Marx

• Marx analysed how the capitalist approach lead to alienation, dehumanisation and exploitation.
• In order for capitalism to work, goods must be produced - humans are therefore not at the centre and so are alienated.
• A worker must produce the goods for a higher class person. The lower class, called the proletariat become the workers and they are simply a part of the big production machine.
• Working in a factory the worker is unable to show at all a creative side. They are alienated from the product as well as the upper class.
• When the proletariat receives their wages it ultimately gets returned to the benefit of the bourgeoisie through rent and shops.
• The proletariat must rise up against the bourgeoisie
• If humans understand the situation they are in then the idea of historical materialism will teach them that they must change their situation by action.
• For Marx the people should strive for a communist society. A society achieved by action not ideas.
• Marx believed that religion made people unaware of their own suffering. He believed it to be a tool used to control the people.
• On a theoretical level Marx's approach is a far more person-centred way to run society. It is right to centralise the idea of removing oppression.
• Marx is also successful because it provides a clear analysis of society. It helps people to reflect on the basis for how their society is run and aims to abolish the class system.
• Capitalism does not necessarily involve exploitation and Marx has a narrow view of what society is like. There are plenty of harmonious societies that operate under capitalism.
• Where Marxist thought has been implemented it has often collapsed. The communist states of Eastern Europe are a key example of this.
• Even in societies that run a communist state, there remains injustice.