On the Paradox of Marxism

         On the Paradox of Marxism

 

Marx predicted mass immiseration and political upheaval. If the owning class takes him seriously, then they enact semi-socialist reforms to buy the loyalty of the masses. When some of these reforms work, then Marx’s predictions are refuted. But then the owning class stops taking his predictions seriously, so they defund and repeal those reforms. Then Marx’s predictions tend to come true.

So from the owning class’s point of view, Marx is as true a prophet as he is false. That’s the Paradox of Marxism.

The paradox can be resolved in two ways. The result is a stable compromise, if the owning class is intelligent. But the result is a high-amplitude oscillation between extremes, with a period of two generations, if it is not.