1. Yea but its called MARXism because its all about Karl Marx's philosophies. Marx's philosophies were not limited to just critiquing Capitalism.
2. The question was if Marx was right about Capitalism. Marxisms extremist portrayal of Capitalism is no different than McCarthyism's extremist portrayal of Communism.
3. If Marx's predictions were correct why is it that all of his predictions are not evident in this modern world? The reason is that Marx was talking about unfettered/uncontrolled/unregulated crony Capitalism. He wasnt talking about a Capitalism that is controlled with a structure that eliminates the ability for people to exploit the system. His entire mounted around his assertion that democracy would die if Capitalism was the economic system of choice. Marxists assert the philosophies of Marx and espouse massive bias when viewing the state on the Union. Marxists will insist that there isnt any democracy in America so they can hold their left fist in the air and yell REVOLUTION. The idea is to scare the common citizen with all of their Marxist theories and so on. Some even try and claim that they are only concerned with the economic structure, as if no one can pick up the Communist Manifesto and read it. Marxism is Marxism whether one individual like yourself makes a claim that they are not involved in supporting the goals of Marxism. The point of Marxism is to reach a goal and that goal is to replace Capitalism with Socialism/Communism. That is what people mean when they talk about Marxism. Marxism isnt a benign study of economics, its a method to oust governments and replace them with the philosophies of Marx and the political structures that Marx and Engles designed.
BTW the word tends isnt definite its very subjective. Extrapolating historical trends can be misleading (citing data and making predictions). So Marx talked in a way that played on emotions and he exploited those emotions of the people most affected by corruption, the worker. It boils down to manipulation of personal pride. No one wants someone above them controlling them in any sort of way. So Marx used that psychology to attack the power structure of his world. In order for Marx's philosophies to be used he had to get rid of the competing cultures that would destroy any chance of his ideas coming to fruit. The best way of achieving that goal was to turn the citizens against their own governments and convince the worker that things will be grand under Socialism and later Communism. Good little manipulated sheep.
I cannot ignore the history and the methods of Marxism, its just too much bull**** that makes whatever Marx got right irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
1. Ok, but, I'm not tied to everything Marx wrote .... I'm tied to what I agree With and waht makes sense and what is relevant.
2. No it wasn't McCarthy didn't have a portrayal of communism, he didn't Write a book analysing it, he just called People communists .... Capitalism had an actual analytical critique of Capitalism, which didn't bash capitalism (he praised capitalism), but it pointed out internal contradictions in capitalism.
3. They are evident ....
The falling rate of profit has effected both agriculture and manufacturing.
Capitalism is almost entirely dependant on debt and basically run by Finance Capital
The gap between Rich and poor is widening With no end in sight
Capitalism requires compound grown every year to not og into crisis (of about 3%)
And so on and so on.
Marx was assuming a relatively unfettered capitalism.
As far as whether or not there is any Democracy in America, all you need to do is compare Public opinion and Public policy, and then the interests of major Corporations, and the buisiness class and Public policy to see that the US is basically a plutocracy.
The Marxism I CARE about is the study of economics, I want to change the system, but I don't think Marx's solutions (the small amount he wrote on potential solutions) are good ones at all, but that doesn't mean his analysis was wrong.
