His 206th Birthday Message from a Resurrected Marx

Today marks the 206th birthday of Karl Marx—a man who famously dismissed heaven, hell, and divinity as mere nonsense. Rather than imagining him speaking from the "afterlife," let us imagine what he would say if he stood amongst us today, watching us scroll through our lives.

"To those of you who toil every waking hour—listen closely. I left behind volumes of books for you to read, yet you barely glance at them. Instead, you have surrendered your lives to the endless loops of YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.

The Paradox of ‘Living Poor, Dying Rich’

I look upon your philosophy of 'Living Poor, Dying Rich' with nothing but pity. Dying rich is a gamble with no guarantee, but living poor is a certainty you have imposed upon yourselves. You scrimp and save for a 'tomorrow' that you may never inhabit. You cut back on meals to build houses in Nepal that you will never live in. You walk or take public transport while dreaming of a luxury car you’ll only afford when your eyes are too dim to enjoy the road.

By the time you reach sixty-five, even if you are 'lucky' enough to have amassed wealth, the strength and time to enjoy it will have evaporated. These things will no longer hold the value you once bled for.

The Great Wage Illusion

Do you truly believe you are accumulating wealth from your wages? A lie. The wages given to you are sucked right back into the system that provided them. What you call a 'job' is not a path to your riches; it is a clever scheme by the owners to enrich themselves through your labour.

The money you 'own' in banks, pension funds, or stocks—do you even know who devalues it and when? The mortgage that bought your house has instead bought your lifelong servitude. You are an 'NRN' (Non-Resident Nepali), yet you have no tally of when a government might seize what you’ve built.

The Regret at the Deathbed

When the time comes to face your soul, it will ask: 'What did you do with your life?' You will be haunted by the opportunities you sacrificed. You didn't eat the food you craved, you didn't wear the clothes you liked, and you didn't even travel to the rivers and hills of your own district. You worked six days a week, and on the seventh, you chased 'overtime' or drowned your fatigue in mindless entertainment.

Manufactured Desires

The capitalists have manufactured your 'needs.' Through advertisements and consumerism, they have convinced you that you must work twenty-four hours a day to afford things you don't actually require. Your ancestors worked six hours and spent eighteen in leisure; you work eighteen and claim you have no time to breathe.

The cycle is vicious: they must produce more than necessary for profit, which means you must be sold more than you need, leading you to spend more than you have, forcing you to work more than you can endure.

The Call to Awakening

Do not blame yourselves for the system, but blame yourselves for not questioning it. To escape this pit, you must sharpen your senses.

• Study and Reflect: Lift the veil of ignorance.
• Be Intentional: Spend mindfully and reclaim your time for family and society.
• Question the System: Raise the level of your consciousness.

You send me birthday wishes on Facebook, yet you don't realise that Mark Zuckerberg and the internet giants are 'sucking' your time and energy through the very screen you are holding.

I do not wish you salvation after death. I wish for your liberation while you are still alive.

— Karl Marx (via Khusi Limbu) 5 May 2024

{(This piece is a satirical and philosophical analysis of Karl Marx’s ideology within the context of modern consumerist society, focusing specifically on the experiences of Nepali migrant workers. (Khusi Limbu)}