Thoughts on Marxism

Wednesday in class we finally started to combine our reading with the lectures. I am all about the missional/emergent church but that's not why I took this class. We had an interesting history lesson of the intent of Marxism and Communism. It's beautiful intentions of knowing the producer of the good you are intending to purchase is something that I can't stop thinking about. As an American culture we have become really disconnected between what we buy and who has taken their life to make this product come into being. I think that Marx and Communism had some beautiful intentions but how they played out in a global market place and the overthrow of dictatorship is highly unnerving.

I was trying to connect the relevance of this conversation with what is happening in today's marketplace as well as the highly anticipated elections. How does a new way, or change, come into our national economic plan? How do we take a capitalist society and make meaning with how we consume. Money and goods seemed to be a high talked about topic on Monday's State of the Union Address. Bush has allowed Americans to receive a tax break so we can buy more goods from the stamp of the USA. The problem is my clothing all has names like Malawi, China, or El Salvador. Where I am sure that they were most likely not paid same wages as Americans and Corporate Business Men will probably drive their BMW to work because I bought a pair of pants from their company.

I know that Marxism was idealistic and the beauty of unity and moving to a classless society seems valuable and something that was desirable within our nation state. I believe that Americans need to find new identity and meaning with how we purchase, what we purchase, how we work, and ultimately give meaning. What can we continue to learn from Marx? What went right? Where can we learn from the mistakes?