Marx and New Orleans

Paper Summary:

The paper uses Marx's beliefs on capitalism and class structure to offer an explanation for why the Army Corps of Engineers did not retrofit the levees in a city that traditionally votes Democratic, and is largely African American. The paper examines the New Orleans class structure before and after the mayhem caused by Katrina and the subsequent flood. The paper then shows how the Bush Administration was so involved in dominating the political landscape that they actually underestimated the damage because the people who would be most negatively affected and impacted were not part of the power structure that put the ruling class into positions of domination.

From the Paper:

"Capitalism: The Economist (December 1995) asserts that Marx wrote the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" in just a few days (finishing it January, 1948). And that the whole point of writing it was to "rally the forces of the proletariat" in Europe, but in fact it really didn't get much notice until the Russian Revolution of 1917, thirty-four years after Marx died.
"Meanwhile, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) explains that Marx, the German philosopher (although many people simply refer to him as a "communist") did not necessarily think that capitalism was "unjust" - but he did say that capitalist profit is "ultimately derived from the exploitation of the worker" (SEP). He thought that capitalism "was not the best way for human beings to live" because "capitalism impedes human flourishing," the Stanford review explains."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Andrew, Edward. (1975). Marx's theory of Classes: Science and Ideology. Canadian Journal ofPolitical Science, 8(3), 454-466.
• Coser, Lewis A. (1967). Continuities in the Study of Social Conflict. New York: The Free Press.
• Ridener, Larry R. (1977). Class Theory. Pfeiffer University. Retrieved 24 April 2008 fromhttp://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~Lridener/DDS/Marx/MARXW2.HTML.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2008). Karl Marx: Economics / Morality. Retrieved 24 April, 2008, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/#3.
• The Economist. (1999). Karl Marx: The Prophet of Capitalism. 353(8151), p. 38.

More papers on Marx and New Orleans:

• Term Paper # 96647 : "Hurricane Katrina, Class and Race"
• Narrative Essay # 124238 : "Why I Love New Orleans"
• Essay # 87574 : "The Future of New Orleans: A Sociological Examination"

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