Karl Marx had a passionate concern for humanity and the freedom of the individual. Unlike the liberal or bourgeois concerns about political freedom, he believed that true freedom cannot exist until the individual has economic freedom, and this cannot come about until society’s productive forces are fully developed under capitalism. The bourgeoisie has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids and Gothic cathedrals (The Communist Manifesto).
Marx’s freedom is best illustrated in the German Ideology. “It is possible to achieve real liberation only in the real world and by real means, that slavery cannot be abolished without the steam engine and the mule jenny. “Serfdom cannot be abolished without improved agriculture and in general people cannot be liberated as long as they are unable to obtain food and drink, housing and clothing in adequate quality and quantity.” Here is a glimpse of life in a communist society found in a passage from Marx’s German Ideology.
“For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. “He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”
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