Critiques which say things like this:<p>"Karl Marx developed his theory of Marxism also in 1800s, finally culminating in the communist manifesto in 1848. "<p>instantly lose credibility. I studied political science a few decades back and even though I have forgotten more than the average student remembers today...<p>Marxism in no way culminated in the 1848 Communist Manifesto. Das Kapital, The Paris Commune and other works showed development of his theories almost 4 decades after the Manifesto.<p>The CM was a broadsheet, meant to be plastered on poles and the sides of buildings, like Luther's theses or the Declaration of Independence.<p>I would never hold up Marx's ideas as a prescription for today's world. The global economy has gone through 2 or 3 revolutions since Marx's time.<p>One thing I would argue is that he had a better analysis of his current economic situation than anyone else at the time.<p>His lasting contribution was the understanding of the capitalism of his time and the critique of modes of production. Not the application of Socialism.<p>He always critiqued from the standpoint of the whole, the totality. Something that we have largely lost the ability to do today - in part because our world is much more complex than the world he was looking at.