Marxists in America

 

Marxists in America?

At first glance it sounds like one of those tabloid headlines discovered at three in the morning between a UFO sighting and Elvis at a Waffle House in Hinesville. 

And yet here we are.

A century after the Russian Revolution (and Civil War), three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union (and long after history supposedly ended), a surprising number of young Americans have been dusting off the works of a dead German philosopher, whose greatest contribution to popular culture may still be that spectacular beard. 

No, not ZZ Top.

Karl Marx.

The obvious question is why. The answer probably has less to do with revolutionary theory and more to do with economics.

The financial crash of 2008 destroyed the American imagination. Millions watched banks recieve bailouts while ordinary people lost homes, savings and jobs. For a new generation entering adulthood, capitalism suddenly looked less like a well-oiled machine and more like a used car held together with duct tape and advertising.

But that doesn't automatically make people Marxists.

It does make them curious. 

Wander through enough coffee shops, bars and college towns and you'll soon encounter the modern American radical chic. He's usually sporting enough tattoos to frighten the Southern Poverty Law Center. And she's carrying enough student debt to frighten a hedge fund manager. Both are more than likely to be earning less than their university education implied. 

Many have never read Das Kapital. Some have flicked through The Communist Manifesto. Others merely know Marx through social media posts, podcasts and internet debates. Political theory in the age of TikTok tends to arrive in bite-sized chunks. And Karl Marx gets the same treatment as everybody else.

But the attraction is not difficult to understand.

House prices and rents have soared in many cities. Healthcare remains prohibitively expensive. Younger Americans often report feeling less economically secure than their parents were at the same age. Whether Marx offers useful answers is another matter, but the questions he was asking continue to resonate.

The 2024 election revealed deep frustrations across the spectrum. Some younger voters felt alienated by both major parties. Foreign policy, particularly the wars involving Ukraine and Gaza, generated fierce debate both on and offline. Others remain dissatisfied with economic conditions depite low employment figures.

The result was not a mass conversion to Marxism. It was something stranger. A growing appetite for alternatives. 

Social media accelerated the process. A young American can now compare healthcare systems in Denmark, housing policy in Austria and public transport in Japan before coffee. Previous generations might have grumbled about local problems. Today's generation can immediately see how other issues are tackled abroad. Whether those comparisons are fair, accurate or widely oversimplified is another question. The internet rarely pauses for "nuance or complexities". 

Of course, every generation believes it discovered the formula for fixing society. The 1960s had New Left radicals. The 1980s had free market evangelists. The present era has influencers simplifying "bullshit" between ads for protein powder and wireless earbuds. 

History, on the other hand, suggests caution. Ideologies often look magnificent but they often appear less attractive when human beings get involved. That's because people are complicated. And man-made systems are complicated, too. Besides, anyone offering a final solution to every problem is usually selling something else on the sly.

The louder corners of the far left and far right thrive on certainty. It is comforting. And "certainty" saves people the inconvenience of having to think. Unfortunately, it tends to produce negative outcomes.    

Will America experience political unrest in the years ahead? Probably. But democracies always do. 

The USA has endured bitter political divisions before: the Vietnam-era, the civil-rights movement, Watergate, economic crises, culture wars and various predictions of collapse. Somehow, the republic staggered forward, usually whilst arguing very loudly with itself.

That does not means current tensions should be dismissed. Polarisation is real. Distrust is real. And ditto economic anxiety. But so is perspective. The average armchair revolutionary on social media still has to pay rent on Friday morning. And the average internet fascist still has to explain to his folks why he's fortysomething and living at home. 

From my battered Parker Knoll armchair in Atlanta, the lesson seems straightforward enough. Treat political extremism the way you would treat an Indian curry: approach with caution and have an escape route to the khazi.

Democracy remains noisy, inefficient, frustrating and occasionally ridiculous. But it is also remarkably durable. Which is why Winston Churchill, another dead white man, though sadly lacking Marx's spectacular beard, observed that democracy is the worst form of government for all the others that have been tried.

Not a perfect system. Just the least alarming choice currently on the menu.