Consecration Vs. Communism

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Consecration vs. Communism It was once said that,” from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” (Colegrove and Bartlett 42). This profound statement was given by Karl Marx in 1848 in his work entitled the Communist Manifesto. Karl Marx’s ideas, or what was to become Marxism and better known as communism, advocated the abolition of private property, and sought a point in time, where there would no longer be classes of people, but all would be equal. Just 17 years earlier on February 9, 1831, on a small farm in Kirtland, Ohio, Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Mormon Church, received a revelation from God on how to form a perfect, celestial society, where all would be equal. On the surface, both systems, communism and consecration, appear the same. Both strive to achieve an idealistic society were there are no poor, but each is equal. However, despite the similarities, consecration differs greatly from Russian communism, in its origins, motives, implementation of ideas, and successes. Origins One evident inconsistency with communism and consecration is the source of ideas. Karl Marx was raised with a belief that “man’s innate goodness and reason was blocked only by social, political and religious barriers, and other artificially created rules” (Miller et al. 18). From his schooling at the University of Berlin to his family life, he continually pushed for his ideas. He wanted to establish a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” which means that the working class majority would rise to power over capitalist minority. Marx believed that this could be achieved by a revolution, and then a generous, benevolent dictatorship of the working class. Greatly differing from consecration, Marx’s ideas were solely from the word of man, such as ideas from Plato, earlier utopian societies of Robert Owen, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and smaller utopian experiments in the
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