Introduction to Marxist thought?

[TheGiantBear]

My teen is interested in economics A level & has asked me questions about Marx that I am unable to answer. We considered both attempting to read some of Marx’s works to answer these questions but have abandoned this idea because Karl does not seem to have appreciated the needs of the TikTok generation & the stressed middle aged mother in terms of the length of his works.

Can anyone recommend an accessible, neutral and fairly short introduction? One that is not too dry?

Animal farm is a great book, in my opinion.

I find it amazing to read that, and then the " The private life of Chairman Mao", by Zhisui Li, Mao's doctor.

Orwell got so much spot on. Even though he was writing a commentary on the USSR, he unknowingly predicted what was to come in China.

Except that Animal Fsrm is Marxist-Leninism. Which isn’t Marx at all, or even Lenin.

Amazing.

Buy that fucker from Amazon...

And your post really shows how Marxism can be, and is, changed to fit many agendas.

We saw that with the "battles", for want of a better word, between Stalin and Mao, over who was the successor to Marx.

While the Marxists, Leninists, Trotskyists, Stalinists, Maoists and others have been infighting over what Marxism is, and how it should be implemented, the capitalist world has just got on with stuff.

I ain't a capitalist by the way. It's a very flawed system.

So is Marxism.

Absolutely.

I think a lot of the issues with the Far Left of all shades is their complete lack of a sense of humour and their resulting inability to self reflect, and their complete wedding to a poorly explained ideology and unwillingness to compromise on their various entrenched ideas. They can't possibly see how ridiculous they look to the outside and how much they themselves demountable how unsuitable they will be to run a World order. Why does no one look at, for example the two British Communist Parties and think 'Maybe we are the problem here'?

Yup.

But having said that, I am pretty far left myself, in the modern colloquial way. I am not a socialist or communist.

I am in no way against all Marxist ideas, I just think Marxism itself is pretty poor.

I got banned from the reddit Marxism forums. The communists banned me :-) Because I was asking questions about the holes. And as you say, they would infight between themselves

And I don't think it helped that I do live in a communist country. They did not like that.

A vast amount of websites on Marxism are blocked in China by the way. I think that says a lot.

I agree of course there are isar about inequality and the exploration of workers but I agree, Marx doesn't explain anything at all. It doesn't take human nature into account for a start.