American Independence Day with Your Host Karl Marx

Although I feel like I have little in common with the founding fathers of the United States, the emancipatory zeitgeist of the forth of July loomed large during our field trip to Karl Marx’s final resting place at London’s Highgate Cemetery. After riding a bus to London and the underground train system once in London, we trekked through a park and beneath an ominous stone gate to reach Highgate. Strolling among the tombstones of 19th century Brits, we followed a curved walkway to the towering monument erected to the pioneer of conflict theory. The rectangular base of the monument was etched in gold letters with the phrase “workers of all lands unite” while “the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways – the point however is it change it” was etched out in gold near the bottom. Atop this stone base was a sculpture from the shoulders up, complete with full beard and deep eyes. Above his gold lettered name a shriveled flower lied on a stone ledge protruding from the surface. While I absorbed this imagery, I began to think of Marxist theory.
Despite considering Marx my favorite sociologist, I think the contemporary validity of some of his ideas deserves to be called into question. Touching on the possibilities of revolution after reading The Manifesto of the Communist Party for class, I wondered about what had changed in the 160 years since the manifesto. While technology has facilitated rapid communication and travel, it has also given birth to new modes of isolation. Portable audio and video devices like the iPod enable individuals to replace social interaction with songs, music videos, and movies. Although, admittedly, this does not necessarily dead end at Alienation Street, liberal cultures like the United States which value individual liberty are especially vulnerable to this type of alienation. Likewise, the post-Second World War explosion of suburbs and emergence of gated communities in the United States pose considerable obstacles to revolution. Although individuals may work side by side at their jobs, social change among the proletariat is continually undermined through the myriad divide and conquer strategies of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and sex. The variations in these attitudes, behaviors, and identities are emphasized in pop culture literature like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and television programs which racialize crime by documenting non-white gangs which often do not have the resources to conceal their activities (in contrast to white, organized, and wealthy gangs). Furthermore, contemporary discourses of immigration and terrorism serve to divide people and prevent the development of class consciousness. In sum, I think the pervasive social change of a revolution is a distant dream.