Marxist Thought: Still Primus Inter Pares for Understanding and Opposing the Capitalist System‪.‬

This contribution to Neo-liberalism, Education, and the Politics of Inequality is part of my long-term attempt to examine Marx's humanist commitment, and with it a belief in human volition--or agency (Brosio, 1985, passim). Collective agency is necessary for attempts to rescue society and its schools from the latest, namely neo-liberal, capitalist attack on working people and the possibilities for our achieving deep and inclusive democracy. This work consists of yet another series of arguments that Marx's ideas and actions (he was involved politically his whole adult life), as well as those of the Marxists and others who have understood his work well, provide not only some of the best ways to understand our conditions, but also to organize in ways to make possible a resolution of the historical human crisis. I have written elsewhere: John Sanbonmatsu's The Postmodern Prince (2004) provides powerful theoretical, historical, and pragmatic support for my claim that Marxist thought is still primus inter pares for analyzing and combating today's neo-liberal capitalism. Considering what the neo-liberal phase of capitalism fundamentally consists of--the ultra but historical penetration of market ideas and realities into civil society in increasingly up-close and personal ways--the most effective societal and educational inquiries must be radical. By this I mean getting to the roots and complexities of what is being examined. I contend further that were one to understand how Marx and the best Marxists conducted/conduct their inquiries it would be warranted to assert that they deserve careful attention--if not replication. Not only have Marxist inquiries sought to analyse and describe the nature of the whole historical society, their authors have offered suggestions for what should be done! Many of these accomplishments are classics, although not in the sense that conservatives and reactionaries claim classic stature. Marx's inquiry method is open-ended and provides us with the opportunity to revise, reconstruct, and improve upon it. Not only the opportunity but the demand by Marx himself to go beyond what he had accomplished. Marx was enough of a secularist to realize that future generations should not attempt to consider his work as sacrosanct in any way.