I think that most of what he had to say was subtext. And I'm definitely not a Marx scholar. That said, what I got out of reading Marx (parts of Capital, the Grundrisse, and some other readings) was that human beings are inherently torn between being efficient members of a team and being wholly self-sufficient. We can't have both, and it seems that it's best to be a mixture, but I think he would argue that the maximal division of labor to the point where all a person does all day is one task (which is, in itself, meaningless), is bad for us psychologically. And I'd agree.

Another thing I got out of Marx is that I don't think he would have approved of modern communism because it ends up limiting and hurting the individual, and I don't like to think that he meant the Manifesto as a serious call to arms. I do think, however, that he values communities as systems that can both foster efficient production of goods (and whatever else satisfies the community's needs) AND a healthy respect for the multi-facetedness of each individual within the community. I ended up feeling that communism as he meant it could be adapted to small communities (like neighborhoods, nothing bigger than that)- not as a political system but as a social institution that would foster kindness and each member's responsibility for all other members of the community. And each of those communities might function better alongside a larger capitalist society (which I still value for its structure and production power), just to provide what everyone needs from their communities that capitalism is missing (so, I guess, socialized medicine, social security, etc, but on a personal, local level).

I dunno. I hope that made any sense :) It's been a long time since I've written about that stuff.

EDIT: clarity