The Bourgeois and The Proletarians

As a part of my research I have been reading  The Communist Manafesto by Karl Marx and Fredeich Engels. The book is divided into four sections, the first being The Bourgeois and The Proletarians. 
I have just finished this first and I thought I'd note down here the main point and themes it talks about.

It first claims that:

  “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles...oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another... a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstruction of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”

 It goes on to describes how as Industry grew, the Bourgeois, formerly the lowest class in soceity, gained power. As they gained power they changed the system from men following their "Natural Superiors", kings, queens etc, and replaced the old system with one that was based on self-interest, the gaining of capital and wealth.

 “The Bourgeoisie, 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 man to his ‘natural superiors’, and has left no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous ‘cash payment’.”

The Bourgeois' system was dependent on the gaining of capital and wealth through competition, which ment that industry had to keep evolving.

“The Bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society.”

 As Industry grew and the Boursgeois grew, so did the Proletariat, the working class, described as an army of slaves.

“In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e. capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the Proletariat, the modern working class, developed – a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who work so long as their labour increases capital.”

However, as long as industry expands and increases and competition forces not-so-successful business, out of business and become Proletarians themselves, the Proletariat increases and rapidly becomes the majority.

 “The Proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority.”
As the individual Proletariat and Bourgeois struggles become more common and the world becomes more and more connected the Proletariat begin to unionise to fight for better working conditions and wages.

 It ultimately argues that the Bourgeois' system is a self-defeating one, because as they continue to change and evolve industry they also create their own worst enemy and set up their own downfall.

“The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the Bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the Bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, is its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the Proletariat are equally inevitable.”           

Overall It's very interesting and certainly makes it's argument well, I will continue to read it and take notes as I have been doing.  I'm sure this information will be invaluable as research for my project.

In my unbiased opinion...

For this Project I wish to explore representing political ideologies as characters and using this to examine them in depth, the ideologies I will be examining are Capitalism, Communism, Fascism and Anarchism.

Firstly, I will need to understand these ideologies, what are their goals? what are their reason for following this ideology? and how does it work out when put into practice? I don't want to make a biased and one sided argument, for me the key to this project is to gain a balenced view of these ideologies and examine them from a neutral  and objective stand point. I know that in some cases, such as Fascism, it will be hard to not take a biased view towards it, but I want to understand why someone who supports Fascism would do so, why would they see this political system as right etc. equally I do not wish to support these ideologies either, I simply wish to examine them, I want to know the pros and cons of these political systems.

I have begun to look into Capitalism, by viewing a number of documentaries about capitalism and the financial crisis. Although these documentaries are informative, they are very much against capitalism and so It is hard to gain an unbiased perspective and the view point of those support capitalism. I'm considering whether looking into Ayn Rand would be relevant or not.

Overall I am looking forward to understanding these ideologies and I'm very aware that this topic requires alot of research. This project should be fun.