fact, communism has caused a lot of human misery as well. And so why is that the case? And so what I'm going to show you now is even though Marx has this beautiful theory, it's also wrong, okay, for a variety

of reasons. So let's analyze his understanding of history and show how it's wrong. Okay, The first thing is, let's go out to the hunter-gatherer agriculture transition. The first class ever taught a long, long time ago, is the transition from hunter-gatherer to agriculture didn't make any sense. As a hunter-gatherer, you didn't have a scarcity problem. In fact, you ate really well. You worked less, you ate more. And we know because if you dig up skeletons of hunter-gatherers, they're taller than farmers.

In fact, they're a lot taller. 100 gatherers were on average like 6 foot which is like really really tall right and farmers were like on average maybe 5 foot that's a huge difference okay so the so using the economic argument of Marx this makes no sense right and what I explained to you before is it's not economics that drives human history it's religion that drives human history okay so we settle down in order to practice a cult to practice a religion because maybe one place was considered divine for whatever reason and as a result we develop agriculture which led to

civilization so the Marx formulation that religion comes last is wrong it's religion that comes first okay it's religion that leads to agriculture which leads to civilization right so that's what Marx gets wrong also the transition from feudalism to capitalism was that driven by technology was driven by religion all right so let me explain Okay, so the feudalism, the dominant religion at this time was the Catholic religion. When we go into industrial capitalism, the dominant religion is Protestantism. So, as we discussed before, the Catholic religion was an imperial bureaucracy, led by the Pope.

And there were many religious reformers who thought this was abhorrent. This went against the will of God. Okay. And so what they proposed was this. they proposed a religion which was democratic in which everyone had access to God before you had to listen to the priest. You couldn't read the Bible by yourself.

Now you had to read the Bible yourself in order to access God by yourself. And there were two major different, there are two major transitions. The first is before, in order to get to heaven, you have to use justification by works. All this means is you do good things.

You give money to the church, you probably give money to the church, okay? All right? But because the Protestants want to reduce the power of Catholic Catholic Church, they said, no, what matters is certification by faith. It doesn't matter how much money you give to the church. What matters is, do you truly believe in God? That's what matters.

So that's the first major difference. And then the Protestants, in order to reduce the public church, because the church said, only if you listen to us can we guarantee you access to heaven, right? So what the Protestant said is no. access to heaven is predestined so the predestination in other words at the beginning of time god has already decided who will go to heaven and who go to hell he's already decided so doesn't matter what the church tells you it doesn't matter how much money you give to the church you're all going to hell if you

don't believe truly believe in god all right so the so the Protestant religion was a direct response to the catholic religion now this creates a new problem the problem is this how do you know you truly believe in God? How do you know that you are one of the elect? How do you know that you were chosen by God to go to heaven? This creates anxiety, right? Anxiety, as we know, leads to OCD, obscenopulsive disorder, right? So how do you compensate for OCD? Well, you make a lot of money. But not only do you make a lot of money, but you don't spend it, because that wealth now is an indication. cater to you and to others that you are truly one of the elect that you are

saved by God that you were chosen by God to go to heaven and that's the birth of capitalism okay does that make sense all right it was not technology driven because the technology at that time was everywhere but it was only in Europe did you have industrial capitalism it was because of the Protestant faith that's what drove it okay um so you're journey lose wealth not to appease God but to impeach your anxiety you understand this you won't give money to this to God because God doesn't need your money okay but having this money is confirmation to yourself that you will go to

heaven because this money can only be made because you're your faith in God do you understand okay how do you know you believe in God because you worked hard and God made you wealthy and that's the logic driving capitalism so Marx missed this okay so so Let's summarize and say, look, Marx made three fundamental mistakes. The first is people care about religion, not economics. With religion that drives human history, not economics. That's the first mistake he made.

