RE: Marx, Marxism, and the Environment
"Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that views class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social transformation. It originates from the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels."
Marxism-Leninism is what you meant by marxism. This contest was as much a vocabulary test as a writing test, and you did not pass. The basis of marxism is an analysis of the overall change in society based on dialectics and class conflict, in which there was a focus on capitalism. His own theory went as far as that the people would likely rise up at one point or another. Any states based on that idea took it in their own direction, they were based on the teachings of marx but went far beyond them as well.
I don't think you mean vocabulary test, I think you mean shibboleth test. The use of Marxism in place of Marxism-Leninism is more than colloquially acceptable, and also quite acceptable in many academic publications. A hard-line requirement on calling it Marxism-Leninism is really a modern day fellow traveler shibboleth used to separate Marx from the atrocities of the Soviet Union and Maoist China- as I mentioned above, something I already do for environmental issues, but through actual confrontation. In fact, that was the whole point of my essay- merely excusing Marx via "Any states based on that idea took it in their own direction" isn't a sufficient exoneration for Marx in my book. It's like excusing a parent for the behavior of a child because the parent was never around. I wanted to prove that no, the parent did their best, the child was just a rebellious shit. I couldn't have done that without seriously examining their relationship.
I can handle not winning a contest- what actually disappoints me is that I was really looking forward to your responses or disagreements with my post, which in my experience tends to be pretty on point and interesting. To get no real engagement whatsoever, and merely be told that I didn't use the preferred nomenclature? That kinda sucks.
im an anarchist communist, we use the works of marx and marxism in many of our theories as well
many orthodox marxists exist today still, I have met them in my daily life irl, the term is still in much use. The problem is that inside capitalist circles they often ignore what is going around in the society around them.
Marx wrote little on revolution, I give the suggestion of reading the wikipedia article at the very least, for a reason. What's more I said write on the concept of marxism, which you also ignored. At the very inception of the soviet state, marxists anarchists and the rest of the left were split. You can't call them "marxist" and ignore the marxists that were against its very existence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism
What? Marx wrote EXTENSIVELY on revolution (by the proletariat). It was one of his favorite topics of discussion, and something he was actively hoping for. Have you glanced at, say, his writings regarding the 1848 uprising? His letters to Engels were also absolutely filled with discussions of it. Marx literally and commonly wrote of the proletarian revolution as necessary and inevitable. Hell, he and Engels literally call for the "forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions" in the Communist Manifesto. This is like Marx 101.
And I've met quite a few Orthodox Marxists IRL too, even had a crush on one for a while. I never said they don't exist, so I'm utterly baffled as to why you brought that up. Likewise, I'm pretty baffled by the reference to capitalist circles- were you under the impression that I was one?
Why would I possibly be required to discuss every single group of Marxists, of which there were oh-so-many? For the purposes of this article, ignoring those who opposed the founding of the Soviet Union was perfectly fine, because their opposition failed, and it was founded, and had negative effects on the environment. I can perfectly well call both groups simply Marxists as well and be correct, or use Marxist to describe just one in a specific context and still be correct.
And accusing me of not writing on the concept of marxism- well, I interpreted that as giving me the freedom to discuss a variety of topics, so long as it interacted with the ideas of Marxism. My bad, I suppose.
But... again, your vocabulary test is merely a shibboleth test, not a test of ideas.
Marxism
Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that views class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social transformation. It originates from the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Marxism uses a methodology, now known as historical materialism, to analyze and critique the development of capitalism and the role of class struggles in systemic economic change.
According to Marxian theory, class conflict arises in capitalist societies due to contradictions between the material interests of the oppressed proletariat—a class of wage labourers employed by the bourgeoisie to produce goods and services—and the bourgeoisie—the ruling class that owns the means of production and extract their wealth through appropriation of the surplus product (profit) produced by the proletariat.