When I teach my worldviews class, one of the things we discuss is a Marxist view of the world. I will confess that, outside of China and liberation theology, I am sometimes at a loss for good, tangible examples of Marxism at work in the world today, after the fall of the old Soviet empire. I got some good food for thought from my recent read through Theodore Dalrymple's Book, Life at the Bottom, and just today, got another interesting example from, of all places, the Charlie Rose show. I often listen to the last half of the Charlie Rose show over lunch, after the local news has finished. Today he was abuzz with the markets and with yesterday's speech by Barak Obama. One of the men being interviewed about the speech, and the hubbub surrounding it, was Rev. Floyd Flake, an AME minister from NY. He was an articulate man, and it was an interesting interview. He mentioned the emphasis on liberation theology when he and Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, were in seminary. And then, in a rather breathtaking Marxist moment, said something along the lines of there always being "a W.E.B. DuBois with a Booker T. Washington, a Martin Luther King, Jr. with a Malcolm X...", the striving of which led to a better way. Well, any of my worldviews students should be able to tell you what this is: the old Marxist line of thesis versus antithesis leading to synthesis. In other words it is nothing less than Marxism in action in the interpretation of American historical events....
Fascinating, indeed...
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