Second mistake that he made is people care about God, not heaven. In other words, we're going to heaven, not because we think it's a five-star hotel, with like lots and lots of like I don't know like lobsters and steaks and all you eat buffets that's not the reason we're going to heaven we're in heaven to be with God because God represents eternal truth eternal salvation we want to be with God okay the third is people care about status not class so in other words throughout most of human history we didn't have a concept of money so for example the Vikings When they went off to steal, they stole lots of gold, right? But when they got back to the village, they would hold a big feast for everyone, and they would waste all this money.

You understand? Because there's actually no point in having money. You couldn't spend it. If you died, you couldn't keep it. So you made money, you generate wealth in order to raise your status within the community. Okay, and that's why you wore gold, because the gold signified that you have high-stained.

figure of high status within the community all right so for almost of you of human history and still even today we seek status not class the class the class is created because of industrial capitalism because of the free market okay because now people were mobile okay but before it was about status okay and so what this means is this because Marx interpreted history incorrectly and he didn't understand human psychology. What he could not predict is when we did achieve communism, it would become bureaucratic hierarchies with core personalities. In the Soviet Union, you had Stalin, right? It was in charge of a bureaucracy. And in China, you had Mao Zedone, who was in charge of bureaucracy.

North Korea is the same situation. Why? Because of these three factors, right? Mao, Stalin, all understood that people want a religion they want to be they want to feel close to God so they made themselves God okay and people want status and that's what it's more than have a bureaucracy so that's why common common common became the way it became in the 20th century all right okay so does this make sense all right great all right so though the so even though the Marx philosophy is very appealing it's very clear it's very direct it's very sexy he got it he got the history wrong and and and because he got the history wrong the consequences

were huge okay because communism created a lot of wars and it led to a lot of disasters like famines and stuff any questions before I move on okay yeah so that's a really good question and so the question is the role of religion should be obvious to people, right? Why do they believe in economics? Okay. That's a great question, and you know what? I don't have an answer, but I think a clue is this.

Capitalism and communism are the same religion. Okay? So as capitalism grows, it reinforces communism. As communism grows, it reinforces capitalism. Why? Because both believe that economics, materialism, is the underlying reality. Okay? Religion doesn't matter.

So capitalism spreads by making everyone uniform, by turning everyone into an economic animal, right? Because today, we don't ask you to believe in God. We ask you to go buy things. That doesn't make sense. communism is the same way. Conlinism believes that as long as there's equality, as long there's no property, everyone will be happy. So, it's ironic that these two ideas, capitalism and communism, even though they were mortal enemies in the 12th century, the underlying basis of the religion is the same.

And as they develop, they reinforce each other, okay? Does that make sense? All right, so, but that's a great question. So we instantly understand that religion is more important than economics, but because capitalism and communism were able to spread so fast, we've been brainwashed in their thinking that only economics matters okay so for example when you read the newspaper it's always what's a GDP this year what's the employment rate this year what's inflation rate this year what's the price of eggs this year it's never how do people feel

spiritually how how how how how are people religiously okay it's never about your psychology never it's never about your spirituality it's always about how much money do you have okay so so communism and capitalism together with the world. Does that make sense? Okay, great. Any more questions before I move on? Okay, this is a great question. So Marx himself believe the revolution will happen in Germany first, because Germany had the most advanced politariat. But it never happened in Germany. It didn't happen in France. It didn't happen in Britain. It happened in China and Russia. And in fact, if Marx were alive today, he would be appalled by the fact that happened in Russia and China.

Because it wasn't supposed to happen in Russia and China. You needed a politariat in order for the revolution to happen. But Russia and China were peasant nations, right? So what had happened in Russia and China? Okay, the main reason is this. And we'll go more into this next week. The main reason is this, because a communist revolution was not. a communist revolution. It was a peasant revolution with the veneer of communism. So communism was the

ideology, the religion that they practiced, but it was essentially a peasant rebellion that's no different from previous peasant rebellions in Chinese history. Does that make sense? All right, but I'll explain this later on. Great, but great question. And any more questions before I move on? Great. All right, so what was this clear to you? This history, okay? All right, good. And it's very important because it really helps you understand the world we live in today. Because even though Marx's theory of history is wrong,

his understanding of capitalism is perfect, okay? And it really helps you think about why things are happening the way they are today, especially the constellation of wealth. All right, let's do the history, okay? All right, so, okay, we did Kant and Hegel on Tuesday. We're doing Marx today. Next Tuesday, we do Freud. Why are we doing these four thinkers?

