Remembering The Marx Cloud

This week has really been the Week of the Left. The general election in Britain and the legislative election in France both went heavily leftward. I have always thought that Karl Marx deserves some credit. He wasn't totally right, the elections this week weren't the necessarily violent revolution that he saw as necessary to overthrow capitalism in favor of pure Communism. But yet he wasn't totally wrong and might have been pleased with this week's rout of the left. 

Although it wasn't completely what he had envisioned Marx would likely be pleased with the unemployment assistance, welfare, minimum wage and workplace safety laws, and mandatory public education, that were unimaginable in the Nineteenth Century when Marx wrote his theories.

THE MARX CLOUD

I have a new way of looking at the theories of Karl Marx. I conclude that the fulfillment of Marxist theory can be seen in, of all things, computer technology. Since the end of the Cold War, Marx has been viewed as one of the great losers of history. He was nowhere near completely right in his predictions, yet was on to something and cannot be ignored. When I was in London, I thought of visiting his grave in Highgate Cemetery but never got around to it.

The workers of the world did not unite and take over the means of production, as Marx had envisioned. But he was somewhat vindicated by the crash of Capitalism in 1929, as well as the somewhat lesser crashes of 1987 and 2008. He might have been pleased with the implementation of minimum wage and workplace safety laws, labor unions, unemployment benefits and social security, and especially mandatory public education. All of which, with the exception of labor unions, was virtually unheard of in the Nineteenth Century when Marx wrote his theories. 

Samuel Gompers could be seen as America's reflection of Marx. Religion, the "opiate of the masses" certainly has not faded away as expected by Marx. But it is true that the western countries, at least, are more secular than they were in the days of Marx.

We look at the theories of Marx in socio-economic terms. But what if there was another side to the theory, that of technology, even if Marx himself did not see this? Some of the fulfillment of Marxist theory certainly was in the socio-economic sphere, as the above mentioned reforms. But the other side, the technical side and it's global social effects, had to wait for the advent of computers and the internet.

Computer and phone technology has empowered the masses like nothing else, even though it is produced by companies owned by wealthy capitalists. Wikipedia, for one, seems to be straight from the pages of Marxist theory. It is the collective encyclopedia of the masses, operated by donations and open to anyone who wishes to contribute. All free apps on the internet, open to all and not driven by profit motive, also fall into this category.

The nation-state has not faded away, at least not in the way that Marx supposedly envisioned. In the more than century and a half since the days of Marx, nationalism has been stronger than ever before. My theory is that people are designed to believe in something and if they drift away from religion, substitutes like nationalism will take it's place.

But yet national borders also mean less today than ever before. Trade and travel goes around the world. It is possible to wake up in any country one morning, and go to bed in any other country that night. You can log onto a web site, or make a call, or send an email virtually anywhere on earth, with the national borders in between being absolutely meaningless.

But the latest manifestation of Marxist theory is this phenomenon of collective global internet, known as "the cloud". The basic meaning of the cloud is that the data that you store, and increasingly the applications that you use, are not stored on your computer but are "out there somewhere" in the cloud. This blog is an ideal example of the cloud. It is not stored on my computer. I presume that the content of this blog is kept at Google's HQ in Mountain View, California, but could be on any server farm anywhere.

Marx sensed what would come. The Nineteenth Century in Europe was a time of revolution, and he presumed that the inevitable changes that he saw would be brought about in the same way. We could say that half of the fulfillment of his theory was by way of the social reforms listed above. But the communication technology of the time was limited to telegraphs relaying Morse Code. Marx could not possibly have imagined the computer revolution which would one day manifest the other half of this fulfillment.

He also did not see that while the technical side of his theory would be fulfilled, and it would greatly empower the masses that Marx saw as exploited and ill-treated, it would be brought about by very wealthy capitalists. The difference, with which Marx would be at least partially pleased, is these capitalists would not be from an entrenched upper class, but would be college kids who got an idea, quit school to work on it, and found themselves as the billionaires which would, ironically, bring about the remaining fulfillment of Marxist theory.

This shows what Karl Marx actually envisioned. He was right but he only saw half of the picture and it would require advancement in technology, which would take time, to bring his half of the picture about.

My observation is that the best economic model is not one that is right or left, but the one which best weaves right and left together.