Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Private property is capital, and capital is accumulated labor, but private property also places the two concepts in conflict with each other since property extracts labor from the worker to the benefit of the owner. Communism is the abolition of private property as presently constituted. Its goal is to fuse the role of the laborer with that of the owner. If an asset cannot be owned collectively, communism will destroy it. Marx acknowledges a “crude communism” which would extend the principle of abolishing property to the abolition of marriage, replacing it with a “community of women” (133). These communists argue that sexual envy is part and parcel of the system of greed that places human beings in endless competition with one another. Since the poor already lack property, a switch from marriage to communal sexuality would just confirm their status under capitalism.

Marx rejects this argument as a false equivalence between fundamentally different kinds of relationships. Whereas labor and capital are necessarily communal, marriage is an interpersonal relationship rooted in nature, and sexuality is the clearest expression of humankind as a “species being” (134). The fulfillment that partners find in one another is similar to the fusion of laborer and object. The cruder form of communism, which equates capital and people (in this case women) is a clever tool by the propertied interests to demonize communism by coloring it with capitalist logic. Communism is humanism, restoring the individual’s connection to other human beings and nature. Crude communists look to the past to find examples of a better lifestyle to which people should return, while more authentic communism regards itself as a fulfillment of humanity’s ultimate destiny.

Private property is a crucial institution in this historical movement. It shows in concrete ways how human beings have become alienated from themselves. Communism is atheistic because it requires that people focus on their immediate, material needs and social relationships rather than abstractions such as sin and redemption. It requires action, not just contemplation. Communism will only be achieved when people reestablish social ties and act communally. The life of the individual only gains meaning with respect to the community and the entire species. To think of oneself as first and foremost a member of society will encourage one to act accordingly, and so the theory and practice of communism are mutually reinforcing.

On the other hand, the person who accumulates property for themselves is asserting their own life in opposition to the community, and in doing so alienates themselves not just from other people but from themselves as a social being. The relationship between person and property is purely transactional, offering a brief moment of satisfaction that needs constant replenishment. The cheap pleasure of owning and using something pales in comparison to the joy of seeing both people and objects as designed for mutual assistance. A social object becomes a human object, capable of improving the life of a person and broadening their moral horizons when they think about how it can also improve the lives of others. When someone instead thinks of objects as belonging to them in particular, they become objects themselves. For example, music is just noise to someone operating on their senses alone, divorced from social knowledge. A person can enjoy music only when they have embedded the social knowledge of what music is. Therefore, it is necessary to transform private property, which in its current form reduces a person to their immediate needs, into a tool of communal fulfillment.

Industry has moved leaps and bounds in the fulfillment of mankind’s material needs, while philosophy and psychology are caught up in abstractions. What is needed is a philosophy wedded to the practical sciences that enlarges one’s senses and social consciousness as the material resources of capitalism have helped make different parts of the world more accessible to one another. People are not independent—they owe their existence to their parents and in turn their grandparents, and great-grandparents, all the way back to the beginning. Each individual belongs to the species as a whole. The history of mankind since primordial days is the human species building up the world through their labor, with no help from a divine being. Socialism, and eventually communism, represents the final reconciliation of collective labor and collective consciousness. Communism is not an end unto itself, but the next stage toward humankind’s freedom and happiness.