Because you're the ones, each of them, who created intellectual revolution, that fundamentally changed the way we see ourselves and society. So remember, Kant made us subjective. He taught us that the world does not exist outside us. Hegel taught us that there's a geist that compels us. We are just a manifestation of this geese, but the geese is everything. Marx teaches us it's class struggle that's the underlying force of history. And what he also believes is the class struggle can only end in communism.

Why? Because that is the will of God. Because God manifests itself in our history. All right? So Marx is really building on top of Hegel. What we'll learn next Tuesday is Freud. Okay? So, and Freud's going to work on all three to build a new theory of the world. And the theory is amazing because what he does is he takes all these theories and teaches

us that we are our own universe. Everything that happens is because of our memories and our psychology, okay? but that's next Tuesday. But just to give you a heads up. All right. So the entire lecture is about why was Marx wrong? Okay, and as explained, the runnings of Marx, I mean, he was like a prophet, right?

He comes from a Jewish family. He himself was an atheist, but he came from a long line of Jewish rabbis. And when I say that, you're like, okay, that doesn't sound that impressive. But it was basically the equivalent of saying he came from 10 generations of Harvard professors. That's really impressive, right?

So, I mean, he was a genius. His entire family were geniuses. Remember, the Jews are very intellectual people. They're the people of the book. And the rabbis are the most intellectual members of the community. They're the leaders of the community. So Marx comes from an ex... He's basically an aristocrat, okay?

So he's almost like a prophet. I mean, he is a prophet. He's a poet prophet who's preaching of a new world to come. And he's very certain, he's very clear, and he's very optimistic. And that's his appeal, okay? But I explain, that was also his downfall. He was too simple in this understanding of human history. All right, so industrial capitalism is coming to Europe,

and it makes everyone miserable. It's destroying society because it's taking all these people from the villages and transporting into the cities without adequate housing, without adequate healthcare. work safety. They're in these slums, they don't have access to clean water, a lot of them are dying. Their children are being forced to work from age five or six. It's all polluted, okay? So people are living in absolute misery, especially children. And this is causing a lot of anger. What really does it is in 1840s there's a massive potato famine all across

Europe. So remember, in the 16th century, the Europeans, the Spanish, discovered the new world, and they brought back the potato. Why's that important? Because a potato will allow Europe to grow its population very, very fast in order to feed its economic needs. The problem, though, is when you rely on a single crop, the potato, it's prone to disease. So the potato, because of its lack of diversity, it created a famine throughout Europe, tens of millions of people died in the famine, and so a lot of them immigrated over to the New World, America and South America, okay?

The worst hit part of Europe, of course, was Ireland. So as you can see, only Dublin managed to maintain or increase its population. Everywhere else saw a massive decrease in its population. The red represents a population decrease of 30% or more in the span of a few years, okay, from 1841 to 1851. 1841 to 1851, 10 years. Okay, so this was a massive traumatic event in Europe.

And this led to, sorry, this led to massive uprisings throughout Europe, okay? And this is what inspired marks and angles to write the Communist Manifesto. Because they believed a new order was coming and we have to prepare for it. Now, what will happen is the 1848 revolution are calling for three things.

They're calling for nationalism, nation states based on France. They're calling for liberalism, more political rights, and socialism, more worker rights. And it's all happening throughout Europe. And so Marx and Engels is convinced paradise is coming. But ultimately, the authorities crack down, but Marx and Angles are still convinced paradise is coming at any point. So they dedicate their entire lives to

imagine this new world. The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848 in anticipation of this political victory over the capitalist class. And it is an amazing document. It's beautifully written. I don't think they get enough credit for how wonderful this is written, okay?

