Word: marxist
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...something called "the Establishment." A more recent American variant is "the military-industrial complex," familiarly known as MIC. The idea descends from Marx's "ruling class" of capitalists, with their grip on government and the cultural "superstructure." Neither "the Establishment" nor "the MIC" was coined by a Marxist, but the eager way in which these names, twisted from their original meaning, were embraced indicates the desperate psychological need of many Americans for "a class enemy" in a society that has gone a long way toward abolishing class...
Marxism today is more effective as a source of symbols directed against society's defects than as a guide to political action or serious thought. In countries dominated by Marxist parties, the faith is largely cant, the conventional wisdom, though it would be wrong to assume that such a role has no significance...
...have a more sophisticated view. Indeed, Marx's theory of man-as-economic-animal is regularly disproved by countless eruptions of nationalism, tribalism and just plain human cussedness that can hardly be explained through economic motives. It is a striking irony that the New Left, which often uses Marxist sticks to belabor capitalist society, tries to reach beyond Marx for spiritual values and a kind of community (neo-tribalism) that Marx, the materialist, would have considered sentimental and atavistic...
Despite these limitations, the Marxist vision remains pervasive. It has already drawn into its influence some who started as New Leftists and have gradually become Marxists. In addition, Marxism's most interesting area of opportunity lies among highly educated people in advanced countries, notably the U.S. The slogans of their rebellion against various social evils assert that they wish to change society. But underneath the surface, what is being resisted is often change itself, change that has no obvious meaning and no clearly understood direction. As the U.S. enters the "postindustrial age," the bitter questions about the future...
...attraction of the Marxist vision may persist until modern society finds a more effective way of explaining itself and its direction. And that could be a long, long time...