My Take | Everyone is reading Marx, so why not me?
- In Western countries, more people are turning to the revolutionary to learn about the iniquities of contemporary capitalism. In China, he is a tool of education and indoctrination. For some of us, though, it’s just good literature
Suddenly, everyone is reading Karl Marx. Grimes, the Canadian singer – perhaps better known for having a baby with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, then breaking up with him – was photographed early this month walking around Los Angeles with a copy of The Communist Manifesto.
In their epic debate in 2019, billed as “the debate of the century” – though it really was not, rather it was quite disappointing – Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist, said he read the manifesto before facing off with Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst and self-styled Stalinist.
Sales of the 19th-century booklet, according to The Guardian, the leftish newspaper, have never been higher. There is now, for the first time, even a Somali translation. Perhaps the pirates and jihadists need something more revolutionary to read besides the Koran. There is even an online site that offers to teach your parrot to recite passages from the manifesto.
All that popular interest is perhaps not surprising at this time. The Guardian reported on a survey from last month that found nearly eight out of 10 young Britons blamed capitalism for the housing crisis and two-thirds wanted to live in a socialist country. You just have to read about the Panama and Pandora papers to know how the “1 per cent class” have been ripping us off. Every financial crisis makes them richer and the rest of us poorer.
Since Xi Jinping took power, virtually all schools of higher learning and even some secondary schools in China have stepped up Marxist studies.