Crass analysis

Financial Times:

Save for a few small groups, Marxism has become a largely intellectual resource, invoked in the academy more for the study of culture, language and media than of economics. Some of Marx’s insights – as into the prime importance of the economic base of societies – remain, regarded now as common sense. But his own call to arms, as in the Communist Manifesto, is largely ignored.

I like to stick up for Marx if only because everyone who attacks him is indebted to him in the same breath. Only because so many of his ideas are "regarded now as common sense" can anyone pretend to dismiss him.

The fact that his most visible advocates are to be found pursuing careers in places where they can't easily be fired for their ideas is perhaps unsurprising in light of the fact that Marx's "call to arms" to overthrow the employing class tends to be frowned upon by employers.

And let's not forget that there was a 20th century less than ten years ago, and the problem certainly wasn't that Marx was ignored.