If we measure the success of a political theory by its ability to take, hold and exercise power

The success of a political theory should be measured by its ability to improve quality of life. Taking power may be a prerequisite, but that alone is not success. Seeing the seizure of state power as an end in itself is a mistake that leads to an authoritarian dead end.

A political theory being popular doesn't mean it's a good or inherently sound theory. For example, fascists have made the "immigrants are ruining our country" theory very common in the mainstream and people have latched on to it to explain their lived experience. Fascism is "challenging" classical liberalism pretty successfully. That doesn't make it logically sound or a viable strategy.

The problem I have with Marx discussions are people cherry picking across his work. Some of it is philosophical, some is economic analysis and some is aspirational politics. Usually along the lines of "his theoretical economic framework is mostly sound in X case, therefore his political prognosis is correct".

Marx was living in a certain time with certain quantifiable constraints and a specific lived perspective, writing on contemporary economic conditions. When I point that out I'm always met with "Well he didn't need to know about [modern human cognitive research / studies on the specific limitations of earth's resources / the scalability of technical surveillance & media distribution] to project its effects".

I vehemently assert that our modern perspective fundamentally outmodes some of his base arguments.

As an example, Marx's theory has important pieces built around his concept of Gattungswesen and it's role in alienation of labor. The friction of that alienation can be traced to forces used to pacify labor. His work views it as something that, while malleable with biological aspects, is fundamental to the human experience.

That makes sense from a perspective of the mid 19th century, where phrenology was still a cutting edge science and opium was a crude panecea for most behavioral illness. But in the 21st century we've mapped the human genome & are delving into gene editing, are gaining an ever deeper biochemical understanding of the human brain, refining models of addiction, and incrementally advancing pharmaceutical treatment of neuroses. Humans are looking more and more like a solvable biological problem.

Marx assumes that one clear reason we cannot reach a stable society under capitalism is the sheer weight of labor discontent. But as of 2026, I'm of the opinion that we're far closer to total pacification than liberation of the working class. If you can prescribe serenity to the ruling class while the masses clamor for biological contentment, your political prognosis wildly changes.

Theorists in Marx's lineage will try to account for this (or similar arguments) by refining his theory to fit reality. But they do so with the prior bias of intending the inevitable victory of the proletariat. That's not a sound foundation for constructing a theoretical framework and it makes these debates pointless and frustrating.

because his political theory is basically an outline. it's not substantial. the communist manifesto is an 80 page pamphlet. it's not a 1000 page detailed discourse.

how many people do you know who read Das Kapital? which is primarily an economic critique. you ever notice how communist manifesto doesn't touch much on economic details and sort of hand waves about them idealistically?