Memetic Epidemiology: The Spread of Marxism

Karl Marx published the first volume of his magnum opus, Das Kapital in 1867. The following two volumes were published after his death by his colleague Friedrich Engels in 1885 and 1894; these volumes were compiled based on notes which Marx had left. Although Marx and Engels had written The Communist Manifesto in 1848, Das Kapital was far longer and far more in depth. While The Communist Manifesto had quickly faded into obscurity after the suppression of the Revolutions of 1848, Das Kapital would bring it to the forefront of communist thought.

In his writings, Marx analyzed history, economics and politics, and found that class conflict was the primary driver of human history. The centerpiece of his theories were his predictions: that in the near future the working class, or proletariat, would seize power; having no reason to exploit anyone else and no one left to exploit them, this would be the end of history.

Class conflict lay at the heart of Marx's ideas

Not all of Marx's ideas are incorrect; for that matter, not all of his ideas were originally his. Many of his ideas which appear to be true, or at least plausible, such as the "tendency of the rate of profit to fall," had been discovered, investigated, and discussed by prior thinkers such as Smith, Ricardo, and Mill. The ideas which were unique to Marx and truly set him apart, however, were those which were pseudo-scientific and unfalsifiable, or in other words, could not be proven wrong.

Marx's writings quickly spread across not just Western Europe, spread by the publication of Das Kapital. Marx himself made it very clear that he did not know what form the future classless communist state would take. Marxism exhibited two of the traits most important for a successful meme: first, it was unfalsifiable, since no one could prove that a would never happen, and second, it was vague, which allowed firebrands and revolutionaries to speculate and innovate, introducing variation to the meme.

Much like a virus, which spreads from host to host, mutating slightly with each reproduction, a successful meme will also gather memetic mutations as it travels from person. While not every mutation is beneficial to the meme's spread, these mutations are crucial for the meme to be flexible enough to adapt to new environments.

Although Marx had originally written that the socialist uprising would occur in industrial Europe, specifically England, France and Germany, the first state to declare communism as its official goal was not in Western Europe. Russia, a country which, already decades behind Western Europe, had been ravaged by the Great War and dismembered by the Central Powers, was the first state to declare communism as its official goal (although no state has claimed to have achieved this goal, from here on I will refer to these as Communist States).

At its peak, nearly 1/3 of the global population lived under some form of Marxism-Leninism

The form of Marxism which developed, thrived, and ultimately gained power in Russia was likely very different from anything that Marx or Engels could have imagined. So great were the mutations that the specific breed of Marxism that developed is often referred to by a different name, Bolshevism, and would develop further into Marxism-Leninism. Bolshevism advocated for a vanguard party to prepare the way for a true classless, stateless society by implementing a highly-centralized planned economy, a dictatorship of the proletariat, and repression of dissent. When most Americans think of "communism," it is this breed of communism that they think of.

Marxism-Leninism proved to be a successful strain of Marxist thought in underdeveloped countries which had suffered from mistreatment of Western European nations during the 19th century. Marxism-Leninism remains the official ideology of the communist parties of China, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba (regardless of whether they practice any recognizable form of socialism at this point), and was the dominant ideology, at some point, behind the communist parties of Cambodia, Mongolia, North Korea, Ethiopia, Angola, and Mozambique. In addition, with some exceptions, it was either the basis for, or strongly influenced, the communist ideologies of  Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania and the members of the Warsaw Pact.

Everywhere it went, Marxism-Leninism was modified to better survive in its host. This is why we speak of Maoism, "socialism with Chinese characteristics," Titoism, Guevarism, and Juche. Some of these, such as "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and Juche are Marxist in name only, while others, such as Titoism, advocated for worker councils, rather than the state, to control the means of production. Other potential strains either failed to take hold, or were violently suppressed - for example, Trotskyism. 

Interestingly, although Marxism has had innumerable mutations, each with its own form, every nation which has attempted to use Marxism to inform their politics, economy, and policies, has either failed spectacularly, relied heavily on outside assistance, or reformed away from Marxism to some form of market socialism. Market socialism, while sharing many superficial similarities with Marxism (such as the use of the word socialism) is not Marxism. 

The Revolutions of 1848 provided a dramatic backdrop to Marx and Engels' Opus One

Although Marxists may claim a monopoly on the use of the term "socialism," Karl Marx did not invent either the term "socialism," or "communism." Marxism is just one strain, among others, of socialist ideology - and many, such as market socialism, can create extremely successful economies. Marx's pamphlet, published just before the Revolutions of 1848 drew on decades of socialist thought; its main innovation was the use of a new tool to analyze history: historical materialism.

