Karl Marx

Karl Marx (Google Image Search)

Many people find themselves wondering “what exactly is a hero?”. According to dictionary.com, it is “a man distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude, etc." or "a man who is idealized for possessing superior qualities in any field”.

I have come up with my own definition. To me, a hero is a person who tries to change this world, using political ideologies, for the betterment of the human race. Whether they fail or not doesn't matter, what matters is that they use their intellect, and a non-violent means of communication to spread their word. For this reason, I have chosen Karl Marx, the political writer, for my hero.

Karl Marx was born on the fifth of May, 1818 in Trier Prussia (Germany). He studied law in Bonn and Berlin. He completed his doctorate in 1841, and soon turned to journalism. He began his political career editing the “Rheinische Zeitung” or rather the Rhein Valley Newspaper. He became a member of the Hegelian movement, which was dedicated to the theologians David Friedrich Strauss and Bruno Bauer. "The group introduced a liberal criticism of Christianity and, by implication, the radical opposition to the Prussian government. Marx, soon after the “Rheinische Zeitung” was shut down by the Prussian government, emigrated to France in 1843."

During his first few months in France, he realized he was a new kind of radical, a communist, and laid out his views in his first book “Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts (1844)”. He also met Friedrich Engels in France, who would be his life long partner in political philosophy. In 1844, Marx and Engels were expelled from France and settled in Brussels, where they would remain for only three years. During this time he would immerse himself in history. Soon he wrote “The German Ideology”, and predicted the fall of industrial capitalism, and its conversion into Communism.

Perhaps his most famous work was The Communist Manifesto, which is a short pamphlet that advocated the proletariat overthrow of the bourgeoisie. This is the philosophy which Vladimir Lenin used to overthrow the Russian government known by most as the Bolshevik Revolution or October Revolution, during World War One.

Communism and Socialism got its start, and downfall, in Soviet Russia. The core principles of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' philosophy is majority rule: by that is meant the people own enterprise, share land, and spread wealth. However this system will never work. Human greed is too great for this system to truly work; unfortunately Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did not realize this.

Karl Marx is a hero solely because he dared to dream of a world without class struggles and wealth gaps. He dared to challenge the norms of society, and advocate a revolution with peaceful means.

Karl Marx died the fourteenth of March, 1883. Friedrich Engels gave an elegant eulogy in celebration of his best friend's work. To me, that is why Karl Marx is a notable hero. He changed the political thinking of millions of people and though his system may not have worked, it is still a success.