But let's read the beginning. A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of communism. So the spectre is important because remember, it's the geist. Hague said that the underlying force of the world is the geist. And what they're saying is that geist is communism. Communism is the future. It is what will happen.

All the powers of old Europe have entered into a whole alliance to exercise the specter, Pope and Tsar. So all the authorities of the world are afraid of this geese. But this geese is God, so it will triumph eventually. Okay? Let's read the beginning. To this end, communists of various nationalities have assembled in London and sketch the following manifesto to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish, and Danish languages. This is really important because this is one of the first international revolutions.

It's going to sweep all around the world. It replaced capitalism. Capitalism is only the building block for communism. Okay. The Communist Manifesto, it is powerful. It's wonderfully written, it's poetry. And I think that over the next few years, as the economic crisis worsens around the world, people are going to refer back to the Communist Manifesto, okay? But this is really the best part of Communist Manifesto where Marx and Engels diagnose the problems

of capitalism, okay? The bourgeoisie, the capitalist class, wherever it has got the upper hand has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound men to his natural superiors and has left remaining no other nexus between men and men than naked self-interest, then callous self-cash payment. So remember, capitalism, it is in all expanding, all-encompassing, all-consuming, alienating force.

And it's destroying the world. But for Marxian Angos, this is good because it will lead to the rise of communism, right? This is part of the thesis and emphasis, synthesis, part of history. So the border-suchy are engaged in imperialism. It's destroying all that we've known before to create a new man, an economic man, only based on self-interest. It's even destroying the family. So you don't know how to see yourself as a son or a father as a husband, you see yourself

as a man who makes $10,000 a year or $50,000 a year, and is able to buy, I don't know, a car or whatever, okay? So that's the power of capitalism. But again, for Marxian angles, this is good, because now it will lead to communism, where this new consciousness will transform into a class solidarity. This makes sense, right?

So Marx's most famous work is that's capital. And he spent decades writing this. The problem marks is that he's a brilliant man. He's one of the most blunt man who ever lived, but he's extremely undisciplined. He procrastinates all the time. So he actually never finished this book in his life. It's Frederick Engels, who was his best friend, his collaborator,

but Frederick Engels was a very disciplined individual. So it's Frederick Engels who put this book together. Okay? All right. All right, so as I mentioned, what's really important for us to understand is that Marx, he's a prophet he doesn't think of himself as a prophet he doesn't know he's a prophet but he's really a prophet and as such what he's really doing is he's just building on top of Christianity okay he's just extending the logic of Christianity

right so let's see how to let's see what he does Christianity is a passive religion you don't even have to do anything just don't commit any sins and then you're going to heaven okay but for Marx what's important is that we participate in the revolution that we are responsible for our lives okay so the difference Christianity argues that only a few can go to heaven. They argue about who will go to heaven, but only a few, only a minority of the people. That's why you have hell, purgatory, and heaven, three different places. But for Marx, he believes that workers perennel can be achieved for everyone.

And the third difference is Christianity offers a heaven of God, Marx offers a utopia about God. The problem is this, no one wants you told me about God. We discuss this where if heaven was just a five-star hotel, where you could eat all the best food in the world, no one would want to go. People are going to heaven for God. And this is why Marx cannot anticipate the rise of people like Salon and Maldon. Okay.

This is a letter that Marx wrote in his early years, and it is probably, in my opinion, his best piece of writing, because it really shows you his thinking, his optimism, his idealism. Okay, so let's read it together. Supposing that we have produced in a human manner, in this production, each of us would have doubly affirmed himself and his fellow man. I would objectify in my production, my individuality, and his peculiarity, and what does have enjoyed in my activity, an individual expression of my life,

and would have also had, and look at the object, the individual pleasure of realizing that my personality was objective, okay? Does that make sense? So you're creating something, this thing is the perfect expression of your individuality, of your personality, of your creativity. And then you show with other people, and they enjoy it, and because they enjoy it, that process affirms your individuality and your creativity, your validation, basically, okay? All right.

