There is a justified hesitance that comes with proclaiming anyone as a prophet or a genius. Perhaps it ‘s the remnants of the fear of sacriledge or the more overwhelming fear of falsely exalting someone before being truly sure of whether or not they deserve that exaltation. Whatever factors it was that stopped Karl Marx from instantly being a genius in his own era however have no doubt been destigamized to the point where we can (mostly) all agree that Marx was several steps ahead of his time.

Marx’s acheivements are too monumental to look over which is something we can safely say at this current time. Marx’s primary strong point was his ability to see everything in terms of its economic value and through that logic see everything as it pertained to the haves and the have nots. In today’s Occupy Wall Street society the concept might not seem monumental but it’s important to note that Marx was one of the few people since Adam Smith to have his philosophies on an economic system adopted in multiple countries, not taking into account the varying levels of success that those implementations were met with.

What most impressed me about the reading was Marx’s predictions in regards to come of the negative aspects of captialsim. There was something magical in reading his writing about the separation of the worker and the product. Reading his writing I can remember clearly visualizing the work of chinese factory workers with no care whatsoever for what they make and contrasting that with the “independent business owner” selling his or her wares on Etsy and the difference in quality and attention to detail that exists between the two products that we end up with at the end of the work process.

This chasm that begins to grow between the two is central to understanding Marx’s utopian ideals. As that chasm grows, so does the desire for revolution something that Marx believed to be essential. Max’s strong belief in the overthrowing of the bourgeoise in order to attain the freedom that should be afforded to the people is evident is developed stages throughout this work.

Marx’s Utopia has been given it’s fair share of criticism however, it’s been called impossible as well as not promoting upward movement in a society due to lack of incentives. One thing’s for sure however, the ability to conceptualize the world so differently from his predecessors has made Marx not only one of the most interesting economist but also one of the most interesting philosophers whose works will continue to stand the tests of time.

-Yasin Muhammad