Multiple choice

What, most likely, is the political orientation of the author?

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question.
All radical revolutions which are advocated in the interests of the people are commended to the people, and the people are invited to accomplish them, on the ground that majorities are capable of molding society in any manner they please. As applied to matters of legislation and government, this theory is sufficiently familiar to everybody. It has been elaborated in endless detail, and has expressed itself in the constitutions of all modern democracies. What Karl Marx did, and did for the first time, was to invest this theory of the all-efficiency of the majority with definiteness, in respect of distribution of wealth, similar to that with which it had been invested already in respect of the making of laws and the dictation of national policies.
The practical outcome of the scientific reasoning of Marx is summed up in the formula which has figured as the premise and conclusion of every congress of his followers, of every book or manifesto published by them, and of every propagandist oration uttered by them at street-corners, namely, “All wealth is produced by labor, therefore to the laborers all wealth is due” — a doctrine in itself not novel if taken as a pious generality, but presented by Marx as the outcome of an elaborate system of economics.
The efficiency of this doctrine as an instrument of agitation is obvious. It appeals at once to two universal instincts: the instinct of cupidity and the instinct of universal justice. It stimulates the laborers to demand more than they receive already, and it stimulates to demand the more on the ground that they themselves have produced it. It teaches them that the wealth of every man who is not a manual laborer is something stolen from themselves which ought to be and which can be restored to them.

  1. He is an egalitarian expressing his views on labor.

  2. He is a critical analyst who looks at labor with respect to Marx’s view of labor.

  3. He is a Marxist supporting Marx’s labor laws.

  4. He is a writer with neutral views about Marx and his theory.

  5. He is explicitly anti-Marxist in his beliefs.

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Correct. The author analyses Marxist viewpoint and looks at its strengths and weaknesses.