It's not a surprise. The Communist Manifesto speaks lovingly of feudalism. It starts out with just asserting class stuggles, and when you read it, you'd think that Marx might have sounded negative, but instead was simply being direct about how feudalism worked.
His criticism of the bourgouise is where you actually see the implied love of feudalism:
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 remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, 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 honoured 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 labourers. The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.
Socialism never criticized feudalism. It criticized free markets for destroying feudalism, and the unquestioned bonds of loyalty, status, and obligation that the socialist wants to receive from others.
It's not a surprise. The Communist Manifesto speaks lovingly of feudalism. It starts out with just asserting class stuggles, and when you read it, you'd think that Marx might have sounded negative, but instead was simply being direct about how feudalism worked.
His criticism of the bourgouise is where you actually see the implied love of feudalism:
Socialism never criticized feudalism. It criticized free markets for destroying feudalism, and the unquestioned bonds of loyalty, status, and obligation that the socialist wants to receive from others.