"The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism"
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Peace, in this formulation, isn’t a ceasefire between equals; it’s what happens after politics has been settled in advance. By redefining “peace” as “the absence of opposition to socialism,” Marx collapses a loaded moral ideal into a partisan end-state. The rhetorical move is almost clinical: take a universally attractive word, strip it of its everyday content (safety, coexistence, pluralism), and refill it with a program. Peace becomes not a condition people negotiate, but a verdict history delivers.
The intent is polemical and strategic. Marx is writing in a Europe roiled by class conflict, state repression, and failed revolutions, where “order” and “peace” were routinely invoked by governments to justify crackdowns. He flips that language back on its owners: if bourgeois society calls its own stability “peace,” Marx suggests real peace can’t exist while class antagonism persists. Under the hood is a theory of conflict as structural, not incidental: opposition isn’t a misunderstanding to be mediated, it’s a symptom of material interests.
The subtext is the uncomfortable part. If peace is defined as the absence of opposition, dissent becomes, by definition, a problem to be eliminated rather than a feature to be protected. It hints at the grim logic later regimes would exploit: equate disagreement with violence, then treat enforcement as pacification. Even read charitably as an attack on “false peace,” the line reveals how revolutionary rhetoric can smuggle inevitability into morality, making a political victory sound like a humanitarian necessity.
The intent is polemical and strategic. Marx is writing in a Europe roiled by class conflict, state repression, and failed revolutions, where “order” and “peace” were routinely invoked by governments to justify crackdowns. He flips that language back on its owners: if bourgeois society calls its own stability “peace,” Marx suggests real peace can’t exist while class antagonism persists. Under the hood is a theory of conflict as structural, not incidental: opposition isn’t a misunderstanding to be mediated, it’s a symptom of material interests.
The subtext is the uncomfortable part. If peace is defined as the absence of opposition, dissent becomes, by definition, a problem to be eliminated rather than a feature to be protected. It hints at the grim logic later regimes would exploit: equate disagreement with violence, then treat enforcement as pacification. Even read charitably as an attack on “false peace,” the line reveals how revolutionary rhetoric can smuggle inevitability into morality, making a political victory sound like a humanitarian necessity.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: Quote Junkie (Hagopian Institute, 2008) modern compilationISBN: 9781438245188 · ID: d4Do5xvqGwgC
Evidence: ... Karl Marx Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex . Karl Marx The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism . Karl Marx The production of too many useful things results in too. Other candidates (1) Karl Marx (Karl Marx) compilation45.5% tory 1957 the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class |
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