“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”[These words are also inscribed upon his grave]― Karl Marx, Eleven Theses on Feuerbach
“The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and borrowed language.” ― Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
IN SHORT:
UPRIGHT: Active Intelligence. Commitment to ideas over time. Establishment of a complex system of thought. Paternalism, daddies and father figure. Prone to using pseudonyms and ‘nick-names’.
REVERSED: Limited Self-Control. Social Antagonism. Inability to conform to demands of daily life. Tenancy towards binge consumption. Cunning and biting criticism.
AT LENGTH:
The Karl Marx Monument stands 7.10m (23.29ft) tall, in a place sometimes called ‘Skull Alley’’, this is our Emperor . Here, Marx makes his appearance as an angular, disembodied head atop a massive base platform in Chemnitz, Germany. His sculptural hair weightlessly flows in the sky; his stoney stare is fixed on sights ahead, and his massive beard casts a shadow upon the the crowd below.
He has an ever-present quality. He is not just the monument, nor man it honors. He is more than himself or the sum of his life’s work. He a legacy and a tradition. He stands in for the part of us that believes: we have the capacity to responsible change our world for the better—from the bottom, up. For this reason he can be twisted into many positions and political projects. But do not mistake him, it is advisable to pay close attention, this card is exact, and exacting in his propositions and criticism. The Emperor card warns against loose interpretations and second or third-hand information sources. He looks upon us and insists in a fatherly manner that we do not allow ourselves to be caught up in flimsy idealism, the folly of positivism or be deluded into looking for transcendental pay-offs. The tools for our liberation are to be forged in the material conditions of our own oppression.
IN DEPTH: Born in Trier, Germany, Karl Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883), he began his studies in law and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. He married German theatre critic and activist Jenny von Westphalen in 1843, with whom he had seven children, however only three survived to adulthood due brutal living conditions. His political publications drew intense ire and censure from the State, eventually resulting in Marx being exiled and becoming stateless with his wife and children in Brussels and then London for decades, where he continued to develop his thought in collaboration with German thinker Friedrich Engels and publish his writings, and researching in the British Museum Reading Room.
His attentions were often split between his writing, radical organizing of socialist groups and a turbulent social & family life. Much of his later life was burdened by a variety of ailments (headaches, eye inflammation, neuralgia in the head, and rheumatic pains, skin afflictions), in his correspondences he described his condition as “the wretchedness of existence”. And yet these afflictions, rather than leaving him bed- ridden, often led to bouts of insomnia, and ‘all-night’ writing sessions and other forms of excesses of like drinking. He and his family struggled financially and were often reliant on loans and support from family and friends. None of this could deter his commitment to bringing the dialectic method to the material conditions of the working classes, and scrupulously critical understanding of capitalism. Through his political and philosophical work, the impact he had on his contemporaries and future generations, history is forever changed. He more than the sum his life’s work, he is an adjective, a noun, a school of social theory, he is a world changing way of thinking.
FURTHER READINGS:
Karl Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”
Terry Eagleton, “Why Marx was Right”
Thomas Keenan, “Reading Marx Rhetorically.” Fables of Responsibility.
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