Can someone please tell me what Marxism is?

Question

a clear definition? excuse my ignorance

Answer 1

Marxism is the belief that the upper economic classes will never relinquish their hold on power, and that a violent uprising by the working people is required for human society to reach its highest potential.  This new workers' society would have little or no private property, and everything would be held by the state in the name of the people.

Marx believed that human society followed a pre-set development track.  It is thus very common for Marxist historians to examine history and try to interpret it as though all of human time followed Marx's predictions for the arc of social development.  All nonsense, of course.

Answer 2

marxism is an idea during the time of Carl Marx. It talks about how everyone should be equal financially and status wise. It's the very idea that communism is based off of. That is what I learned in high school. I could be wrong though.

Answer 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1IME451N...

Answer 4

A political ideal that aims to create a classless, worker based society, where power, and ownership is exercised by the underclasses, and where everyday needs are met. In theory, that is. Not practice.  

Answer 5

It's an economic system, to the "left" of capitalism and socialism. Karl Marx didn't like the way workers were "exploited" in a capitalist system, so he saw a system in which there were basically no bosses and the workers would do their best for everyone's benefit.

I think the nicest thing you could say about it is that it is an idealistic approach. There's no incentive for people to do better work, so they didn't bother. That caused all sorts of problems in that system.

The Soviets said that government would melt away once the capitalist forces had been defeated. No one believed that one, and we never got the chance to find out.  

Answer 6

Marxism derives from the philosophy created by Karl Marx; a classless soceity. Their would be no Rich, Middle, or Poor; just people.

Marxist philosophy or Marxist opinion are terms which cover work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists. It may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew out of various sources, and the official philosophy in the Soviet Union, which enforced a rigid reading of Marx called "diamat" (for "dialectical materialism"), in particular during the 1930s. The phrase "Marxist philosophy" itself does not indicate a strictly defined sub-field of philosophy, because the diverse influence of Marxist theory has extended into fields as diverse as aesthetics, ethics, ontology, epistemology, and philosophy of science, as well as its obvious influence on political philosophy and the philosophy of history. The key characteristics of Marxism in philosophy are its materialism and its commitment to political practice as the end goal of all thought. Louis Althusser, for example, defined philosophy as "class struggle in theory", thus radically disjoining himself from those who claimed philosophers could adopt a "God's eye view" as a purely neutral judge. Just as the young Marx had left university and German Idealism to encounter the proletariat, which permitted him to modify his perspective on practice and theory, "intellectuals" couldn't content themselves with instructing from their chairs the masses (as the "organic intellectual" conception denounced by Antonio Gramsci) but had themselves to take part in the social struggles of their times.

Answer 7

Marxism, in reality, turned out to be a system where men exploited men. Capitalism is the opposite.

Answer 8

Modern communism...what Obama is striving for.  

In pure Marxism, everyone has the same wealth, etc...so the lazy have exactly the same as those willing to work their butts off.  

That is why it has never worked.

Check the link below for definition.