More on Marxism

Janalee Arnold began her letter “We should be ashamed” (05-30-21) by quoting me as writing, “Nowhere within ‘On the Jewish Question’ does Marx say or imply such a thing.”

Yet Janalee strategically omitted any context for my assertion, namely, the statement in which I proved Walter Williams to have been a fabricator/liar.

Within his “Are Today’s Leftists Truly Marxists,” which Arnold echoed, Williams intimated that Marx wrote, “[Jews] could only become an emancipated ethnicity or culture when they no longer exist.” In response to Arnold’s letter, I stated the objective fact that “Nowhere within ‘On the Jewish Question’ does Marx say or imply such a thing,” which Arnold conveniently ignored - https:// www.marxists.org/archive/ marx/works/1844/jewish-question

In reaction to my comment that “...Marx, who was Jewish himself, correctly viewed Judaism as a religion, not ethnicity or culture,” Arnold wrote, “A specious argument on its face.

“Marsh views Marx as a Jew by ethnicity since he knows him to have been an atheist.”

I view Marx as having been Jewish only within a social context, one that begs recognition. To understand the extreme anti-Judaism of late-Prussian society, which forced Marx’s parents to abandon Judaism ostensibly, is to know that the “Jewish” label followed Marx pejoratively wherever he traveled and irrespective of whether he agreed with it. Perception is “reality,” no?

Arnold: “[W]hat statistics support the wide reverence for Marx’ in Angola, China, Cuba, and elsewhere?”

There are no such statistics. However, to possess any sophistication vis-a-vis Marxism is to see that it is still widely supported globally, save for the US.

In recent years, voters in Moldova, Guyana, and Nepal have elected ruling Marxist parties. Tens of millions of Venezuelans credit Marx for certain aspects of their (Bolivarian) Revolution.

And the Communist Manifesto remains the world’s best-selling nonfiction book of all time.

Guy Marsh

Lancaster