I’m reading a text called Draft of a Communist Confession of Faith by Friedrich Engels. The passage describing the context of the document goes as follows:

Engel’s “confession of faith” illuminates key landmarks on his and Marx’s intellectual journey, for it was among the materials Marx used to compose the Manifesto. The confession was debated and approved in 1847 at the first congress of the Communist League.

To be honest, I don’t know anything about the first congress of the Communist League. But after reading the document, which is Engels answering obviously prepared questions that allow him to espouse about the hardships of the proletariat and the theory of community property, I can’t help but thinking that the first congress of the Communist League was just Marx and Engels (and possibly a friend of theirs who worshipped them and wanted to be cool but didn’t actually posses the intellect to come up with any economic theories) sitting in a basement (in my mind, it’s Marx’s parents’ house), wearing black turtlenecks and berets and drinking black coffee, declaring themselves the “Communist League” and holding the first congress right then and there.

Then, of course, they write this document, which is immediately approved, and then they high-five. (Their lame friend, at this point, tries to say something clever and get a high-five, but they just stare at him uncomfortably and then change the subject.) And the only real debate that happened was who would get to answer the questions instead of asking them. Oh, and they argued a bit about whether or not Return of the Jedi was better than Empire Strikes Back.

Because in my mind, two of the world’s most revolutionary political and economic theorists are really characters in a Kevin Smith movie.