From Bonn, he went to Berlin, where he finished his studies. Not being able to seek employment because of his bad reputation of being an atheist, he decided that he should not "ask himself "what to do?" But "what is the meaning of my life and what purpose does it serve?"" (Rius, 1979, p. 19). In order to answer this question, Marx decided to study philosophy. In 1845, Marx was struck by an article written by Frederick Engels called, "The condition of the working classes in England." It was because of this article that Marx and Engels became friends and partners. In 1848, Marx and Engels set up the "New Rhenish Gazette," however; Marx's unpopularity caused him to be expelled from Germany. Afterwards, Marx and Engels took part in a secret society called the Communist League, which pushed them to write the Communist Manifesto. This Manifesto allowed the world to see the two men's radical thoughts about society and where it was headed. Now, one must consider the questions, "What is communism and how did it come about?" Marx looked at society and came to the realization that there was class struggle. Marx states in his Manifesto: .
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonism. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle society as a whole, is more and more splitting into two great hostile camps, Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. (Ruis, 1979, p. 92).
Marx came to the conclusion that as long as society has private property, we cannot get rid of class struggle. Private property divides social classes up into who earns all the .
money without doing any work and who works and does not earn any. What needs to be done, according to Marx, is to rid our society of this private property and relieve ourselves of this alienation which is the result of these class differences. For example, everyone be his or her own boss.
