Karl Marx who was born on the 5 May in Trier, Germany was a jourtnalist, revolutionary socialist, philoosopher and econmist who explained how the capitalist system goes hand in hand with aggressive competition and innovation, and why this leads to poverty, crisis and eventually revolution . These insights apply as much to the 21st century as the 19th.
The current crisis of global capitalism is unprecedented, given its magnitude, its global reach, the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the scale of the means of its violence. We truly face a crisis of humanity. The stakes have never been higher; our very survival is at risk.
Consequently a renewed interest in Kark Marx is evident. An increasing concentration of wealth and growing poverty is making his analysis relevant once again – especially to a generation raised on austerity and facing worse life prospects than their parents had.'''
No longer a spectre, Marx .was also a voracious reader who loved the works of Shakespeare and could quote entire plays by the Bard—just as his children could—and generally took an interest in everything. “Art,” he said, “is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time.” No idea or philosophy or culture was foreign to him, and there was nothing that didn’t keen his interest.
Karl also enjoyed playing parlor games like Confessions, which is now probably better known as the set of questions devised by Marcel Proust. In April 1865, Marx was staying with relatives when he as asked by his daughters to answer a set of confessions. Marx’s responses were written in English and several of them are clearly in the gay spirit of the occasion. For example: Your favorite dish? Fish (because it rhymes with dish); your favorite flower? Daphne (a kind of laurel-sor Laura). Others, however, are just as clearly serious.They were discovered by Friedrich Engels while going through his papers and reflect the true character of the man and give an interesting insight into the mind of this great political and economic philosopher, journalist and writer.
Your favourite virtue: Simplicity
Your favourite virtue in man: Strength
Your favourite virtue in woman: Weakness
Your chief characteristic: Singleness of purpose
Your idea of happiness: To fight
Your idea of misery: To submit
The vice you excuse most: Gullibility
The vice you detest most: Servility
Your aversion: Martin Tupper [popular Victorian author]
Your favourite occupation: Glancing at Netchen [“Netchen, or Nannette, was Antoinette Philips, aged 28 at the time, Marx’s cousin and a member of the Dutch section of the International”]
Your favourite poet: Aeschylus, Shakespeare
Your favourite prose-writer: Diderot
Your hero: Spartacus, Kepler
Your heroine: Gretchen
Your favourite flower: Daphne
Your favourite dish: Fish
Your favourite colour: Red
Your maxim: Nihil humani a me alienum puto [Nothing human is alien to me]
Your favourite motto: De omnibus dubitandum [Doubt everything]
Marx/Engels Archive.
Marxs intellectual infuence still so strong , his ideas and thinking have become fundamentals of modern economics and sociology. His legacy is pervaisive complex and often polarizing. Long after his death in 1883, his grave remains a pilgrimage site for followers from around the world, attracting thousands of people each year, and his ideas still play an important role in shaping political and cultura discourses in the UK and abroad and remains .ne of the most influential figures in world history.
