A “Cinco de Mayo” I Will NOT Celebrate: The Bicentennial of the Birth of Karl Marx

When I lived in Germany, I was fascinated with Communism.  Not to become one.  I am sure i would not do that.  August 1968 had seared into me a hatred of any empire than might force sovereign nations and peoples into tyranny and the USSR had crushed the hopes of the Czech people into pieces.

This is a huge reason why I do not support the EU or Lincoln:  People have a right – an inalienable right to life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  And why we must not occupy or invade or attack other nations or manipulate their elections unless it is in the clear national interest of the US.

But Cinco de Mayo is also May 5 and on May 5, 1818, Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany.  And I’ve been to his birthplace and his home.  Not sure how it happened, but somehow we ended up in Trier (not too far from Holland) and we had to stop for a few minutes.  I had to show off to my father – you know Karl Marx was born here in Trier – and he said:  Don’t even think about trying to see that place!

But unbeknownst to us, we walked down a street and there it was:  Words in German – something like this:  Karl Marx war gebornen en dieses Haus on Mai 5, 1818.

I decided not to say anything.  (I am surprised I was not recruited by either the Young Pioneers or the CIA!)  But I was thrilled to find it.  even by accident.  Here is the house’s website with a museum, too.  (It was restored by the SPD – Germany’s Social Democratic Party by the way!  Says something don’t it!)  Seeking Marx’s house was probably misguided teenage rebellion…

Here’s the answer to Karl Marx day found at the WSJ and in the process answered a useful question that a professor of mine at Wright State tried to deny:  the linkage between Marx and Lenin/Stalin/Mao etc:

Marx has been accused of ambiguity in his writings. That critique is often justified, but not always. In “The Communist Manifesto,” he and Friedrich Engels were quite clear that “the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property.”

 “You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property,” they wrote. “But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population.” And this: “In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend.”

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