I would have been for you, the mediator, between you and the species, and thus have been felt by you and acknowledged as a completion of your own essence and a necessary part of yourself, and I would then thereby have been, realized that I was confirmed both in your thought and in your love okay so when I cook a meal and you enjoy the meal you're not only affirming my individuality but you're affirming my connection to all humanity okay because you're telling me that I contribute positively to the species right the problem is this presupposing property my individual is so far externalized that I hate my activity it is a

torment to me and only the appearance of an activity and thus also merely a forced activity that is laid upon me through an external arbitrary need not an inner unnecessary one okay so this is complicated but all he's saying is this I cook you a meal I spent days preparing this meal okay I put it's a labor of love I cook the best food in the world okay I give it to you you have you are blown away you are you're in love okay with this food and then you're like here's a thousand dollars right that's disgusting right all you have to do is say thank you but he'd say you give me a thousand dollars and you think wow I'm

gonna get a thousand dollars that's a lot of money man I pay you know I don't pay this much at a restaurant okay so that's what Marx is saying the moment you put money into the equation it destroys all human relations right so he's talking about extrinsic motivation whereas versus intrinsic motivation intrinsic motivation intrinsic motivation is what makes us fundamentally human Extrously motivation is what makes us slaves. Okay? So that's what Marx is saying.

Capitalism makes us slaves because it deprives us over humanity. That's what money does. So does this make sense to you? Great. All right. So again, let's just summarize what the feelings of capitalism are. It creates inequality, it exploits, and it alienates. So for Marx and angles, the antithesis will be.

class solidarity and this will lead to a classless workers paradise okay that's very logic of Marxism um so again Marx what he will do is he will invert Hegel right so for Hegel it's the ideas that come first then this will lead to the material reality for Marx it's the material reality that gives rise to ideas okay what what so the ideas is called the superstructure the base the base is the economics okay so this is very important idea of um Marx. So Marx's diagnosis of problems of capitalism really, really well, okay? And he offers solutions. And what's really important is one reason why communism has failed is capitalism

has actually adopted a lot of these policy changes, okay? Including universal child education, including the universal right to work, including abolition of child. factory labor okay so in many ways common sense has won out and Marx didn't really predict this because he thought that capitalists are idiots capitalists all they care about is money so there's like servants to capital they're not really in control and if you're a capitalist and you have any empathy for the working class guess what you're bought out or you're pushed out of the capitalist class okay so it's only the worst people who can thrive within the capitalist system but

But because communism was such a huge threat to the ruling elite, they had no choice to make compromises. And that's why after World War II, most countries in the world became socialist, even though in name they were still capitalists. So let's summarize, and this is really important for us, okay? But what are the four things Marx got wrong? The first thing is Marx believed that history is a linear progress. straight line of inability of progress but that's not true okay history repeats itself

that's the first issue second issue is Marx belief in the inability of history but there's always randomness built into history okay things happen and we don't expect these things to happen third is Marx belief class struggle with everything but people care actually a lot more about religion and they care about economics all right And you know, this is a huge issue in America because with the rest of Donald Trump, then the Democratic Party, they don't know what to do about this. Because they're like, you know, Trump says that he will lower the price of eggs,

but he hasn't lowered the price of eggs. So like, stop voting for him. And what Democrats don't understand is people want to believe in God. People want a leader. People want a religion. And Trump, for all his feelings, he understands that. and gives people what they really want, which is emotional solidarity, a belief in a better world.

Last thing, Marx believes a vanguard need to lead the Politariat into a paradise. Okay, so Marx really believe that you need an elite of intellectuals, scientists, technocrats, to create the perfect society. But then the question then is, why would they give up power? Right? Once they have this power, why did they give it up? And the answer is they wouldn't give it up, okay? And that's why communism ultimately fails

in the Soviet Union and in China, okay? All right? This makes sense, right? All right, so let's go into specifics. In this class, what you learn is, it's not the class struggle by itself that causes discontent. It's three other things, okay?

