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To cavemen, we are Gods. Plato describes two worlds; one of matter and the other of forms. Romanian theologian Mircea Eliade applied this theory to religion by creating the material world of the profane and the formal world of the sacred. If we assume that the profane is everything we experience here and now—the contemporary way we work and live, how we communicate with each other, our access to technology—then why not assume that the sacred, ideal world of forms exists in the distant future? A caveman would think of a cross-country phone call as some sort of divine intervention, but to us, it is the norm allowed by scientific advancement. Examining this extreme example of time and space can help us understand the historical theories of Karl Marx.
College has not yet turned me into a Fox News-style Marxist, but it has opened my eyes to the common misconceptions other students, some professors, and many Americans have about Karl Marx. The man was many things; father, philosopher, friend. But before all else, Marx considered himself a social scientist. His laboratory was society, and his experiments were designed to reach important conclusions on the history of human conflict. Marx’s work uncovered a fundamental truth: class struggle.
No matter when or where in the past 12,000 years of human history, you will find conflict between one group of people and another. Call them the masters and the enslaved, patricians and plebeians, haves and have-nots. Marx himself prefers the terms bourgeoisie and proletariat. These two groups are separated by their ability to control the means of production. Laborers work under exploitative conditions for lower wages than they deserve (or no wages at all) in order to put food in the fattening bellies of Owners. An easy principle to understand and apply to any social structure humans have so far implemented.
The conflict arises when the have-nots realize their true, unified power. Marx’s theory suggests that the bottom 99% will rebel and create a new world, unrecognizable to us today. The world of forms we dream of while sitting behind a desk at work. This is Communism. We may not be able to fathom a world beyond Capitalism, but it exists in the distant future, just as we know the cell phone exists in the same universe as the caveman.
Due to the political implications of his revolutionary theories, Marx inspired scions of his legacy. You may immediately think of Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin as adherents of Marxist ideology. However, Marx was not even alive long enough to condone (or condemn) the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party. Despite what some claim, these nations were never representative of his ideals. Communism, as Marx makes incredibly clear in his writing, is a stateless, classless, moneyless society. No one could describe China or the USSR in these terms in good faith.
So if they aren’t Communist or Marxist, what are they? Authoritarian Capitalist regimes. Their economies run on similar principles to that of the U.S. Why, then, are we forced to refer to these repressive places as “Communist,” and why do we think they represent Karl Marx? Because it benefits the Owners for you to have a negative view of Communism. And if I haven’t been obvious enough yet, if you are reading this article, you are not in the bourgeoisie.
People boldly proclaim Karl Marx to have “failed” at his goals or to be “wrong” in his predictions. However, Marx cannot be judged by Capitalist metrics. He only ever attempted to draw conclusions about the world he knew. It is mostly the same conditions we are living under now; laboring for bosses and institutions which would kill you with their bare hands if it meant a boost in profit. It serves the ends of Capitalism to say that Communism failed and Capitalism will persist forever. Certainly slavers, mercantilists, and hunter-gatherers thought the same thing about their economic systems, but it is silly to say that the world we live in now is the one that will exist forever. In 1992, Francis Fukuyama predicted that history would end with Capitalist Liberal Democracy, yet we are firmly existing inside a new political era of Global Populism—fueled almost entirely by the political disillusionment of the international working classes.
Over the years since Marx’s death, many have been inspired to lead in his true vision. There are even places which correctly implemented Socialism (a transitory stage of Communism) and saw a huge benefit. Burkina Faso—a small, landlocked country in Africa—elected Marxist revolutionary Thomas Sankara in 1983. He vigorously pushed through reforms to decolonize the country by redistributing land and wealth to farmers, providing an extensive expansion of women’s liberation, creating strong public health programs, and promoting environmental justice. His Marxist policies cut infant mortality, vaccinated 2 million children, planted over 10 million trees, and created a more equitable nation. Sankara was assassinated in 1987 by a puppet leader of the French who would rule as a dictator for decades, crushing Burkina Faso economically and undoing all of Sankara’s progress. Immediately upon Sankara’s death, anti-Sankara propaganda was distributed to turn his people against him and Socialism. When we question why so many countries in Africa remain impoverished, we need look no further than the intentional brutality of Capitalism.
Similarly, Cuba was home to another Marxist revolutionary, Che Guevara. He also believed in a world more ideal than this one, and his detractors have disparaged his name with enthusiasm. Instead of pointing to the millions he liberated from the fascist, American-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, they point to unproven mistreatment of political prisoners. As a guerilla warfare tactician, Guevara knew no rival. He personally worked without pay to promote the concept of community and to build a new Cuban identity. Guevara understood the need to “reform the individual consciousness” that had been so diluted by greed and apathy. Just as it did for Sankara, this meant liberating women, providing free healthcare, and restructuring the economy so that no one could hoard wealth. Though he was not entirely responsible, Che Guevara helped lay the foundation for the Cuba we know today. Its literacy rates have reached nearly 100%, it has one of the highest rates of physicians in the world, and it has nearly eliminated homelessness. Yet again, much of the economic downturn Cuba has sustained has been due to the petty embargo that the U.S. insists on inflicting.
We are taught all the wrong things about these concepts and people. We are told to disengage with their ideas before listening to them. We are fed propaganda about how evil and corrupt their regimes were (as if ours is any better…). Rather than the truth, we are given lies designed to keep us confused and ignorant. This purposeful campaign of misinformation is what I refer to as “Capitalist Mythos.” It feels foggy for us to discuss these things, like we are doing it under someone’s watchful eye. This is another part of the all-encompassing Mythos. We are made to feel bad for comparing wages with coworkers or discussing our finances with friends. The Mythos creates within each of us the overwhelming sense that something is wrong with our system, but the inability to understand why. Access to anti-Capitalist information is heavily restricted or difficult to source. We have been told that the way we do things is the best, yet the average American cannot afford an emergency expense, let alone food, gas, or toiletries. There is a better way to be living, but the Mythos buries it under the weight of fabricated misdirections. Much of our politics is theater because the Mythos dictates that both sides be pro-Capitalist and anti-Human. President Donald Trump’s Capitalism will be no less painful than President Joe Biden’s Capitalism because they are both wealthy and benefit from driving the poor into the ground.
For example, take the Washington Post: a reputable news source known for breaking Watergate. Today, it is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos who says they will only be allowed to publish market friendly information. This means that an article like this one could not be published there. Bezos’s order comes with a series of resignations at the Post that happen to align with goals of controlling the flow of information. The Post presents one example of the wealthy consolidating power around their interests. More than half of U.S. adults get their news directly from social media platforms like Facebook and X, both of which are owned by billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. There is absolutely no coincidence that Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk were all attendants of Donald Trump’s inauguration and participants in his ongoing authoritarian takeover of the American government.
“Capitalist Mythos” is created around Marx, Sankara, and Guevara in order to dull their power and influence. It is tradition for Marxists to be assassinated by the CIA, FBI, and other world governments. It begs this question: If Marxism is so naturally unsuccessful, why must Capitalism do everything in its power to prevent it from getting a fair shot?
Marx was onto something and we know it. His writing, along with the contributions of revolutionaries working to make a better world, will be studied in perpetuity. Communism may not be the inevitable future of human society, but Marxism—as a historical and political theory—shall live on as long as we live under the fog of class warfare.
“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”
– Pablo Neruda, Chilean Poet-Diplomat
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This article was edited by Abigail D’Angelo.
Atacus Jarrett 
Jamila Urena 
Javeer Khan