Marx is to socialism what Newton is to physics. In order to understand what comes after, you still have to understand their works.
Yes, socialism has progressed. Our understanding of the nuiances of struggles and intersectional politics under colonial hegemony have expanded. Lenin provided a lot of expansion of Marx (specifically in the realm of colonialism and racism as a factor in capitalist opression) which is why a lot of people are Marxist-Leninists and not “orthodox” Marxist.
Beyond Lenin, many more have expressed their voices and explained their struggles against capitalism and how the base tenants of oppression outlined by Marx and Lenin manifest to them. Socialism is a living, organic movement that seeks to incorporate all struggles into itself and provide liberation to all, and no one person can understand the intricacies of every struggle.
So yes, it’s important to understand the teachings of past socialist figureheads, but in no way does socialism end with them.
It’s important to understand Marx, but – much like you can understand Newtonian physics without ever reading a single word written by Newton himself – you can understand Marx’s ideas without reading the way Marx originally phrased them.
Yeah, but it’s not harmful to read the book lol. I’ve only ever skimmed Das Kapital because I have terrible patience when it comes to reading and Marx is definitely not a light read.
Stuff like Black Shirts and Reds, the Manifesto, even State and Rev are a lot more approachable and you can infer the important points Marx makes from them. The idea that Kapital is the end all of leftist literature is dumb, but it’s still something you can learn a lot from if you read it.
Oh totally, read the book if you have the time and attention. I’m mostly speaking to the occasional leftist you’ll find who places such importance on Marx’s original writings that they think throwing an economics textbook at people is a good strategy for growing the left. It’s simply not accessible to most people, and there’s nothing wrong with that because people have recast the key ideas in much more digestible formats.
The idea that Kapital is the end all of leftist literature is dumb, but it’s still something you can learn a lot from if you read it.
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