Marxism

The downfall of Soviet communism has totally discredited Marxist thought, right?

Wrong. The history of repression and economic stagnation in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union have little to do with Karl Marx or his philosophy.

In the Soviet Union, long-term food shortages can be blamed to a large extent on Stalin’s disastrous agricultural policies of the 1930s. Likewise, World War II and Cold War military spending are largely responsible for the scarcity of consumer goods. In 1917 the Soviet Union had hardly any heavy industry. Despite the war and repeated episodes of terror and purges, the Soviet standard of living rose steadily during the years of central planning.

Marx, of course, thought Russia an unlikely candidate for proletarian revolution. Such an uprising, he held, would occur only in a heavily industrialized nation where extreme polarization had occurred between rich and poor. By these standards, of nations today, the United States is farthest along the road to revolution. We have seen longstanding status quos evaporate in the blink of an eye. This should be kept in mind lest we laugh ourselves silly over Marx and communism.

ERIK SKINDRUD

Huntington Beach