Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Chronology of the life of Moses Hess
- A note on the text
- Bibliographical note
- The Holy History of Mankind
- Dedication
- PART ONE THE PAST AS THE FOUNDATION OF WHAT WOULD HAPPEN
- PART TWO THE FUTURE, AS THE CONSEQUENCE OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED
- First Chapter The Natural Striving of Our Age or the Foundation of the Holy Kingdom
- Second Chapter Our Present Plight as the Mediator of the Foundation of the Kingdom
- Third Chapter The New Jerusalem and the End of Days
- SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM
- A COMMUNIST CREDO: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
- CONSEQUENCES OF A REVOLUTION OF THE PROLETARIAT
- Appendix: Christ and Spinoza (from Rome and Jerusalem)
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
CONSEQUENCES OF A REVOLUTION OF THE PROLETARIAT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Chronology of the life of Moses Hess
- A note on the text
- Bibliographical note
- The Holy History of Mankind
- Dedication
- PART ONE THE PAST AS THE FOUNDATION OF WHAT WOULD HAPPEN
- PART TWO THE FUTURE, AS THE CONSEQUENCE OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED
- First Chapter The Natural Striving of Our Age or the Foundation of the Holy Kingdom
- Second Chapter Our Present Plight as the Mediator of the Foundation of the Kingdom
- Third Chapter The New Jerusalem and the End of Days
- SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM
- A COMMUNIST CREDO: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
- CONSEQUENCES OF A REVOLUTION OF THE PROLETARIAT
- Appendix: Christ and Spinoza (from Rome and Jerusalem)
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Summary
[First published in Deutsche-Brüsseler-Zeitung (German Brussels Gazette), 31 October 1847 (Second article).]
In order to be clear about the consequences of such a revolution, we should first acquaint ourselves with its pre-conditions. Let us then recapitulate them.
As we have seen, it is Big Industry which ultimately possesses all the means for the overthrow of the existing social organization that rests on private industry, private commerce, and private property. It is that which creates the revolutionary class and creates unity against the bourgeois class. It is that which makes it subjectively possible for the proletariat to cast off its yoke, by providing it with a consciousness of its situation. Finally, it is Big Industry which also brings about the objective material means for a social upheaval, by creating such a surplus of unutilized instruments of production that it is extremely easy to produce through them abundantly all that we require, once the obstacles which today hinder production at every turn are removed.
What is it which now hinders production? The commercial crises. How do these commercial crises arise? Through over-production. Why is more being produced today than can be consumed? Do all members of society possess a surplus of what they require? No: most do not have even the very necessities of life, much less all that a human being needs for the development of the totality of his inclinations, capacities, and powers; on the contrary, much more will have to be produced in order to satisfy all needs and the needs of all.
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- Moses Hess: The Holy History of Mankind and Other Writings , pp. 128 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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