Chapter 34 Speech at Marx's Grave

At 2:35 p.m. on March 14, the greatest contemporary thinker, Lu Jia, stopped thinking.We left him alone in the room for no more than two minutes, and when we entered again we found him sleeping peacefully in the easy chair—but asleep forever. The death of this man is an immeasurable loss to the fighting proletariat in Europe and America, and to historical science.The void created by the death of this giant will be felt in the near future. Just as Darwin discovered the law of development in the organic world, Marx discovered the law of discovery in human history, that is, a simple fact that has always been covered up by complicated ideologies: people must first eat, drink, live, and clothe before they can engage in work. Politics, science, art, religion, etc.; therefore, the production of direct material means of subsistence, a certain stage of economic development of a nation or an era constitutes the basis, people's state system, legal viewpoint, art and even religion Ideas are developed from this basis, and therefore must also be explained from this basis, rather than doing the opposite as in the past.

Not only that.Marx also discovered the special laws of motion of the modern capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society it produced.With the discovery of surplus value, here is a clear light, and all previous studies, whether bourgeois economists or socialist critics, have only been groping in the dark. It should be enough to have two such discoveries in one lifetime.Even a single such discovery is a blessing.But Marx made unique discoveries in every field he studied (even in the field of mathematics), and there are many such fields, and he did not study any of them superficially.

This was the case with the great man of science, but it was far from the main thing in him.Science, according to Marx, is a driving, revolutionary force in history.Every new discovery in any of the theoretical sciences, even if its practical application was not even foreseeable, pleased Marx wholeheartedly; His joy is quite different.For example, he had followed closely the development of discoveries in electricity, and not long ago also that of Marcel Deppler. Because Marx was above all a revolutionary.Participating in some way in the cause of the overthrow of capitalist society and the state system it created, in the emancipation of the modern proletariat, through which he first became aware of its position and its demands, of the conditions of its emancipation—this is actually It is his life's mission.Struggle was something he was comfortable with.And the fervor, tenacity, and fruitfulness with which he fought are rare.The first "Rheinische Zeitung" (1842), "Vorfort" in Paris (1844), "Deutsche-Brussels Zeitung" (1847), "New Rheinische Zeitung" (1848-1849), "New York Daily Tribune" Gazette (1852-1861), and many militant pamphlets, work in organizations in Paris, Brussels, and London, and finally the founding of the great International Workingmen's The founder of the association could be proud of this achievement if he had done nothing else.

It is for this reason that Marx is the most hated and maligned man of our time.Governments of all countries—whether autocratic or republican—expelled him; bourgeois—whether conservative or ultra-democratic—scrambled to slander and curse him.He paid no attention to it all, brushed them away like spider webs, and only answered when absolutely necessary.Now he is dead, revered, loved, and mourned by millions of fellow revolutionary comrades throughout Europe and America, from the mines of Siberia to California, and I venture to say that he may have had many enemies, but not one private enemy. His fame and career will live forever!