Summary of Marx's Brilliant Style

This is the passage Alisha picked out, or part of it:

The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.

The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors", and has left no other nexus between people than naked self-interest, than callous "cash payment". It has drowned out the most heavenly ecstacies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.

• Note Marx & Engels' use of special terminology, little-used at the time of publication: bourgeoisie, reactionary, exploitation, patriarchal; these words, like Freud's special language, added an air of technical knowledge.
• In addition, they use traditional words of contempt: philistine, sentimental, unconscionable, egotisitical. This language is from the playbook of traditional, Christian morality.
• They also make liberal use of emotive words, words intended to inspire outrage: callous, naked, shameless, brutal, etc. However, these words are embedded in their lofty writing style, and do not come across as overly manipulative.
• Marx & Engels walk on both sides of the street when accusing their opponents of being oopposed to progress ("reactionaries") but also accuse them of destroying traditional values ("the bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored," reduced the family to a business arrangement, etc.)
• M&E make good use of sarcasm, a technique that serves as a bond with their audience. You see this in the "specter" passage that starts the manifesto. Communism is seen as a dangerous specter by others, not by we, the revolutionary ones. In the passage above, expressions like "most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor" are sarcastic and also play on anti-Catholic sentiment. They suggest a sort of religious madness, the opposite of the Communist's "scientific" viewpoint.
• Needless to say, there is no conventional action to be found here. No person or specific group does anything in this type of high style. (Communism is in part a reaction to the highly personal and subjective romanticism of Goethe and others.) The subject of these action-oriented sesntences is usually an abstraction, such as "communism" or "the proletariat."
• Instead of one abstraction, often the subject or object is a series of abstractions. These lists of abstract nouns give the ideas a sweeping scope. The theory appears to apply to everything.