The first is elite overproduction. So a really important principle is history is not fought over between the poor and the rich. It's far over between the very rich and the not so rich, okay? The upper nobility and the low nobility. Right, because Marx came from Jewish aristocracy.

Engels, his father was a very wealthy capitalist. These are people who were a lot and they wanted more. Does that make sense? So when you have too many people seeking too much wealth and status, it creates conflict. That's the first thing. Second thing is that they have rat utopia, where people live too long.

They live too long, they refuse to give up power, they refuse to innovate, they refuse to seat status to the young, okay? The third is the idea of financialization, as we discuss on Thomas Piccaday and Carol Cookelly provide this idea where over time, to make more money, all capitalists will do is force everyone into more debt. And these are the three factors that cause society

to ultimately destabilize, right? Clear? Great. All right, so let's look at three examples. You look at Soviet Union, you look at China, you look at France. How was it possible for the Soviet Union to defeat Germany? And Germany was at that time the most advanced military in the world, right? How did the Chinese economy boom after the Cultural Revolution?

And how did Napoleon France defeat all of Europe? So what we understand is these were not communist revolutions. These were just revolutions that destroyed the old elite. And all this is saying is this. People are playing a game in society. Over time, you have a few winners who've monopolized this game, and this causes discontent. What revolutioners do is they reset the game.

And that creates a lot of energy, right? Because people now want to work hard to win the game. Because of this energy, they're able to defeat their opponents. Same thing with the Cultural Revolution, where the Cultural Revolution removed the old elite, the bureaucrats. So in the 1980s, when trying to open up, you have these young people with entrepreneurial drive. Just our companies. But without the Cultural Revolution, this entrepreneurial drive could not have succeeded.

Does that make sense? All right. All right. This is really complicated, okay? But for Marx, what gives rise to industrial capitalism and the Barsozzi is just technology and the progress of history. But as we learn this class, it's actually much more complicated than that, okay? So this is really important. What we're going to do is we're going to review what we learned previously and put them together to explain what gave rise to industrial capitalism

First thing is the monotheistic revolution. So remember before societies were paganistic or polytheistic Then with constantine God became the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is the weirdest idea in human history The Holy Trinity is this God is nothing and everything okay and And what this means is God is both real and not real. God is a symbol and reality itself. And because of this idea, people are now forced to think abstractly about the world. And this gives rise to money, nation state, and science. People are now forced to think abstractly about the world.

Whereas people before could think very concretely about the world. Does that make sense? All right. Second thing is gun power revolution, where nation states, countries were forced to compete against each, against each other which led to more industry, more population growth, and more centralization. And this pays the way for the barrazzanin, now. Because now you need the border to produce industry. Okay? And the third is the process of reformation, we discuss this, right? Where you now have anxiety created by this new religion. And they need to force themselves to believe they are the elect.

And then the age of exploration, where the older world Europe could go and create new markets and steal new still gold and bring in the potato corn and tomato back into Europe which allows for population growth okay okay so in other words history is a very complicated process of a lot of randomness built in and this is something that Marx didn't really understand all right all right so to summarize what people want is status in my class okay people want to feel distinguish, feel superior, feel that they've achieved a great deal. The money doesn't really matter. The money is just a symbol of this. People want religion, not economics.

People want God, not heaven. And the proof again is what happens when communism wins. So both the Soviet Union and China became theocracies with cultural personalities. They weren't in common societies. They were theocracies. They were religious, they were no different in many ways than Catholic Europe during the Middle Ages, okay? Soviet Union fell apart because the party elite no longer believed in the system and chose to monetize the status and power.

And then the third example is, North Korea has a fertility rate of 1.79, while South Korea has a fertility rate of 0.78, okay? So North Korea, it is a theoretical society, South Korea is a capitalist society. Oh, code of personality is, You believe this person is the manifestation of God. All your hope, all your emotions are invested in this one person.

Right? So Stalin, right? His pictures were everywhere. And in school, you learned about how great he was. You worshipped him. He was God to you. But something with China during the Mousadong era. Does that make sense?

