I Became A Hidden Powerhouse Of The British Empire [EN]: Chapter 425

< The Communist Civil War (8) >

Engels’ face stiffened, seemingly caught off guard by such a bold move right from the start, without any preliminary probing.

But Marx, without pausing, continued to speak eloquently.

“Engelsism can be viewed from two main perspectives: philosophy and economics. It is characterized by theories based on dialectical materialism and the labor theory of value. To avoid becoming too verbose, I will skip the more fundamental aspects, but I assert that Secretary-General Engels did not create this ideology. I, and no one else, created these ideas, and the Secretary-General merely systematically organized them into a cohesive ideology.”

“Marx, who would believe your claims now, after all this time?”

Engels retorted as soon as the other man finished speaking, placing a mountain of documents on his desk.

“That I merely organized the data? These documents contain a complete record of the development of these theories from their inception. Where is the evidence that I simply organized the data?”

“That is because you and I have constantly discussed and shared ideas since we were young.”

“Well said. If we discussed it to that extent, isn’t it unconvincing to say that you created this theory alone? How can a product of constant debate and argument be attributed to one person alone?”

“But Secretary-General Engels insists that Engelsism is an ideology he created.”

“That’s because I conceived it and you provided input. Of course, your input was quite valuable and worth considering, but isn’t the original author clear? If you truly wanted to prove you were the original author, why have you remained silent until now?”

Both of them have the research drafts, so it is impossible to prove who first created the ideology.

Therefore, it is natural that the person who first published it has priority, and Marx was silent for a long time after Engelsism was published.

His claim now that he is the real owner is because he became greedy after seeing Engels’ achievements.

And this debate is just another scam by corrupt capitalists to weaken the South’s influence by using Marx.

This was the core logic of Engels’ argument, and at first glance, it was quite persuasive.

Of course, Marx could also refute it, but without clear, visible evidence, it is difficult to definitively determine who is right.

Engels’ aim is to exploit this ambiguity to the fullest extent and derail the debate itself.

It is a petty but very effective and intelligent plan. I feel like giving him five thumbs-up.

If Engels hadn’t devised such a clear-cut strategy, he wouldn’t have appeared so confidently at the debate.

“Since the Secretary-General’s memory is so severely distorted, it seems I have no way to correct it.”

“Because what I say is the truth. If you want to refute it, you must present evidence.”

“Then I will ask for testimony from those who met both of us when we were young. Fortunately, they are present here.”

Engels glanced at me and Bismarck, then nodded nonchalantly.

He is confident that even if they testify, it won’t be decisive evidence unless they were directly involved in creating the theory.

In fact, he is half right.

“Prime Minister Bismarck, do you remember meeting Secretary-General Engels and me in the past?”

“Of course, I remember. His Majesty Killian was also with us. At that time, I was not even the Prime Minister of Prussia, but a mere idler without any significant title, and the two of them were not much different.”

“That’s right. What were we like then?”

“You were a quite impressive duo. Of course, I was not in favor of ideologies like communism then or now, so I had many arguments with the two of you. Marx was the one who pushed me with various theories, and I remember Secretary-General Engels mainly playing a supporting role.”

As Bismarck subtly sided with Marx, Engels chuckled and shook his head.

“That’s just because I refrained from insulting Prime Minister Bismarck, who is from Prussia and a Junker [a member of the Prussian landed aristocracy]. Marx was more energetic than me and more active. Can you be sure that Marx created the theory and I just helped based only on that day’s memory?”

“Of course not. I’m just giving my testimony as I remember it.”

“See? Testimony is just a collection of fragmented memories. There is no solid evidence. Our relationship with Prime Minister Bismarck is the same. Some bloodshed… Ah, that was a slip of the tongue.”

“Ahem! Ahem! Secretary-General, that seems to be completely unrelated to the topic of this debate.”

Bismarck, whose danger-sensing radar was activated, hurriedly cut him off, and Engels quietly nodded and stopped talking.

Since Engels was also knocked down and spitting blood at the time, just like Bismarck, an unspoken agreement was reached to remain silent.

Of course, I had no reason to do so, so I chimed in with a smile, oblivious to the situation.

“Ah! I remember too. Everyone was young and reckless back then. It was such a vivid memory that it still comes to mind. That happened in the palace garden, didn’t it?”

“Haha… Hahaha, Your Majesty has a great memory. But that seems irrelevant to this debate…”

“Oh, is that so? I thought it would be evidence of how close the two of them were in their youth, but I guess it was unnecessary.”

“Is that… so? After all, how important are the episodes of our immature and reckless days to this matter? Hehe, hehehe.”

As I continued to speak nonchalantly, Bismarck and Engels’ eyes twitched slightly.

If they made a mistake here, the fact that they fought and were knocked out in front of dignitaries from all over the world might be revealed. How could they not be anxious?

I could feel their desperate pleas to stop, but, well, it’s all fun for me.

“Still, if the Prime Minister clearly tells us how close he was to those two, wouldn’t his statements be more credible?”

“I, is there really a need for that? Secretary-General, isn’t that right? Everything I said is true, right?”

“Of course, it’s all true. Your Majesty, if Prime Minister Bismarck’s words were not credible, I would have refused to have him as an observer. So, shouldn’t we put the past aside and get back to the main topic?”