Historical materialism was Marx's attempt to analyze history scientifically; in reality it is often used by Marxists in a pseudo-scientific manner to provide a veneer of scholarship and reason to unsound ideas. This is not to say that analyzing history through a lens of historical materialism is always wrong - it is just one lens which can help to explain history, but should be used carefully: it is not appropriate for every situation, and even when it is appropriate, it cannot fully explain every detail.

At the core of historical materialism is the idea that all of history is the conflict of different groups, of the oppression of the lower class by the nobility and bourgeoisie. Although the most obvious strains of the Marxist meme are the ideologies which consumed the various communist states, there is another strain which is more insidious. Although on the surface conflict theory may not appear to have much in common with Marxism-Leninism, they share a memetic origin.

The various conflict theories state that groups, whether they be social classes, the sexes, ethnic groups, or races, primarily interact antagonistically: through power struggles, with the dominance and abuse of one group by another, and a general lack of cooperation. Although there are times where it is useful to analyze social relationships through the lens of self-interest and conflict, there are many problems when these tools are overused. They have no way of analyzing when groups compromise, agree, and cooperate; when all you have is conflict theory to analyze group interactions, every agreement must be one-sided, every deal is a con, and every relationship is waiting for a knife in the back.

Marx planted the seed which led to conflict theory, but it was expanded by sociologists such as Ludwig Gumplowicz and Lester Frank Ward. Gumplowicz, a Jew living in Austria-Hungary during a time when anti-Semitism was the norm, wrote prolifically in defense of ethnic minorities, such as the Slavs in Austria-Hungary. He also believed that war and conquest played a pivotal role in the development of civilization, and in 1909 published Der Rassenkampf - The Racial Struggle, or The Struggle of the Races.

There is no doubt that both of these sociologists were influenced by Marx - Ward's older brother was a close associate of Marx, who he worked with in a trade union. Gumplowicz took many of Marx's ideas, and applied them to ethnic or racial struggles, at times downplaying or even explicitly rejecting the role of class in historical analysis.

The ethnic diversity of Austria-Hungary profoundly influenced Gumplowicz

In modern academia, there are many types of conflict theory, each focusing on the division of humanity into a specific grouping. The most notorious of these is critical theory, which is more open and explicit about its memetic relationship with Marxism. Other variations include feminist theory (distinct from feminism, which seeks for equal rights and legal protections, and does not necessarily view all gender interactions through the lens of conflict theory), race-conflict approach, queer theory, postcolonial theory, and world systems theory. As a general rule, these specific theories are overzealous misapplications of conflict theory.

A common theme among all these subtypes is the existence of an "oppressor-oppressed" dynamic. Given the fact that conflict theory places so much emphasis on power struggles and the subjugation of one group to another, this is not surprising. What is surprising is that academics who would otherwise appear to be well-informed and knowledgeable believe it to be appropriate to use these theories to inform every aspect of their world view.

Power dynamics are better analyzed on an individual, rather than group, level, and within the context of the interaction. A wealthy woman in a prestigious career has much more power than a wage-earning man if she is interviewing him for a job, and a working-class single mother on a jury has immense power over a wealthy professional on trial for fraud, despite what critical theory would have one believe.

One common source of frustration and mistrust is the change in definitions to accommodate conflict theory. Changes to the definition of racism to say that one cannot be racist against white people, or to the definition of sexism to say that one cannot be sexist towards men, only makes sense through the lens of conflict theory, and is incorrect.

Market economics is predicated on the idea that competition will produce more value, more efficiently, for more people than a centrally planned economy or one that lacks the proper incentive structures. Free market competition is not the same as conflict, however. Free market competition presupposes that the parties will operate within the confines of the legal system. Free market competition also implies cooperation between groups: the consumer and the producer.

Marxism has a terrible track record of producing functional, stable societies. I believe that part of this is due to its tendency to create discord and strife instead of cultivate positive group relations. The Marxist meme with its associated obsession with group conflict has spread from modern academia to society as a whole. This dangerous meme erodes trust between genders, racial groups, political parties, and classes and is beginning to cause the fabric of our society to fray.

I believe that we should be very wary of any theory that claims that the primary driver of group interactions is conflict. This is not a healthy way to approach relationships, whether they be in a family, between friends, between classes, between genders, or between races. There will always be conflicts, but they are not the only reason for interaction between these groups. Just as a virus mutates as it spreads, the Marxist meme has mutated into a variety of strains that must be corrected wherever they are found.