For debates: I think Marxism can be ignored, and it goes away.
Anything after that and your heading for a Quixotic / Pyrrhic styled fighting against a few poorly read hipsters, dirty hippies, and subsidized groovy sociologists / fringe psychologists and philosophers. I don’t think a victory can come out of such things.
I highly doubt anyone worth considering takes it all too serious. Time is probably best spent considering more interseting and relevant economcs, sociology, etc
i always hear how the ghost of marxism is haunting academia, but i never see much evidence presented. i can only speak from personal experience and i have yet to meet a marxist professor even though i’ve taken classes in supposedly “marxist-friendly” subjects like sociology.
but the number of marxist professors really shouldn’t be your metric anyways. the real question is whether marxism is a living intellectual movement–are marxist thinkers generating new works and ideas that are being acknowledged and debated by the intellectual public? so here are some better metrics.
how many living marxist intellectuals can you name without googling? how widely is their work being discussed? if you mentioned one of these intellectuals to a fellow student or even your econ professor, would they have any clue who you are talking about? could they summarize that person’s intellectual contributions in a meaningful way?
Interesting:
I actually had a self proclaimed Marxist sociologist in Soc 101 at the University of Toledo - he made us sit in a circle. I also think I remember in a lit class covering “Marxist interpretations”, among other intrepretations.
My friend who is going for his doctrate in philosophy at U of Chicago introduced me to one of his friends doing the same thing who said he was “sympathetic to a kind of Marxism”.
But yeah, after that I was never under the impression that all too many people actually cared about it.
EDIT
The chairman of my economics department was a Neo-Marxist/Ricardian who also teaches in France and advised the CCP and Lula de Silva (former president of Brasil).
Let me guess. “Socialism” doesn’t count, right?
Why not just debate here? I am keen to see what arguments will be presented against my defense of the labor theory of value. The theory about markets and trade by the Austrians is absolutely ridiculous and has been refuted by Marx even before the first Austrian was born. Nevertheless, we hear the same old refuted nonsense rehashed by generations of Austrians over the centuries.
awww shiet. Preparing the pocorn atm
the marxist theory that if a marxist dictator kills millions of people, there will be utopia. untill millions of people die, there will be exploitation.
Marxism is not dead, just in more elusive forms, but I wouldn’t say that one should find a “Marxist forum” but a left-anarchist/left-libertarian/mutualist group somewhere with a lot of regulars. Sometimes you can find a group of mutualists that have read Austrian and an-cap material and are readily prepared to dissect it.
“The theory about markets and trade by the Austrians is absolutely ridiculous and has been refuted by Marx even before the first Austrian was born. Nevertheless, we hear the same old refuted nonsense rehashed by generations of Austrians over the centuries.”
That’s quite a hefty accusation.
Adn could you point us to “your defense” of the LTV?
John Johnson,
0_o
The survey results Klein presents is about whether U.S. academics register Democrat, describe themselves as liberal, and support specific government interventions.
@Student, Marxism is not dead.
@OP, why do you want to debate Marxism? What do you know of it?
The libcom forums seem good, but the forums at urban75.net look more active from a quick glance (it’s not explicitly ‘marxist’ but is rather left-leaning). Both seem to have a higher standard of poster than most places (apart from you lovely people here, of course).
“The survey results Klein presents is about whether U.S. academics register Democrat, describe themselves as liberal, and support specific government interventions.”
Daamn, sociologists are all a bunch of commies 
I’m not sure who John Johnson is, but I’m curious what exactly it is that you think would be different about the overall positions advanced by these faculty members and people who self-identify as “socialist” or “Marxist”…especially those in typical Internet forums.
Marxists typically support left-of-center political positions.
Many academics support left-of-center political positions.
Therefore, many academics are Marxists?
Nice.
PS* Since we have been talking about Marxism in the university, I thought we were talking about Marxism as an engine for social analysis, not as a political movement or philosophy. Which I think makes the survey results Klein discusses even less relevant for this conversation.
I’m sorry, I guess the font was too small for this part, but what exactly it is that you think would be different about the overall positions advanced by these faculty members and people who self-identify as “socialist” or “Marxist”…especially those in typical Internet forums, again?
And who is John Johnson, by the way?
lol.
Repeating the question doesn’t mean it makes more sense. Let me help.
Are you trying to show that academics typically lean-left politically (a claim I would not disagree with) or are you trying to show that political Marxism is alive and well in the unviersity? Because Klein’s survey results support the first claim but not the second.
First look at the data that was collected for academics in all fields. They report self-identified political affiliation and voter registration. Now can Marxists identify as “liberal” and vote Democrat? Sure. But so can non-Marxists. Similarly, Marxists could refuse to identify as liberal (the 2 Marxist students I met as an undergrad hated the term liberal and identified as “radical” whatever that meant) and hate Democrats (both Marxists voted Green). We learn NOTHING here.
The data collected for just economists is a little more specific but not very helpful. Could Marxists support anti-discrimination laws, gun control, safety regulations, and income redistribution? Sure I guess. But so could non-Marxists!!! So what do these results really tell us??
The MOST you can claim is that the survey results Klein presents don’t neccessarily contradict your claim, but that isn’t the same as supporting it. Those same survey results are just as consistant with my belief that there are very few Marxists left in Academica (especially in economics departments).
I honestly hope that clears up your confusion.
PS* I’m sorry I called you John Johnson by mistake. I guess? You asked twice so I guess it’s important to you. I promise it won’t happen again, Jake.
I’ll assume this simply means you can’t answer the question.
Now I’m kind of confused. I only asked you once. The first time I mentioned it I was simply pointing out the fact that I noticed it was possible your post was not directed at me, and that I was aware of that, but that I was responding anyway. Since you didn’t address it in your followup, I figured I’d ask since I was curious.
If it was an honest mistake, one would think you’d say something along the lines of “oh I meant you” in your first response. But now that you make up another name again, it would seem you were typing the wrong name on purpose all along. shrug
