It’s been almost a century and a half since Karl Marx’s death, and decades since the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and elsewhere. In the still nominally…View Post
I think some of this can be explained away as Marx centered his focus on industrial society. Some of those societies that you mentioned were not industrial to a great degree. Agrarianism can be easily seen through a Marxist lens, and these movements had tons of support throughout history and tended to be protosocialist in their language and means. Industry is just the most world changing thing we've got.
Marx of course underestimated how quickly the old protosocialist rhetoric of agrarianism and similar ideologies could be used to create a Marxist state, but I don't think it was outside the realm of his ideas. I guess the true underestimation is not knowing how rapidly a deindustrialized area could become industrialized with a concerted effort by a communist party, which honestly in places like China and Russia, its astounding how quick things changed, it'd probably blow Marx's socks off.
I'd question if "protosocialist" is necessarily the word, I think it concedes Marx's unilinealism. Instead, I'd ask how different constituencies build different revolutionary political formations. Like, the Zapatistas adapted Maoism and eventually decided they'd moved beyond Marxism. The political formation the Zapatistas built uses far more high touch decision-making than any state, despite acting as an organ for exercising class power the same way the state is used in China (where decision-making is far lower touch).
I think some of this can be explained away as Marx centered his focus on industrial society. Some of those societies that you mentioned were not industrial to a great degree. Agrarianism can be easily seen through a Marxist lens, and these movements had tons of support throughout history and tended to be protosocialist in their language and means. Industry is just the most world changing thing we've got.
Marx of course underestimated how quickly the old protosocialist rhetoric of agrarianism and similar ideologies could be used to create a Marxist state, but I don't think it was outside the realm of his ideas. I guess the true underestimation is not knowing how rapidly a deindustrialized area could become industrialized with a concerted effort by a communist party, which honestly in places like China and Russia, its astounding how quick things changed, it'd probably blow Marx's socks off.
I'd question if "protosocialist" is necessarily the word, I think it concedes Marx's unilinealism. Instead, I'd ask how different constituencies build different revolutionary political formations. Like, the Zapatistas adapted Maoism and eventually decided they'd moved beyond Marxism. The political formation the Zapatistas built uses far more high touch decision-making than any state, despite acting as an organ for exercising class power the same way the state is used in China (where decision-making is far lower touch).