Before Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, there was the French Revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre. Max and his merry band of guillotiners were 50 years ahead of communism, but his economic philosophy of lopping the heads off of the rich and redistributing their wealth was very much in line with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Robespierre said, “The rich must be condemned to give to the poor all that they have.”
Robespierre was a fervent redistributor who believed a “fair” society required an equal economic footing. Before writing “The Communist Manifesto,” Marx and Engels argued in the “The Holy Family” that a “false consciousness” existed within the proletariat. In essence, they were telling the common man, “You don’t know how bad you have it.”
Robespierre lost his head, and then the French Revolution lost its footing when Napoleon declared himself “le boss.”…
