Name: On the Jewish Question
ISBN: 9781507828151

Karl Marx

Sankar Srinivasan

Karl Marx's views on the Jews Question and Zionism...

On the Jewish Question

Winona 

The arguments Karl Marx makes about the species-being are very compelling. I agree with what he says about a state being free whilst actively withholding the freedoms of its citizens. Its very relevant and applies to many modern-day, so-called liberal democracies that create the illusion of freedom, whilst maintaining and empowering institutions of subordination. His analysis on how this alienates us from our fellow people is very insightful, and provides good groundwork for his arguments in  Capital  and  The Communist Manifesto .

But the antisemitism was just terrible. I'm not sure if he's trying to be ironic in the way Machiavelli was when he wrote  The Prince  by pretending to appeal to his German audience, whilst not really meaning what he said, but the tirade against the Jewish faith in particular near the end of this essay was bizarre. Especially since he considers all religion to be bad and was living under a Christian theocracy -- one that was actively marginalising its German Jewish population.