Marxist Mondays

Another cool thing Marx emphasized is how power plays into the classical liberal notion of "rights." For example, one can attain "equal rights" formally, but without a corresponding equality of power, such equality of rights will often amount to very different outcomes, with vast advantages accruing to the powerful.

If you've ever been an American, you are probably aware of the endless lip service that is accorded to our rights and freedoms. And it's true: nobody is going to stop you from influencing your representative by contributing millions of dollars to their campaign, by whatever means advised by your lawyer.

But such freedom isn't relevant to the circumstances of most Americans; its meaningfulness is derived from that which most people don't possess. How many legal claims have been abandoned by the flesh and blood citizen even though she enjoys the same "rights" under the law as her corporate defendant?

Marx noted the magnanimity of liberal democracy in bestowing "equal rights" as long as economic power was sufficiently unequal between classes. This gets at the redistributionist character of socialism, since capitalist distribution empowers, well, capitalists; while socialism aims at empowering people.