OK comrades, for all the truths in Marx's theories there is the big problem that it has been effectively antiquated.Marx proposed a social form in which the working class was to overthrow the bourgeois rule to make way for a more equal society. In this social form, the conditions for the oppressed working class was to be improved in order to promote the more egalitarian society. And that is exactly where Marx hits himself. If the conditions of the working class are improved much they effectively cease to be 'working class' and rise to become more close to the modern middle class. The working class and therefore the very foundation of traditional marxist ideology has disappeared and not necessarily taken the holders of power with it.
Such is the situation today. In the Western world, the working class has become incredibly small compared to what it was on Marx's time. That is likely because classes are created by the society they exist in, the feudal age required indentured servants, the industrial age required proletarians and the modern information age requires the middle class.
The middle class is the predominant class today, and is in no way as economically oppressed as the workers on Marx's time. Still, the middle class of today is seen from a purely humanistic perspective just as alienated. However, it is not alienated purely by producing something they have no power over or by selling their labour power to capitalists, but their alienation also has it roots in capitalist economy. Through advertisements and commercialism, modern capitalism has created a consumer culture where life is basically concerned with consumer products and trademarks. Other signs of alienation are the facts that racism and sexual discrimination still exist (especially in the lower middle class), possibly because those who are socially unwell point their weapons against those who are even worse placed.
There also is an effective polarization in the information age in that some people are culturally and socially shaped to be the users of information - others to become scared of technology (ie. the people who hate computers).
So comrades! Let us stop babbling about the homeless ideologies that are no longer applicable, but instead discuss how the modern world can be changed, for a change is necessary. The change will be through a form of socialism, for to keep capitalism is to keep the alienation, but Marx is dead. Let him rest in peace.
