I was amused, but not at all surprised, to be accused of being a Marxist recently. You see, in modern Britain, accusing someone of being a Marxist is the equivalent of accusing them of having AIDS. Such is the appalling level of intellect in modern political discourse that if you say anything that remotely approaches a socialist position on any matter, you are immediately cast as a dangerous lunatic as the Labour leader Ed Miliband had experience of recently. As readers of this blog will be aware, I certainly do not consider Miliband to be a lunatic; dangerous yes, but a lunatic no. He is dangerous simply because he is as thick as a plank. Indeed I have it on good authority that Miliband believes that Karl Marx and Adam Smith both play for Chelsea.

Now, I freely confess that I agree with Karl Marx on many issues. I have no problem with that because Marx was a genius, and, in my opinion, correct on a great many issues, such as his theories of class and alienation. I am also a great admirer of Adam Smith who shared Marx's labour theory of value, or to be more accurate it was Marx who shared Smith's labour theory of value. However, despite the fact that Smith died before Marx was born, that must make Adam Smith a Marxist as well, by the intellectual standards of today.

My politics and philosophy derive from many sources, but particularly from David Hume. I also utilise the philosophy of Adam Smith whose work I regularly consult, in addition to the Sophists and Tom Paine. I also use work from John Locke, John Stuart Mill and others, which is quite unremarkable and of no interest to anyone until I dare to utilise any reference to Marx which then allows them to indulge in a righteous fit of indignation and ignore anything I say on any matter because Marx was (now whisper it softly) a communist and, if I make reference to that person, then I must be one of those unmentionables as well. The fact that Marx would neither recognise nor approve of, the modern political concept that bears the name communist is of no concern to such philosophical titans. It gives them liberty to denounce and ignore one of the greatest minds who ever lived.

To adopt a Marxist position on any issue does not make you a Marxist, it only shows that you are intelligent enough to recognise a valid point of view when it presents itself, and, to ignore the writings of Karl Marx is to deny yourself an invaluable tool for an understanding of social and political reality. To refuse to recognise intellectual honesty, and worse, to refuse to exercise intellectual honesty and a correct interpretation of reality from whatever source it emanates from simply demonstrates that you are stupid, or a bigot, and probably both. No-one is ever accused of being a Smithist or a Humeist if they argue from Smith or Hume's point of view, which readers of this blog may recognise that I frequently do, so, I am resigned to being labelled a Marxist. That however is preferable to being labelled a Christian, or a Tory or a patriot. That, I would take exception to. I only hope that I am regarded as being intellectually honest whilst being much maligned

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Doktor Kommirat