#+title: Marx believed that the proletariat cannot simply take control of the state

  #+begin_quote
But the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery,
and wield it for its own purposes.
--- [[file:20200611202011-marx.org][Karl Marx]], /[[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/ch05.htm][The Civil War in France]]/
  #+end_quote

Marx goes on to say that the problem with the state is that it carries around
the baggage of all the old forms of the state. The problem with just using the
state for the ends of proletarian class power is that it retains the old class
composition of the bourgeoisie, whose interests it was set up to protect.
Therefore the [[file:20210612163151-the_role_of_the_state_and_revolution.org]["ready-made state machinery" must be smashed]].