So we call this a color personality. Like a new religion based on one person. All right. So North Korea, which is poorer than South Korea, has more children, right? Why? Well, because people in North Korea, sorry, in South Korea are miserable. They have money, but they don't have religion. They don't have a purpose. They don't have any meaning. It's all competition. Okay, so this is like capitalism run amok. Then you go to North Korea and he's president, okay? He's dead, but he's still president. Why?

Because he's divine, he's God. He is the forever president, okay, Kim Il-Soon, okay? Right? And I mean like I just say this, but if you go to North Korea, they're probably happier than they are in South Korea, okay? And the other thing about North Korea is they're not fighting Ukraine. So these are people who are willing to die for what they believe in. So I would say if I had to bet which nation had the best future, I would bet North Korea over South Korea. Okay, let's talk about the vanguard idea. So for Marx, a really important idea is you need an intellectual elite to lead the politariat into paradise. And this is a man named Macal Buchanan, okay?

Buchanan. And he was an anarchist. He was an anarchist. He was an anarchist. The difference is this. They both believe in the same thing, Marx and Buchanan, but Marx said you need a vanguard. said you need a vanguard. Whereas Buchanan said, no, a vanguard would destroy everything. It has to be spontaneous. It has to be from the people.

Buchanan is also a lower nobility. His father was a Russian aristocrat. And Marx and Buchanan, they were colleagues, but they hated each other. All right. So Buchanan believes a lot of things that Marx believes. The freedom of every other individual does not limit my own as the individualist claim, on the contrary. It is confirmation, realization, and human dignity of all persons to see and feel my freedom confirmed sanctioned and balancedly expanded by universal agreement is happiness. It is human paradise on earth. So for freedom to be fully achieved, everyone must be free.

Everyone must be equal. Otherwise, no one can be truly free. All right, so Buchanan will explain why a bureaucratic elite will destroy communism. All right? So this is very important passage from Buchanan. Available to everyone will be a general scientific education, especially the learning of a scientific method, the habit of correct thinking, the ability to generalize from facts and make more or less correct deductions. But of insectific minds and advanced sociologists, there will be very few.

It would be sad for mankind if at any time. theoretical speculation became the only source of guidance for society if science alone were in charge of all social administration life would wither and human society would turn into a voiceless and servile heard the domination of life by science can have no other result than the brutalization of mankind okay this is very important passage all the saying is this before we were intellectuals we were curious about the world now we are technocrats we're engineers we're taught a very specific skill and we're taught to see the world in a very specific

way. We're run by technocrats and this has led to the brutalization of mankind because it has led to the alienation of mankind right we are now just parts of a machine so example of course is AI so these people in charge now want to make AI the dominant religion of the world they want to they want to make human slave to AI And that's what Buchanan is warning against. Anytime you let a bureaucratic elite take over, they will think of ways of how to reinforce the power for technology.

And this has led to the rights of AI. Does this make sense? And this is describing China very well. The bureaucrats in charge, they have no imagination, they have no empathy. All they care about is, okay, are we checking out of the boxes, do you have enough food to eat? You have a job. Well, if you have a house, if you have a job, you have health insurance, why are you complaining? Right?

So that's what Buchanan is saying. All right. The last thing I want to talk about is this. And you brought this up earlier, okay? It's a great question is, the question we're looking at today is, why is China so similar to America, right? America is a capitalist nation. But if you talk to Chinese people today, they all want to go to America. want to go to America to study and possibly even to live.

Chinese want to become American. So in many ways, America has conquered China. And so why is that the case? And the answer, and I mentioned this before, is it's because communism and capitalism reinforce each other. They share a similar ideology. They share a similar background.

They're all actually branches of Christianity, really if you think about it. And they have a similar worldview, right, of belief in progress. a belief in class struggle, a belief that you need a technocratic elite to run the world. So in other words, communism in China paved the way for American capitalism. And that's why today you have this going on. What China is doing to children is unconscionable, right?

