Karl Marx wrote:The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world.
Notice the Marxist class-obsessed phraseology, distinguishing between "the middle class" and "the working class."
That got me thinking and I checked this letter in other languages, to see how these terms get to be translated.
It's unclear whether it was originally written in German because it was first published in English, in a British trade-unionist paper, and we know that Marx could speak English, although with a heavy German accent. Let's assume it was edited for publication by committee.
I found a Party-approved academic Russian translation, in which "the middle class" appears as "the bourgeoisie." Which is what I thought it would be. In other words, capitalists.
In German, "middle class" is called "Mittelstand" which usually includes small and "mom and pop" businesses. In Marxist vocabulary that is "petite bourgeoisie," which is still bourgeoisie, with its own mentality and culture that is antagonistic to "the proletariat" (aka "working classes" or "men of labor").
Marx believed that for a proletarian revolution to succeed, all bourgeoisie must be eliminated along with their mentality and cultural hegemony, to be replaced with new hegemony of the proletarian culture.
In summary, Marx believed that the American Revolutionary War was staged by the bourgeoisie (which still played a progressive role then), while the Civil War opened doors for the proletariat. Apparently he was hoping for another "red sea of civil war" that would eventually sweep the bourgeoisie, including what he referred to as "the middle class" (which now played a reactionary role).
In this sense it is curious how Obama is always using "the middle class" in the same way and capacity Marxists have always used "the working class," or "proletariat." This substitution of terms is either a deliberate rhetorical deception, or the meaning of the word has really shifted among today's Marxists influenced by Antonio Gramsci, at least in this country. It's part of the "divide and conquer" strategy: extract "the middle class" into a special class that is separate and opposed to others, and once "the middle class" allows the Marxists to categorize it and accepts the Marxist definition of itself, it will also allow the Marxists to represent it and will accept their leadership.
The above also clarifies the meaning of this book:
An Unfinished Revolution: Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln.
In the author's view, Lincoln only started a revolution which the Marxists must finish. It also explains Obama's description of Lincoln as his favorite president. He probably imagines himself as the one who is destined to finish Lincoln's "unfinished revolution," which is how it appears through the Marxist lens.
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