I am finally realizing something almost fatal to my world view – Marx is wrong. My culture lecture today was on his theory of historical materialism. It is now clear to me that his prediction of the Cultural Revolution is basically nothing more than a leap of faith. Christians believe in the Second Coming, Jews believe in the coming of the Messiah, Marxists believe in the overthrow of the Bourgeoisie. The way in which Marx describes history (thesis + antithesis = synthesis) also seems inaccurate, I find it more likely that the struggle between classes will have many bastard offspring. These will be random. After all, nobody can predict the future. Thus, history unravels along Darwinian lines. If one rejects religion for being illogical, one must also reject Marx for the same reason.

Yet mankind remains a social animal. All the higher primates live in groups. Thus, to think we can leave society open to the ‘free market’ and survival of the fittest would be a mistake, and I reject social Darwinism. We must value all members of society,, as we all have something to contribute; if we allow everything to run along the principals of the free market, only those with attributes like opportunism, ambition and greed do well. Those without those attributes are stymied, although they may have attributes just as important; social Darwinism is therefore wasteful. It is worth noting that Darwin was simply describing and drawing conclusions from natural phenomena, not producing a political manifesto. Thus, just as I reject Marx’s predictions, I cannot lurch to the other end of the political spectrum. Free market capitalism is just as flawed and baseless as Marx.