Political economy came into being as a natural result of the expansion of trade, and with its appearance elementary, unscientific huckstering was replaced by a developed system of licensed fraud, an entire science of enrichment.
Friedrich EngelsRead
The state is nothing but an instrument of opression of one class by another - no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that governments inherently serve to oppress one class of people for the benefit of another, regardless of the system in place.
Friedrich Engels asserts that the structure of the state, whether in a monarchy or a democratic republic, functions primarily as a tool for the dominance of one social class over another. This perspective challenges the notion that democracy itself is a safeguard against oppression, highlighting that class struggles are fundamental to social order and governance.
In practice
In discussions about social justice movements, this quote can highlight the ongoing struggles against class oppression.
Political economy came into being as a natural result of the expansion of trade, and with its appearance elementary, unscientific huckstering was replaced by a developed system of licensed fraud, an entire science of enrichment.
I have learned more [from Balzac] than from all the professional historians, economists, and statisticians put together.
People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy.
Just as Darwin discovered the law of evolution in organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of evolution in human history; he discovered the simple fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of idealogy [sic], that mankind must first of all eat and drink, have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, religion, art etc.
...it was always our view that in order to attain this [proletarian revolution] and the other far more important aims of the future social revolution, the working class must first take possession of the organised political power of the state and by its aid crush the resistance of the capitalist class and organise society anew.
People have learned by bitter experience that the "European fraternal union of peoples" cannot be achieved by mere phrases and pious wishes, but only by profound revolutions and bloody struggles; they have learned that the question is not that of a fraternal union of all European peoples under a single republican flag, but of an alliance of the revolutionary peoples against the counter-revolutionary peoples, an alliance which comes into being not on paper, but only on the battlefield.
Whatever sympathy I feel towards religions, whatever admiration for some of their adherents, whatever historical or biological necessity I see in them, whatever metaphorical truth, I cannot accept them as credible explanations of reality; and they are incredible to me in proportion to the degree that they require my belief in positive human attributes and intervenient powers in their divinities.
Among the friends of Union, there is great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race among us.
A tyrant... is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.
There are stories, like maps that agree... too consistent among too many languages and histories to be only wishful thinking.... It is always a hidden place, the way into it is not obvious, the geography is as much spiritual as physical. If you should happen upon it, your strongest certainty is not that you have discovered it but returned to it. In a single great episode of light, you remember everything.
The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.
Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
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