I wrote a long comment on the recent diary “AntiCapitalist MeetUp "One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?" a new series”
But it got too long and rather than dumping on the parade there I decided to just make it a diary of my own. I am not either a Marx fan or a demonizer. Not all that well read on it over my 73 years of life… living in different nations as a child and reading fairly widely I can only offer my own impressions from that life of what Marxism means or amounts to in how people see it and what benefit or possible harm it led to and what it might still offer.
From what little I know about Marxism… I take him as being to political economics as Freud was to psychology/psychiatry. They were obviously important figure marking big changes in understanding or trying to increase knowledge and understanding in their fields. So naturally they had a big influence over time but later were shown to be faulty in many ways. But while Freud spawned many directions from his and others insights he has faded in importance as much of his claims and analysis have been superseded or disproved, set aside. Marx also led to many branches and elaborations of his ideas and he on the other hand has not faded or gone away to the same degree and instead there is mostly a dichotomy in how he is viewed.
Marx is demonized on the one side for all that has been done in his name and furthered by those whose world views (and wealth) are theoretically threatened by people finding truth in Marxism… and on the other he has long been a sort of non-religious prophet to those people. And just like prophets what have come to be effectively his holy texts are touted and deeply respected and… analyzed differently by many different branches of his orthodoxy. What did he really mean? When was he right, not just reinterpreted to make him more right than he variously was at different times in different ways who can say since the huge amount of commentary since his time is a mess. And what actual blame can be laid at his feet for harm, real (or claimed by opponents) done by those who feel that they were his heirs and elaborators?
The whole original edifice is accepted uncritically by some and only parts of him by others while other reject and denounce root and branch without understanding any of it. And wading into turgid economic and political explanations justifications, evasions and reinventions does not enlighten people in or outside of the “Scholardom” of this prophet. Has any of his writing actually done much net good? There would be social democracies of some sort today had he never written a word of his non-divine revelations. Would what we have now be better or worse, or hardly different but at least skipping a Soviet Union or PRC not to mention North Korea and Khmer Rouge? Marx has been misused and misunderstood and would no doubt have renounced Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and all the others who claim to rule in the name of what Marxism is supposed to be at least in each of their times and places. And apologists for all of them still exist as well and even among some who claim to be doctrinaire Marxists too. Self identified pure Marxists rise above all this and seem to feel that they inhabit a clear-eyed above it all understanding… But they sometimes labor to cleanly excise other versions of Marxism from to try and be free of any apparent taint.
Just as monsters in history have quoted the Bible and claimed to be acting in the name of its figures and teachings, so too monsters have quoted or built on Marx while justifying monstrous acts in the name of the political advancement of Marxist thought. Present day Marxists can be a la carte Marxists and pick and choose which dictatorship of the proletariat if any was OK and who understood Marx better or at all. Calling each other “Comrade” hearkens to trappings of the Soviet era… a code word for a current club? Like wearing a MAGA hat? Not really but in a sense any badge or label is a way of recognizing members of the same world view, regardless of whether that world view is mostly not faulty or is mostly faulty or if the supposed “fellow travellers” are even on the same page.
I would prefer reading critiques of Marx and Marxism that are not too close to hagiology exercises or, the opposite, demonology. Accepting the faults and errors, understanding them… and they exist… and equally not dismissing all of him would be constructive. BUT as we know any study of that side of economic and political thought is not easy to set up and it attracts both attacks from well-funded billionaire foundations and allied media on the one side and on the other is usually taught by apologists or true believers who will not delve much into what is faulty. From my limited knowledge of it all it seems that a large consensus is that a lot of Marx is obsolete. I have glimpsed some of the more up to date critiques. Does it matter either way? We live in a mega corporation, major investor and billionaire dominated world so there needs to be more solid opposition to the ways that they veil public awareness to protect their own dominance. It is not easy to counter their self-defenses and promotion and spread more awareness of how things actually are and why. And on top of that how big money can be brought down to size so that there is a chance to have a better mixed global economy and open political landscapes that ensure more fairness for humanity.
Well, maybe all the bickering and animosity between the super-rich, their lackeys on one side and the revolution-heads and full on levelers on the other or anyone labeled as a dupe of one or the other will fade away with a future where technology makes giant corporations and the super-rich mostly obsolete, revolutions unnecessary and a more diffuse, distributed information politics handles balanced distribution, production, and needs and global health are all in focus. Who knows? For me, looking at beatific eager MAGAs faces shining at being in the presence of the like-minded is only somewhat worse than the much smaller gatherings of Marx fans assembling for a study group… or Mao thought or Xi thought. MAGAs and their string pullers are of course a much larger group and represent far more peril than some upsurge in Marxist (Leninist usually left off these days) popularity.
But the all too human weakness in wanting some sort of heaven on earth, Nirvana instant gratification thing is very strong in the USA and really everywhere to some degree, so whoever can sell that sort of thing under whatever drapery is always going to have some success. Cults and mass movements can emerge from any group even those with the best intentions… If a dense and complex holy text is beyond the average follower, there will always be those who will strip out some handy notions that can be repurposed for their own benefit and the benefit of the cabal around them… and ultimately discredit writing that still has some merit.
For some “Money is the root of all evil”… for others who root for unfettered Capitalism they might agree tongue in cheek that “Marx is the root of all evil”. I would say there is room for money and some Marx too. But those things in their “purest” forms cohabiting is not likely any time soon and both in their purest or extreme forms are to be avoided.