View Poll Results: Marx; Hero or Villain?

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  • Hero

    24 30.00%
  • Villain

    25 31.25%
  • Somewhere in the middle

    31 38.75%
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Thread: Marx, Hero or Villain?

  1. #1
    NaptownKnight's Avatar Praeses
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    Default Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Well this is my second hero or villain thread, hope it is as heated and controversial as the first! If you don't know who Karl Marx is then here's a wiki:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx, and a good site about Marxist Theory: http://www.marxists.org/.

    Now, please remember that Karl Marx was not alive when certain, self pro-claimed communists soiled communisms image, and in no way supported mass murder or whatever the government wants you to believe. Marx had the interests of every human being in his heart, and wished for nothing more than peace and equality between all humans. Yes, Marx believed a revolution was required to get obtain this, and he may have been right (In the future, when more people are more informed about who he truly was, and Communism's true aim, then maybe a peaceful transition could happen), he may have been wrong. Anyways, please vote, post, and discuss.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    I cant really think of a more noble cause than marx's ( equality among humanity-- and equal use of resources etc etc)

    so I am going with Hero at least in the sense he is half responsible for the modern world with his ideas.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    his ideas are pure hearted although he might not inspired the best people.he always thought that revolution must begin in an industrilized country not in russia of 1917.
    so he is a hero


  4. #4

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    He wasn't a hero or a villain, or perhaps he was both. Hero to the manipulated and discouraged working class, villain to big business (and small business) management.

    He had an economic theory. That can hardly make what type of person you are. Personally I think Communism/Marxism is completly absurd, and Marx was a fool for underestimating human greed, but that doesn't make him a villain.

    I should add that I think communism is a really great theory, one that I think would work if we could somehow get rid of 90% of the world's population or perhaps integrate within a capitalist society, but it isn't viable within our world as of today, and most likely the future, and he should have known that. Communists (both real communists and pretend communists, read: Stalin) have caused a LOT of pain and suffering in this world.
    Last edited by Sétanta; July 22, 2007 at 11:50 PM.
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  5. #5

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Well, its hard to decide whether a philosopher is a hero or a villain, as we usually label men as such in accordance with their ACTIONS, especially those that involve danger and possibly sacrifice for the benefit of others... such as a firefighter saving children from a burning building... hence since most philosophers are made less famous by their actions than their ideas, it makes the decision process more difficult.

    However, we could easily label some "ideologists" heroes, such as Martin Luther King Jr. for making as stand for ideas and rights that benefited humanity. Of course, there have been many other "ideologists" which may have risked their lives, and confronted society while standing up for their beliefs, such as Hitler who we would easily label villains.

    I don't know that much about the particularities of the life of Marx to decide whether he risked much in the developing of his theories... however, it seems to me, that often the difference between hero and villain is less dependent on the actions of the individual in question, but more dependent on the one deciding, and whether they agree with the individual's social, moral, etc values and ideologies or not.
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  6. #6
    kev-o's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    I say he is somewhere in the middle. He had a noble idea but as we all know it doesn't work verywell. And those who tried to mimic Marx's idea failed.

  7. #7
    Opifex
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." -Anonymous


    "If ye love wealth greater than liberty,
    the tranquility of servitude greater than
    the animating contest for freedom, go
    home from us in peace. We seek not
    your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch
    down and lick the hand that feeds you,
    and may posterity forget that ye were
    our countrymen."
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  8. #8
    crazyorc's Avatar Biarchus
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Mrax is voted as the greatest man in the past 1000 years... that's enough i think..

  9. #9
    Indefinitely Banned
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    What is going on here? This is not an official Super Pope thread, it must be purged. PURGED!

  10. #10

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Marx's ideas were amiable. From what I have read about him it seems as though human equality was his main goal and for the government to put this into practice. In my honest opinion I feel that he was a very intelligent and humanitarian oriented person.

    Anyone who says no says no because they do not like his idea being communist-esque, though this is not the truth. His ideas are very difficult to put into practice, and this is not his fault.

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  11. #11

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Marx was neither, he had good ideas which would never work in practice, he was a political philosopher, and no more either then Nicollio Machiaveli (sp). The two just don't go together. Marx didn't really do much, it was his writing which sparker others to do something, and the wrong things at that.

  12. #12

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Marx had a keen mind and great journalistic talent, in addition to becoming a world famous philosopher.
    I'd say he was an accomplished man, but little beyond that, definitely neither hero nor villain.





  13. #13
    NaptownKnight's Avatar Praeses
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Good responses. When deciding whether a person is a hero or villain we have to look at more than just their actions. Marx was unable to single handily bing the poor out of desolation, and stop the money grubbing ways of the Capitalists, so he wrote his ideas down to inspire others that could. Sometimes, words can be more powerful than a sword, and deeds through literature and art can do just as much good as a fireman or civil rights activist or just as much evil as a terrorist.

  14. #14
    Eranshahr's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Hero by all means.
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  15. #15
    Finn's Avatar Total Realism
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Obviously a villain, albeit indirectly, His philosophy spawned some of the worst Governments in modern history.


  16. #16

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Neither, though if there was an idiot choice i would vote for that. After reading the Communist Manifesto I really doubt his intelligance. He made no strong arguements for Communism and was completely unrealistic about what is possible. Also, he was very strange, he was a self-hating and self-loving jew. He hated and loved being Jewish.

  17. #17
    NaptownKnight's Avatar Praeses
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Quote Originally Posted by arfrisco View Post
    Neither, though if there was an idiot choice i would vote for that. After reading the Communist Manifesto I really doubt his intelligance. He made no strong arguements for Communism and was completely unrealistic about what is possible. Also, he was very strange, he was a self-hating and self-loving jew. He hated and loved being Jewish.
    He hated the whole concept of religion, which may have been unfounded, but everyone has a opinion.

  18. #18
    Lord Consul's Avatar Armchair intellectual
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    You can't call a man a villain for his ideas. Marx thought about an awful lot of things. He belonged to a more romantic, idealistic time and place than today's. You can't blame him for Pol Pot or Stalin.
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  19. #19

    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Neither, he had a set of ideas and proposed a system of government, no-one can be hated for that.

  20. #20
    Ummon's Avatar Indefinitely Banned
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    Default Re: Marx, Hero or Villain?

    Those ideas caused in the end, hundreds of millions of dead. And of course, they never worked, even for an instant.

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