Engraved on Karl Marx's tombstone are the words, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."
Marx demands that the intellectual class — the professors of sociology, gender studies, women's studies, journalism and so on — come out of the Ivory Tower and see themselves as creators of a new and glorious future.
How much more meaningful, exciting, and romantic to see yourself as an agent of change rather than a mere academic! Send the young people who fill up your classroom into the world with the same disgust toward middle-class values that you feel, as potential soldiers in your cause, and you've done your job. And look around, for the most part, they've succeeded. Drill into any current leftist movement: environmentalism, critical race theory, the massive expansion of the welfare state, and diversity, equity and inclusion offices at every university and major corporation, and you will find Marxism at its core: a contempt of the Enlightenment and the Judeo-Christian value system from which Capitalism springs.
Marx's most famous call to action — "workers of the world unite" — was not, of course, to the elite but to the laboring class. That didn't work out so well. Workers, especially in the United States, turned out to be more interested in refrigerators than revolutions. The only barricade they were passionate about was a white picket fence in front of a green suburban lawn. Poor benighted souls, the appeal of Marxism was somehow lost on them — maybe because they didn't go to college. But the intellectual class never lost faith. Even after Stalin, even after Mao, even after Castro wrecked Cuba, even after Pol Pot murdered millions, even after Hugo Chavez decimated Venezuela, the academic elite remained true believers. Indeed, in a world without faith, where God is dead, Marxism has become, a substitute religion, strengthened by the unyielding commitment of its followers to bear witness to it and to act on it. Marxism summons these followers to join a crusade to destroy the evil that is capitalism and to create the good that is communism.
In our secular world, the Marxist ideal gives the Marxist believer a reason to live, a reason to die, and a reason to kill. Monsters like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi Minh and Pol Pot took this to the nth degree and murdered untold millions. For the record, the latter two were politically educated in France.
If you think I'm exaggerating the evils of Marxism, if you think Stalin and those other guys got communism wrong but your new "Democratic Socialism" will get it right, think again. Marx's own definition, only the path to his utopian vision of pure freedom requires the destruction—economically, politically, and morally—of every vestige of civilization as we know it. Economically, Marxism seeks to destroy free enterprise, profit-and-loss, competition, and material wealth. Politically, it seeks to destroy the rule of law, separation of powers, and freedom of speech. Morally, it seeks to destroy individualism, religion, and independent thought. And on top of this rubble it builds the all-powerful State ruled by an all-powerful elite.
This is why the Communist One Percent (the true 1 percent) must use the full power of the State to force the 99 Percent (the true 99 percent) to become something they are not and do not want to be. And if that doesn't work, the secular philosophy of brotherly love simply intimidates into silence and ultimately liquidates as much of the 99 percent as is necessary to keep everybody in line.
Censorship, secret police, and reeducation camps: these are not bugs in an imperfect system, they are features — critical parts of its design. The problem with Marxism has been and always will be MARXISM. Too bad the academic establishment has yet to figure this out. Or even worse, maybe they have.
I'm ( ﾟ ヮﾟ), Professor of Political Science, from the Elitist Superstructure of DQN.