Contradictory?

[Avocado]

Engels a factory owner?
Marx a shareholder?

How do we see these facts?

[Left Leanings]

It's true that both Marx and Engels were privileged individuals. Marx was an academic, and Engels supported him financially, so that he could carry out his research, and develop his theory of class struggle and liberation.

I regard them both as persons of integrity, who saw beyond narrow individualism and selfishness, and brought forth a social science, capable of bringing into being, a better world for all.

They were affluent, yes. But in terms of their ideology, they were proletarian. Just as many of my mates at university were.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

[Prinskaj]

Engels a factory owner?
Marx a shareholder?

How do we see these facts?
What they did and were is of no importance, their ideas, theories and writings are what matters. They are not supposed to be role models.

[Stalin Ate My Homework]

Although Marx came from a wealthy family, he was an outcast and so lived in abject poverty in London. It was only with Engels help that he could publish his work. The sad fact is that at that time it would have been impossible to get an education beyond the age of 11 or 12 unless you come from a wealthy background. There may well have been a certain contradiction but without it there would be no Marxism.

[Avocado]

Yes I understand that one's political theory may not be contradicted by one's own personal actions: the self gets in the way.

I'm sure Marx would not have propounded a theory of 'shagging anything that had a pulse' - nor 'Rabbie Burns' - but they had weaknesses and so...

If only the media would see politicians that way. We might start concentrating on politics in the end, rather than looking for angels.

[Book O'Dead]

Engels a factory owner?
Marx a shareholder?

How do we see these facts?

As far as I know these are not facts.

I've never heard of Marx being a shareholder in anything and, in truth, Engels was merely a partner in a firm, not its owner.

Anyway, even if such things were true, to hold them up against an ideal standard of morality is silly and ahistorical. You cannot judge their work by such ethics as they ignore the reality of the particular circumstance in which they lived.

[Revolutionair]

They were class traitors plain and simple. They received education thinking they would lead businesses in the future. Instead they used that education to think about the liberation of the global working class.