How pathetic.

Even if it was something that happened when they were young, they can’t allow even the smallest black history considering their current positions.

I was just trying to have some fun, so I pretended not to notice and went along with them.

They are always so unnecessarily strict, serious, and solemn.

If it were me, I would have laughed it off as a trivial episode from my youth.

The people listening to the story were curious about what was going on, but since only a few people were allowed to speak, no one opened their mouths.

If you’re curious, all your questions will be answered when my autobiography is published in the future, so please refer to it.

“…Well, let’s get back to the main topic. It seems that the credibility of His Majesty and the Prime Minister has been verified. But neither the Prime Minister nor His Majesty can definitively testify that this theory came from Marx’s mind, can they?”

“Of course not. I didn’t go into the two of them’s minds and come out.”

Of course, I watched Marx working on it in real-time, so I could give a very detailed testimony if I wanted to.

But if I did, the conspiracy theory that Killian created communism might regain its vitality and wriggle again.

Since this wasn’t an important issue anyway, I knowingly went along with Engels’ plan.

“Look. This is almost impossible to prove in the first place. Since both of you have research drafts, you can create plausible arguments depending on what you make up. How are you going to verify it?”

“But doesn’t that mean that you can’t prove that Secretary-General Engels is the original author of Engelsism either?”

“But the fact that I was the first in the world to advocate this theory remains unchanged. And as I said before, Marx was just watching it and belatedly tried to get involved, causing this controversy. Just by looking at the situation, can’t you tell which one is more believable?”

“No. On the contrary, I am the one who has written books on various economic theories, starting with Das Kapital [Marx’s seminal work on political economy], and is a professor at the world’s best university, so I am much more academically authoritative. Moreover, although it has not been made public here, I have received advice on various policies from the British Empire and have written several papers to solve them. Compared to Secretary-General, who has only written this one Engelsism, I am much more likely to be the creator of the theory.”

It was a typical example of appealing to authority, but both of them were engaged in a pointless battle of words over an issue that would not be resolved, so it was all the same.

Engels retorted that he, the Secretary-General of the South and a great revolutionary, would never commit theft.

Marx responded by asking if he, a professor at Oxford, would be crazy enough to lie.

The things they presented as evidence kept coming up, but they were not fatal enough to end the other’s life, so the debate continued tediously.

And the eyes of the reporters who were meticulously writing down all these processes in their notebooks and the officials who were watching the situation with their eyes wide open were gradually showing signs of unease.

They expected to open the debate confidently and break the Secretary-General’s head in one fell swoop, but they must have felt that the way things were going was strange.

If this continues, the conclusion will most likely be a vague ending where it is impossible to know for sure who was right.

Engels, who had been trying to overturn the situation without winning Marx from the beginning, became more relaxed, as if he had foreseen his victory.

“Professor Marx, if you have any other evidence, please present it. You won’t be able to hide the sky with your palm [a metaphor for concealing the truth].”

“…I have to admit that it is impossible to choose who is the original author by only digging into the process of creating the theory.”

“So I said from the beginning that it was an absurd quibble.”

“Then let’s try another method. If you really created this theory, you must perfectly understand dialectical materialism and the labor theory of value, which are the basis of this ideology, right?”

“Are you suggesting that we compare who understands it better?”

Engels sneered and shrugged as if to say, “Go ahead and say anything.”

He was smiling with a hint of ridicule, thinking that I was doing all sorts of nonsense because I had run out of ideas.

Logically, how could the person who organized and refined the theory from beginning to end have a poor understanding of it?

In addition, Engels has been using Engelsism to debate with numerous socialist thinkers and silence them.

In terms of understanding the ideology, Engels may be even better than Marx, the original author.

It was not without reason that Engels was so confident.

However.

“Then let me ask you one question. According to the labor theory of value, all types of labor must be measurable by a single standard. But is empirical verification of this possible?”

“There’s nothing particularly problematic about that. In mathematics, even equations have many dedicated solutions for specific cases. The labor theory of value can be seen as the same.”

“But isn’t it ultimately a theory to predict reality? Then it must inevitably have logical consistency, but the labor theory of value’s theory of surplus value, exploitation theory, and profit rate deviate significantly from consistency when analyzed mathematically. And because of that, the assumption that capitalist society inevitably transitions to communist society becomes irrational.”

“The transition of the system is explained by dialectical materialism, not the labor theory of value…”

“Yes. So that materialist dialectic will now become a product of the old era. To be precise, it has monumental value as a theory that promotes the reform of an old era, but in such a developed society, it will inevitably become a byproduct of a backward era.

That’s why I didn’t advocate that theory under the name of Marxism. And that’s the answer to why I’ve been silent until now. The theory you created is like your own child, but what parent would want to sentence their child to death?”

The bodies of everyone except Engels, Bakunin, and me froze for a moment.

They must have felt like they were hit in the back of the head.

They may be guessing the true intention of this debate, but it is already too late.

Engels glared at me with an absurd look, but what could he do? Who was the one who ran away without listening to Marx until the end?

You should have listened to the explanation until the end before leaving.

I told you that it was an ideology that could only be defeated later.