Foreign Policy > Iran

Updating Marx’s 'Internal Contradictions'

Instead of the One Collectivist Ring to rule them all, Ayatollah Khomeini came up with One Religious Ring to rule them all.

Christopher Chantrill | March 9, 2026

Back in the day rich kid Chuckie Marx -- son of the leading lawyer in Trier -- and rich kid Fritzi Engels -- son of a cotton mill owner in today’s Wuppertal -- declared that capitalism would fail because of its “internal contradictions.”

What were the contradictions? Mainly,

The fundamental contradiction between socialized production (workers collaborating in factories) and private appropriation (owners taking the profit).Advertisement if(page_width_onload

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