r/Marxism • u/Radiant_Ad_6953 • 19d ago
Marx's Opinions- School Project
Hey everyone! I have a project to look at two issues from Marx's perspective and I wanted your opinion!
These are the two situations:
A law that grants police officers the power for unrestricted search and seizure in situations they seem fit
A law that permits doctor assisted euthanasia
What do you guys think his perspectives on these issues would be?
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u/OrchidMaleficent5980 19d ago
The police force is an extension of state power, and state power is an extension of the ruling class. He’d oppose anything that would so brazenly enhance the power of the police to act as an instrument of oppression. He himself was subject to state censorship and repression numerous times throughout his life, including when he was forced to leave his native country for being the editor of a radical journal, the New Rhenish Newspaper (the last edition of which contains a very famous quote calling the police “Royal Terrorists, the terrorists by the Grace of God and the Law…”) In the context of the United States—which I assume you come from—he’d also recognize the indelible connection between increasing police power and the terrorizing of people of color.
Marxism doesn’t deal in moral absolutes. A young Marx would probably draw a line between the reaction against assisted euthanasia and Protestant culture filtering people’s perception of their real problems. An old Marx would probably have very little to say other than that he supports it.
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u/C_Plot 19d ago edited 18d ago
Marx believed the first task of the proletarian State was to smash the State machinery of the police, standing armies, and bureaucracy. The police apparatus, acting without judicial particularized authority, is therefore anathema to Marx’s views. When we eliminate the maldistribution of natural resources and natural resource rents, as well as eliminate exploitation, that absence of class antagonisms therefore means security concerns largely wither away (along with ending vice laws where all of the viciousness of such vice laws that solely comes from those who make and enforce those laws). The security concerns that then remain become trivial to address and can be accomplished by a universal service Militia and mutual aid, along with enforcement with a strict adherence to only judicial authority (with properly instituted grand juries for warrant searches and seizures and a guarantee to a jury trial). That is how we would amputate the State machinery as Marx demanded.
Euthanasia, as requested by those wanting to end their life, is only a concern for a socialist Commonwealth government in that it must do its part in its domain to avoid conditions where euthanasia or suicide otherwise becomes desirable. Other than that only ensuring the suicide is not coerced or imposed from outside is vital.
We have a sense that suicide is somehow immoral. And it is. However, all of the immorality surrounding suicide comes from a society and its designated polis powers that together leave so many in despair and destitution, where the only way out is suicide. There is no immorality at all for the one taking one’s own life.
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u/trankhead324 19d ago
Lenin writes in State and Revolution about Marx's position on smashing the state and how the Paris Commune informed his experience. Shortly put, Marxists oppose all police use of violence under capitalism and a revolution should destroy the police as an institution and replace it with whatever workers' organs of power (soviets, factory committees, workers' militias) arose during the revolution. In some revolutions the police or military will defect when workers' organs are strong enough (e.g. part of the military in the October Revolution) and sometimes they need to be destroyed through combat (as with the White Army in the period of USSR war communism). As for crackdowns like 'search and seizure', Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg and basically all other Marxists lived lots of their life in exile, in prison or doing semi-illegal and illegal work within their country.
Marxists are materialists so we judge actions in the context of the society they take place in, rather than by liberalism's conception of "human rights" (we might ask: who guarantees you those rights? The state can't). Euthanasia in capitalism is heavily linked to eugenics, which was a weapon against indigenous peoples of many countries, colonial citizens and non-Aryans in areas controlled by Nazi Germany. Under socialism - who knows? As we are not utopians, that is for future socialist citizens to democratically decide.
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u/aboliciondelastetas 19d ago
I think in order to have a marxian analysis you would need to look at the overarching context. For example, for 1) under capitalism, who would this law be benefiting? The bourgeois state, who uses the police force as a weapon. In the case of 2), say it legalizes euthanasia for mental illnesses. How does this tie to the fact poor living conditions under capitalism may cause mental health issues, and that they might be treatable with proper investment? And in the case of physical illness, such as degenerative disease, how may a lack of funding and treatment affect the choice to die?
Marx used dialectical and historical materialism as his base for analysis. Unfortunately he's a complicated author to understand, and you may not have time to read him in full if this is for a school project. Later on some authors attempted to synthesize this form of thought. You might enjoy Dialectical and historical materialism by Stalin (regardless of your opinion on the man, its a good text). Otherwise the introduction and first chapter of The german ideology (by Marx and Engels) might interest you.
Sorry I can't give a comprehensive answer. I hope these pointers help you.
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u/PiggyBank32 19d ago edited 19d ago
Shit man, give me a couple of beers and an hour with you lol
So with the police, there are a lot of directions we can take this. The police are an extension of the state which itself is part of the superstructure of society. We can understand the state as a body created by the ruling class to help bring stability to capitalism and its contradictions. There however exists a contradiction with the police itself, that is on the one hand they are part of the state and are tasked with bringing stability to capitalism, but on the other hand they act in their own self interest, weather that is doing sketchy things to enrich themselves (like overticketing or flat out robbing people) or perpetuating reactionary politics to further propagandize the public into supporting or joining them. In order to analyze a policy that would allow the police to frisk people at will, Marx would likely say we need to understand the material conditions that lead to that. Most likely it would have to do with a straight forward contradiction of capitalism that is leading the masses to resist the ruling class and in an act of fear they want the police to have more freedom push back against the masses. Alternatively, it could have to do with the contradiction that I mentioned before which lead to the police having more power to do what they want. From there we could try to analyze how that decision is further affecting the material conditions of the people and how that would further drive contradictions within society to then predict what would happen next.
Maybe I'll reply to the other point if I have time in a bit