What is Marxism in 2005?

There was a time when Marxism was considered to be a political ideology, maybe even a philosophy. Marxism insists that its entire analysis and philosophy rest upon the correctness of its economic analysis. That is because in Marxism, economics is determinate. Capital, property, and economic production determine everything else in life - from taste in art to clothing fashions. So Marxism is at most as correct as is Marxist economic analysis.

A Marxist himself would have to agree that Marxism can only be as correct as the underlying Marxist analysis of economic processes is accurate. The problem is that Marxist economics is completely incorrect. Marxists do not understand basic economics and there is not a single hypothesis of Marxism that contradicts standard neoclassical economics that can be shown empirically to be correct.

Marxist "analysis" rests entirely upon the Marxist "labor theory of value" which was completely disproven and debunked more than 150 years ago. Marxism is mentioned in passing in courses on the development of economic thought, kind of how history-of-chemistry profs mention the alchemists. Political scientists, sociologists, and "critical theorist" quacks in literature and humanities departments still teach "Marxist thought" but that is because they could not pass freshman economics.

Marxism is conservatively thought to have produced 100 million deaths in the twentieth century. George Will put things concisely this week when he said that today there are more Marxists on the Harvard faculty than in all of Eastern Europe.

So what exactly is Marxism today, if not a school of analysis? It is a cult religion, with its own prayers, holidays, mantras, and ceremonies. And it is often a symptom of mental defect and very low intelligence. "Marxist Thinking" today is simply an oxymoron.