Sophie's World_ A Novel About The History Of Philosophy Part 45

"It infuriated Marx too. And while it was happening, the children of the bourgeoisie played the violin in warm, s.p.a.cious living rooms after a refres.h.i.+ng bath. Or they sat at the piano while waiting for their four-course dinner. The violin and the piano could have served just as well as a diversion after a long horseback ride."

"Ugh! How unjust!"

"Marx would have agreed. Together with Engels, he published a Communist Manifesto in 1848. The first sentence in this manifesto says: A spectre is haunting Europe-the spectre of Communism."

"That sounds frightening."

"It frightened the bourgeoisie too. Because now the proletariat was beginning to revolt. Would you like to hear how the Manifesto ends?"

"Yes, please."

"The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling cla.s.ses tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!"

"If conditions were as bad as you say, I think I would have signed that Manifesto. But conditions are surely a lot different today?"

"In Norway they are, but they aren't everywhere. Many people still live under inhuman conditions while they continue to produce commodities that make capitalists richer and richer. Marx called this exploitation."

"Could you explain that word, please?"

"If a worker produces a commodity, this commodity has a certain exchange-value."

"Yes."

"If you now deduct the workers' wages and the other production costs from the exchange-value, there will always be a certain sum left over. This sum was what Marx called profit. In other words, the capitalist pockets a value that was actually created by the worker. That is what is meant by exploitation."

"I see."

"So now the capitalist invests some of his profit in new capital-for instance, in modernizing the production plant in the hope of producing his commodity even more cheaply, and thereby increasing his profit in the future."

"That sounds logical."

"Yes, it can seem logical. But both in this and in other areas, in the long term it will not go the way the capitalist has imagined."

"How do you mean?"

"Marx believed there were a number of inherent contradictions in the capitalist method of production. Capitalism is an economic system which is self-destructive because it lacks rational control."

"That's good, isn't it, for the oppressed?"

"Yes; it is inherent in the capitalist system that it is marching toward its own destruction. In that sense, capitalism is 'progressive' because it is a stage on the way to communism."

"Can you give an example of capitalism being self-destructive?"

"We said that the capitalist had a good surplus of money, and he uses part of this surplus to modernize the factory. But he also spends money on violin lessons. Moreover, his wife has become accustomed to a luxurious way of life."

"No doubt."

"He buys new machinery and so no longer needs so many employees. He does this to increase his compet.i.tive power."

"I get it."

"But he is not the only one thinking in this way, which means that production as a whole is continually being made more effective. Factories become bigger and bigger, and are gradually concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. What happens then, Sophie?"

"Er. . ."

"Fewer and fewer workers are required, which means there are more and more unemployed. There are therefore increasing social problems, and crises such as these are a signal that capitalism is marching toward its own destruction. But capitalism has a number of other self-destructive elements. Whenever profit has to be tied up in the means of production without leaving a big enough surplus to keep production going at compet.i.tive prices . . ."

"Yes?"

", . . what does the capitalist do then? Can you tell me?"

"No, I'm afraid I can't."

"Imagine if you were a factory owner. You cannot make ends meet. You cannot buy the raw materials you need to keep producing. You are facing bankruptcy. So now my question is, what can you do to economize?"

"Maybe I could cut down on wages?"

"Smart! Yes, that really is the smartest thing you could do. But if all capitalists were as smart as you-and they are-the workers would be so poor that they couldn't afford to buy goods any more. We would say that purchasing power is falling. And now we really are in a vicious circle. The knell has sounded for capitalist private property, Marx would say. We are rapidly approaching a revolutionary situation."

"Yes, I see."

"To make a long story short, in the end the proletariat rises and takes over the means of production."

"And then what?"

"For a period, we get a new 'cla.s.s society' in which the proletarians suppress the bourgeoisie by force. Marx called this the dictators.h.i.+p of the proletariat. But after a transition period, the dictators.h.i.+p of the proletariat is replaced by a 'cla.s.sless society,' in which the means of production are owned 'by all'-that is, by the people themselves. In this kind of society, the policy is 'from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.' Moreover, labor now belongs to the workers themselves and capitalism's alienation ceases."

"It all sounds wonderful, but what actually happened? Was there a revolution?"

"Yes and no. Today, economists can establish that Marx was mistaken on a number of vital issues, not least his a.n.a.lysis of the crises of capitalism. And he paid insufficient attention to the plundering of the natural environment-the serious consequences of which we are experiencing today. Nevertheless . . ."

"Nevertheless?"

