3 ms·

I'm not saying your general idea is wrong (or right) but this misses how influential Marx's ideas already were. Revolutionary unions, trade unions, social democ

• pasabagi 5y ago
  The analogy in my mind was somebody like Mark Fisher. In hard left circles, he's a common reference point, and terms like 'capitalist realism' creep into the left mainstream. Outside of those circles, he's an absolute unknown. Obviously Marx was a lot more influential than Fisher, but you actually see this phenomenon all the time: consider Foucault, or Zizek, or even Said, or Fanon. They are absolute giants amongst certain groups, and absolute unknowns outside.
  • guerrilla 5y ago
    I don't really think 19th and early 20th century Germany, France, Scandinavia, etc. can be considered such bubbles. Elections were won, wars were stopped, wages were raised...
    • pasabagi 5y ago
      My feeling is that before the Russian revolution, Marx was just the last of a long line of luminaries in the socialist tradition, a tradition that had almost never been a part of a government, had never commanded a great deal of support, and was generally illegal. I also think there's no thinker like Marx before Marx. No single thinker was so influential to a revolutionary movement as Marx was to the communists. Rousseau doesn't come close.
      • deleted 5y ago
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