The Great Enlightenment Illusion

The intellectual leaders during the Ð''Age of Enlightenment' saw themselves as putting an end to irrationality, superstition, mysticism, and many traditions. They advocated rational thought, the power of ideas, and individual freedom as a way in which to help the world progress. The time witnessed the beginning of both capitalist and socialist ascension. However, while both movements argued for rational thought, Marx can be seen as opposing both idealism and the Enlightenment version of individual freedom. Marx attempts to revise with critical alterations the notions put forward by the Enlightenment. He argues that all property must be abolished in order to create an egalitarian society and free the proletariat from the servitude of the ruling class.

Karl Marx revised with critical alterations the ideals put forth by the Enlightenment project. He believed that all men are bound by their material conditions. "The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness is directly interwoven with the material activity and the material relationships of menÐ'..." (111) Marx was a historical materialist. His historical analysis looked for the causes of alterations in human society through the lens of economics; this includes such things as social classes, political structures, and ideologies. He argues that the laws of human change are more powerful than individual human characteristics. This is in direct contradiction to some of the main ideals of the Enlightenment Ð'- that individual freedom and the power of ideas are the main driving forces of progress. Essentially, these goals mean nothing because the only ones who may enjoy such privileges are those that control the means of production. It is these people, the bourgeois, whose ideas really matter. The proletariat, those who work for those who own the means of production, may only think, through the propaganda of the ruling class, that they are able to influence current events. This sort of thinking is thus an illusion. It also renders rationality, as it appears in today's society, illusionary, as one does not have enough power individually to overcome the poor material conditions that they are faced with. Marx does leave open the idea that with enough alterations to the material conditions, starting with the abolishing of private property, the proletariat may successfully employ rationality to advance society. In this way, human suffering may be