02. Capitalism and Socialism: Crash Course. Part 2.
That doesn't seem radical now, but it sure did back then. So here in the 21st century, it's clear that industrial capitalism - at least for now - has won. Sorry, buddy. But, you know, you gave it a good run. You didn't know about Stalin. But capitalism isn't without its problems, or its critics, and there were certainly lots of shortcomings to industrial capitalism in the 19th century. Working conditions were awful. Days were long, arduous, and monotonous. Workers lived in conditions that people living in the developed world today would associate with abject poverty. One way that workers responded to these conditions was by organizing into labor unions.
Another response was in many cases purely theoretical: socialism, [gasp, clutch the pearls] most famously Marxian socialism. I should probably point out here that socialism is an imperfect opposite to capitalism, even though the two are often juxtaposed.
Capitalism's defenders like to point out that it's “natural,” meaning that if left to our own devices, humans would construct economic relationships that resemble capitalism. Socialism, at least in its modern incarnations, makes fewer pretenses towards being an expression of human nature; it's the result of human choice and human planning. So, socialism, as an intellectual construct, began in France.
How'd I do, Stan? Mm, in the border between Egypt and Libya.
There were two branches of socialism in France, utopian and revolutionary.
Utopian socialism is often associated with Comte de Saint Simon and Charles Fourier, both of whom rejected revolutionary action after having seen the disaster of the French Revolution.
Both were critical of capitalism and while Fourier is usually a punchline in history classes because he believed that, in his ideal socialist world, the seas would turn to lemonade, he was right that human beings have desires that go beyond basic self-interest, and that we aren't always economically rational actors. The other French socialists were the revolutionaries, and they saw the French Revolution, even its violence, in a much more positive light. The most important of these revolutionaries was Auguste Blanqui, and we associate a lot of his ideas with communism, which is a term that he used.
Like the utopians, he criticized capitalism, but he believed that it could only be overthrown through violent revolution by the working classes. However, while Blanqui thought that the workers would come to dominate a communist world, he was an elitist.
And he believed that workers on their own could never, on their own, overcome their superstitions and their prejudices in order to throw off bourgeois oppression. [interesting]
And that brings us to Karl Marx, whose ideas and beard cast a shadow over most of the 20th century.
Oh, it's time for the Open Letter? An Open Letter to Karl Marx's Beard. But, first, let's see what's in the secret compartment today. Oh, robots. Stan Bots! Two Stan Bots, one of them female! now I own all the means of production. You're officially useless to me, Stan. Now, turn the camera off. Turn the ca-- I'm going to have to get up and turn the camera off Stan Bot, go turn the camera off. Hey there, Karl Marx's beard. Wow, you are intense. Karl Marx, these days there are a lot of young men who think beards are cool.
Beard lovers, if you will. Those aren't beards, those are glorified milk mustaches. I mean, I haven't shaved for a couple weeks, Karl Marx, but I'm not claiming a beard. [nothing a solid scrubbing couldn't fix?] You don't get a beard by being lazy, you get a beard by being a committed revolutionary. That's why hardcore Marxists are literally known as “Bearded Marxists.” These days, that's an insult. But you know what, Karl Marx, when I look back at history, I prefer the bearded communists.
Let's talk about some communists who didn't have beards: Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-il, Joseph freakin' Stalin with his face caterpillar. So, yeah, Karl Marx's beard, it's my great regret to inform you that there are some paltry beards trying to take up the class struggle these days. Best Wishes, John Green.
Although he's often considered the father of communism, because he co-wrote The Communist Manifesto, Marx was above all a philosopher and a historian. It's just that, unlike many philosophers and historians, he advocated for revolution. His greatest work, Das Kapital, sets out to explain the world of the 19th century in historical and philosophical terms. Marx's thinking is deep and dense and we're low on time, but I want to introduce one of his ideas, that of class struggle. [yeah buddy, here we go]
So, for Marx, the focus isn't on the class, it's on the struggle. Basically Marx believed that classes don't only struggle to make history, but that the struggle is what makes classes into themselves. The idea is that through conflict, classes develop a sense of themselves, and without conflict, there is no such thing as class consciousness. So, Marx was writing in 19th century England and there were two classes that mattered: the workers and the capitalists.
The capitalists owned most of the factors of production (in this case, land and the capital to invest in factories). The workers just had their labor. So, the class struggle here is between capitalists, who want labor at the lowest possible price, and the workers who want to be paid as much as possible for their work.
There are two key ideas that underlie this theory of class struggle.
First, Marx believed that “production,” or work, was the thing that gave life material meaning.
Second, is that we are by nature social animals. We work together, we collaborate, we are more efficient when we share resources.
Marx's criticism of capitalism is that capitalism replaces this egalitarian collaboration with conflict. And that means that it isn't a natural system after all. And by arguing that capitalism actually isn't consistent with human nature, Marx sought to empower the workers. That's a lot more attractive than Blanqui's elitist socialism, and while purportedly Marxist states like the USSR usually abandon worker empowerment pretty quickly, the idea of protecting our collective interest remains powerful. That's where we'll have to leave it for now, lest I start reading from The Communist Manifesto. [noooooo!]
But, ultimately socialism has not succeeded in supplanting capitalism, as its proponents had hoped.
In the United States, at least, “socialism” has become something of a dirty word. So, industrial capitalism certainly seems to have won out, and in terms of material well being and access to goods and services for people around the world, that's probably a good thing. Ugh, you keep falling over. You're a great bit, but a very flimsy one. Actually, come to think of it, you're more of an 8-bit. [haha… um, crickets] But how and to what extent we use socialist principles to regulate free markets remains an open question, and one that is answered very differently in, say, Sweden than in the United States.
And this, I would argue, is where Marx still matters. Is capitalist competition natural and good, or should there be systems in place to check it for the sake of our collective well-being? Should we band together to provide health care for the sick, or pensions for the old?
Should government run businesses, and if so, which ones?
The mail delivery business?
The airport security business?
The education business?
Those are the places where industrial capitalism and socialism are still competing. And in that sense, at least, the struggle continues.
Thanks for watching, I'll see you next week. Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller. Our script supervisor is Danica Johnson. The show is written by my high school history teacher, Raoul Meyer and myself.
We're ably interned by Meredith Danko. And our graphics team is Thought Bubble.
Last week's phrase of the week was “the TARDIS,” so you can stop suggesting that now! If you want to suggest future phrases of the week or guess at this week's, you can do so in comments, where you can also ask questions about today's video that will be answered by our team of historians. Thanks for watching Crash Course, and as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome. Alright, Stan, bring the movie magic... Yes!
[outro]