Because we make kids sit in school for like 10 hours a day. They have no childhood, they have no freedom, they have no happiness. Most of these kids will develop depression by age 14, right? The vast majority. Last week, there was a huge news that a 9-year-old kid in Beijing killed himself. Nine years old. Yeah, jumped off a building. Nine years old.

That's incredible because my other son, he's like 7, turning 8, okay? I can't, I mean, like how miserable does, do you have to be, do want to kill himself? Right. Even if the kid succeeds and goes to like Beida or Qinghua, he'll develop depression because he'll never achieve what he wants in life. Okay. So all that's happening is we're forcing our kids into depression, into suicide. Why? Because this has become an evil religion almost.

right to believe that for education you can make more money and even though everyone else will probably develop

suicide will probably develop suicidal depression in the process you won't okay that's that I'm betting you won't okay

it's it's insane I mean what's what's happening in education today it's just unconscionable and evil what we're doing to our children in China

right and what we're doing this is because in China we've combined communism and capitalism to create the worst possible society, okay? All right, all right, so, yeah, any questions? Yep. Okay, so why is North Korea so poor?

Okay, so that's part of the capitalist brainwashing where you measure the success of society based on its wealth. But wealth is really just the willingness to exploit your resources. And also your capacity to engage in global trade. So first of all, North Korea is heavily sanctioned. They're not to trade with the world. That's the first problem. Second problem is they focus on, their religion is called self-reliance.

They want to be independent of the world. So they purposely choose not to engage in the world in order to maintain the unity of their people. So that's why we call them the Hermit Kingdom. For them, what's important is to maintain their independence and sovereignty from the world. And, but that does not mean people are not happy where they are. Okay, I would argue that even though China was a lot poor during the culture revolution, people were a lot happier during the culture revolution than they are today. Maybe not, maybe not us, okay?

But for most ordinary Chinese, they were a lot happy during the culture of revolution than they are today because for them, life was simple and clear and certain. Today, you have globalization, you have the globalization. You have the internet, you have noise, you have, it's very confusing for people, right? And one piece of evidence is young people don't want to have any children today, whereas in a cultural revolution, people do want to have children because they felt that regardless of poverty, people were going into a certain life. They had healthcare, they had a job guaranteed for them, they had a sense of community, there was solidarity going on. Okay, so that really is

the trick of capitalism to make everyone think the same way which is like money is everything does that make sense great any more questions these are great questions by the way so so thank you for for asking them yeah so was Marx too idealistic Marx didn't think it was idealistic he thought it was extremely realistic why because he was studying all this history was saying all this economics. And he was coming up with a scientific understanding of the world. Marx saw himself as a scientist first and foremost. He saw himself as unveiling the truth to people. He was, you did you understand? For him, it was science. It was certain. It was,

it had to happen. Okay. But the thing about Marx is this. Marks is also a person that If you were to like jump forward today and he saw the world created by communism capitalism capitalism he would be utterly disgusted he wouldn't be like oh wow I'm famous now I you know I'm the most famous person one most famous person or I'm like Jesus okay he wouldn't be like that he'd be like what have we done to humanity this is far worse than the industrial revolution what's happening where everyone now is a slave as a consumer. In your mind, all that matters is, I go to school, I make a lot of money,

and I buy a lot of things, and that's it. And this would have been unimaginable to Marx, and anyone actually, 100 years ago. It's a fact that humanity has chosen to enslave themselves for no particular good reason. okay and so the question then we're looking at next class is why does happen and what I'll show you next class is Simon Freud had a lot to do with this psychology had a lot to do with this because before we were

focused on the collective consciousness right the world as it is the community but with coming a foreign in psychology we now shift a focus to ourselves so we come to believe that for our own eternal struggle, we can be happy. Others don't matter. We ourselves, if we're happy, we're good. And what Buchanan and Marx have taught us is, if everyone is unhappy, you must be unhappy as well. It's only if people are free and happy together, can they be free and happy by themselves. And that's the thing that we've forgotten. And that's what's led to the world we live in today. Okay, but that's something that we'll discuss next class. Okay. Any more questions? Great. Okay, so Freud, next class.