Friday, June 6, 2014

According to The Communist Manifesto, how has the bourgeoisie spread civilization?

According to Marx and Engels, the bourgeoisie spreads
civilization by being so efficient at creating material goods.  By doing this so
efficiently, bourgeois countries force other countries to become civilized or
die.


Basically, Marx and Engels are talking about
globalization here.  They say that the bourgeoisie have gotten to be so good at making
and transporting things that there can be nowhere that is out of their reach.  Because
the bourgeoisie can make so many things and transport them so far, they are able to put
pressure on all the countries of the world to become part of the civilized, capitalist
system.  By doing these things, the authors say, the
bourgeoisie


readability="8">

... compels all nations, on pain of extinction,
... to introduce what it calls civilization into their
midst...



So, when Marx and
Engels say this, they are not lauding the bourgeoisie for improving other countries. 
Instead, they are saying that the bourgeoisie forces all other people to become part of
a capitalist civilization.

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