The Pros And Cons Of The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution forever changed the economic, social and political lives of the whole world starting with Britain. Development in factory and agriculture production to sustain the rising population would cause the growth of cities, great innovations in technology and transportation as well as remodeling of the social class in the 1800s. The desire to strike rich and have to have a better life brought a wave of individuals to the city streets and into many factories for work. However, those dreams would be forgotten as workers faced the reality of the industrial Revolution. A new class known as the working class faced Filthy conditions of the work places, unlivable living quarters and a lack of health and work benefits. Rather than striking rich, the workers were barely able to make ends meet. Some affluent and rich known as the Utopian socialists saw the harsh conditions of the workers and tried to gain the attention of others hoping to ignite a rebellion among the workers against the bourgeois or seeking new reforms such as shorter hours, better working conditions and living conditions. However, the fight against the corrupt practices of capitalism was no
match for the political power and influence of the nobles and the bourgeois and therefore the workers were unable to have the proper reforms they desired. Karl Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party was an irrelevant document because it introduces a different type revolution that would end social class structure and create a new and self-governing proletariat economy known as communism. Influenced by Georg Hegel, “economic and political theorist”, Karl Marx and German socialist Frederick Engel were angered by the corruption of the capitalism, particularly the unfair social class structure that the industrial revolution had restructured (Merriman 713). Max felt that throughout history, there have been many changes in the class structure due to the changes in the need of material structure, which allowed the bourgeois class to appear and have great power and resources during the Industrial Revolution (Marx and Engel 15). Marx’s main conflict is the class struggle, which causes “inequality and exploitation” (History of Today Website). For Marx, the only solution was to end the oppression and inequality was to get rid of the class structure. Marx introduced a new social and economic society known as communism in which there would be a single class, the proletariat, who will redistribute the resources equally and have a democratic self-government (Marx and Engel 23). The workers heavily supported this form of social and economic society because they realized that through their tireless efforts for seeking reform, the bourgeois would never support reforms that would inhibit their money-making ability. Therefore the only way for proletariat’s suffering to cease is to dispose the class structure and create an equal and free society for everyone. “ The international appeal of the Manifesto was undoubtfully enhanced it’s claim that the whole working class, world-wide, had a stake in overthrowing capitalism.” (History of Today Website). Marx’s and Engel’s Manifesto would later be a great resource for various groups to revolt against the political and economic strife the common people are facing within their countries such as Russia, in which communism will take hold for many years and China.
However, a drawback of Marx and Engel’s communism is that the focus on equal redistribution of resources will impact the individual freedom and rights of many people. Communism’s focus is about society as a whole rather than the individual, therefore, it grants the overseer the power to take any measures that help the people. One example is censorship, which is witnessed by North Korea and China. The people in these countries have no knowledge of how the government is running and have no say against the government concerning their
well-being. Another drawback of communism is idea that a if a person is put in charge to govern the proletariats until he feels that the proletariats are ready to self-govern, must give up that power. In most cases, once the leader has power, it is unlikely that he would give up that power, therefore, causing the society to be a dictatorship rather than socialist. Overall, throughout history, the lower class whether the peasants in the feudal system or the slaves in the slave have always been treated unfairly and nobody questioned the inequality or freedoms of the lower class until the rise of the bourgeois in Industrial Revolution and their treatment towards the working class. This makes the Karl Marx and Frederic Engel’s Manifesto of the Communist Party popular and important because it acknowledges the importance of the lower class and the inequalities they face. It also gives them the satisfaction that they have the ability to overturn the upper class and can govern the society by themselves.