Only Fools and Horses.

Why Marxist Teleology Failed in England

Karl Marx believed he had profound insight when it came to predicting what would happen throughout the West (and, indeed, the world).  Drawing from Hegel, Marx and colleagues developed the theory that human history would progress by means of a "dialectic" of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.

Marx argued that the West would develop according to this pattern.  The property owners and employers (the "capitalists") would eventually be overthrown by means of a violent revolution of the oppressed and exploited "working class".  Then the synthesis would emerge: peace like a river would flow over all.  Marx, living in England, had high hopes that it would lead the way.  After all, England was the leading economic power in the nineteenth century; the capitalists were clearly exploiting the working classes.  The prospects for violent overthrow of the wealthy classes were excellent.

Except, Marx's theories failed to emerge in reality.  One wonders why the dialectic of capital versus labour failed to deliver, not only a violent revolution  in England, but the eternal synthesis of Communism.  Doubtless there were many reasons.  One, however, is striking.  The poor in England did not hate the rich.  In other words, the "dialectic" of capital versus labour failed to materialise.   Historian A. N. Wilson--a self-professed Marxist--gives an insight into why Marxism failed to take hold in England:

The English, to this day, are capable of holding directly contradictory views of the class system.  On the one hand they believe in egalitarian notions of no one being better than another just because he is born rich or noble, and they take vindctive delight in the prospects of royal or noble personages whom they dislike being "brought down a peg."

 On the other hand, the same people will will flood into the Mall to cheer the Queen or pay money to go round some ducal palace--those such as Chatsworth which contain a real live duke being a much greater tourist attraction than those which are mere museums.  "Their neighbours on the continent" might well form into two camps--the haters and the lovers of aristocracy.  In England they are one and the same.  [A. N. Wilson, The Victorians (London: Arrow Books/Random House, 2002), p.192.  Emphasis, author's.]

Here lies exposed some of the fundamental flaws of Marxism.  Not only was the schemata of Hegel's dialectic a gross over-simplification of human history, Marxism fails because it consistently misreads and misunderstands the wondrous complexity of human beings.  In a word the theories of Marx fail because they are simplistic.  They appear compelling only to fools and horses.