"Marxism led to great upheavals. There is no doubt that socialism has largely succeeded in combating an inhumane society. In Europe, at any rate, we live in a society with more justice-and more solidarity-than Marx did. This is not least due to Marx himself and the entire socialist movement."

"What happened?"

"After Marx, the socialist movement split into two main streams, Social Democracy and Leninism. Social Democracy, which has stood for a gradual and peaceful path in the direction of socialism, was Western Europe's way. We might call this the slow revolution. Leninism, which retained Marx's belief that revolution was the only way to combat the old cla.s.s society, had great influence in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. Each in their own way, both movements have fought against hards.h.i.+p and oppression."

"But didn't it create a new form of oppression? For example in Russia and Eastern Europe?"

"No doubt of that, and here again we see that everything man touches becomes a mixture of good and evil. On the other hand, it would be unreasonable to blame Marx for the negative factors in the so-called socialist countries fifty or a hundred years after his death. But maybe he had given too little thought to the people who would be the administrators of communist society. There will probably never be a 'promised land.' Mankind will always create new problems to fight about."

"I'm sure it will."

"And there we bring down the curtain on Marx, Sophie."

"Hey, wait a minute! Didn't you say something about justice only existing among equals?"

"No, it was Scrooge who said that."

"How do you know what he said?"

"Oh well-you and I have the same author. In actual fact we are more closely linked to each other than we would appear to the casual observer."

"Your wretched irony again!"

"Double, Sophie, that was double irony."

"But back to justice. You said that Marx thought capitalism was an unjust form of society. How would you define a just society?"

"A moral philosopher called John Rawls attempted to say something about it with the following example: Imagine you were a member of a distinguished council whose task it was to make all the laws for a future society."

"I wouldn't mind at all being on that council."

"They are obliged to consider absolutely every detail, because as soon as they reach an agreement-and everybody has signed the laws-they will all drop dead."

"Oh . . ."

"But they will immediately come to life again in the society they have legislated for. The point is that they have no idea which position they will have in society."

"Ah, I see."

"That society would be a just society. It would have arisen among equals."

"Men and women!"

"That goes without saying. None of them knew whether they would wake up as men or women. Since the odds are fifty-fifty, society would be just as attractive for women as for men."

"It sounds promising."

"So tell me, was the Europe of Karl Marx a society like that?"

"Absolutely not!"

"But do you by any chance know of such a society today?"

"Hm ... that's a good question."

"Think about it. But for now there will be no more about Marx."

"Excuse me?"

"Next chapter!"

Darwin

...a s.h.i.+p sailing through life with a cargo of genes...

Hilde was awakened on Sunday morning by a loud b.u.mp. It was the ring binder falling on the floor. She had been lying in bed reading about Sophie and Alber-to's conversation on Marx and had fallen asleep. The reading lamp by the bed had been on all night.

The green glowing digits on her desk alarm clock showed 8:59.

She had been dreaming about huge factories and polluted cities; a little girl sitting at a street corner selling matches-well-dressed people in long coats pa.s.sing by without as much as a glance.

When Hilde sat up in bed she remembered the legislators who were to wake up in a society they themselves had created. Hilde was glad she had woken up in Bjer-kely, at any rate.

Would she have dared to wake up in Norway without knowing whereabouts in Norway she would wake up?

But it was not only a question of where she would wake up. Could she not just as easily have woken up in a different age? In the Middle Ages, for instance-or in the Stone Age ten or twenty thousand years ago? Hilde tried to imagine herself sitting at the entrance to a cave, sc.r.a.ping an animal hide, perhaps.

What could it have been like to be a fifteen-year-old girl before there was anything called a culture? How would she have thought? Could she have had thoughts at all?

Hilde pulled on a sweater, heaved the ring binder onto the bed and settled down to read the next chapter.

Alberto had just said "Next chapter!" when somebody knocked on the door of the major's cabin.

"We don't have any choice, do we?" said Sophie.

"No, I suppose we don't," said Alberto.

On the step outside stood a very old man with long white hair and a beard. He held a staff in one hand, and in the other a board on which was painted a picture of a boat The boat was crowded with all kinds of animals. "And who is this elderly gentleman?" asked Alberto.

"My name is Noah."

"I guessed as much."

"Your oldest ancestor, my son. But it is probably no longer fas.h.i.+onable to recognize one's ancestors."

"What is that in your hand?" asked Sophie.

"This is a picture of all the animals that were saved from the Flood. Here, my daughter, it is for you."

Sophie took the large board.

"Well, I'd better go home and tend the grapevines," the old man said, and giving a little jump, he clicked his heels together in the air and skipped merrily away into the woods in the manner peculiar to very old men now and then.