--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I should say that it was only for me that…" description: "\"“I should say that it was only for me that Marxism seemed over. Surely, I would tell G. at least once a week, it had to count for something that every ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eff/katha-pollitt-16599_daily-life_i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-tha_9437.jpg" --- # I should say that it was only for me that Marxism seemed… ![“I should say that it was only for me that Marxism seemed over. Surely, I would tell G. at least once a week, it had to count for something that every single self-described Marxist state had turned into an economically backward dictatorship. Irrelevant, he would reply. The real Marxists weren’t the…” quote by Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eff/katha-pollitt-16599_daily-life_i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-tha_9437.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eff/katha-pollitt-16599_daily-life_i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-tha_9437.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eff/katha-pollitt-16599_daily-life_i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-tha_9437.jpg) > ““I should say that it was only for me that Marxism seemed over. Surely, I would tell G. at least once a week, it had to count for something that every single self-described Marxist state had turned into an economically backward dictatorship. Irrelevant, he would reply. The real Marxists weren’t the Leninists and Stalinists and Maoists—or the Trotskyists either, those bloodthirsty romantics—but libertarian anarchist-socialists, people like Anton Pannekoek, Herman Gorter, Karl Korsch, scholarly believers in true workers’ control who had labored in obscurity for most of the twentieth century, enjoyed a late-afternoon moment in the sun after 1968 when they were discovered by the New Left, and had now once again fallen back into the shadows of history, existing mostly as tiny stars in the vast night sky of the Internet, archived on blogs with names like Diary of a Council Communist and Break Their Haughty Power. They were all men. The group itself was mostly men. This was, as Marxists used to say, no accident. There was something about Marxist theory that just did not appeal to women. G. and I spent a lot of time discussing the possible reasons for this. Was it that women don’t allow themselves to engage in abstract speculation, as he thought? That Marxism is incompatible with feminism, as I sometimes suspected? Or perhaps the problem was not Marxism but Marxists: in its heyday men had kept a lock on it as they did on everything they considered important; now, in its decline, Marxism had become one of those obsessive lonely-guy hobbies, like collecting stamps or 78s. Maybe, like collecting, it was related, through subterranean psychological pathways, to sexual perversions, most of which seemed to be male as well. You never hear about a female foot fetishist, or a woman like the high-school history teacher of a friend of mine who kept dated bottles of his own urine on a closet shelf. Perhaps women’s need for speculation is satisfied by the intense curiosity they bring to daily life, the way their collecting masquerades as fashion and domesticity—instead of old records, shoes and ceramic mixing bowls—and their perversity can be satisfied simply by enacting the highly artificial role of Woman, by becoming, as it were, fetishizers of their own feet.”” [Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The author critiques how Marxism has become a male-dominated, nostalgic hobby rather than a living revolutionary force, noting its historical male bias and the marginalization of women within its discourse. **In simple terms:** Marxism's gendered legacy and cultural decline. Key Takeaway Marxist theory historically excluded women, turning into a male hobby. Themes gender bias political ideology historical revisionism intellectual nostalgia male dominance feminist critique Mood reflective critical skeptical Type analytical historical feminist When to use this quote - academic discussions on Marxism - feminist analyses of political theory - historical studies of leftist movements - online archival research - political activism Key Concepts Marxist theory gender dynamics political movements cultural memory Practical Applications - reexamining Marxist curricula for inclusivity - using the critique to foster gender-balanced political discourse Questions to Reflect On - How can Marxist theory be reinterpreted to include women's perspectives? - What factors contributed to Marxism's gendered perception? ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Daily life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/daily-life/) [History teacher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history-teacher/) [Marxism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/marxism/) [Marxism Obsessive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/marxism-obsessive-353503/) [Marxist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/marxist/) [Marxist theory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/marxist-theory/) [Marxists Weren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/marxists-weren-353504/) [Men Marxists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/men-marxists-353502/) [Night sky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/night-sky/) ## Related quotes > [Intellectuals advertise their superiority to political practice but are absolutely in its thrall. 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That automatically involved taking an interest in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/olivia-de-havilland/i-wanted-to-be-what-my-high-school-civics-and-history-teacher-thought/) [Olivia De Havilland](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/olivia-de-havilland/) > [If I hadn't become a professional basketball player, I would have become a history teacher. There's so much to learn from history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kareem-abdul-jabbar/if-i-hadn-t-become-a-professional-basketball-player-i-would-have/) [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kareem-abdul-jabbar/) > [“The United States is a conceited nation with shallow roots, and what happened before living memory doesn't seem to interest most people I know…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katharine-weber/the-united-states-is-a-conceited-nation-with-shallow-roots-and-what/) [Katharine Weber](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katharine-weber/) > [By the time I was about ten, I had started to lose faith with church ways. 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In…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/when-it-comes-to-ideas-and-religions-are-among-other-things-ideas/) [Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) > [In a better world, science teachers would teach creationism along with evolution as an exercise in critical thinking.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/in-a-better-world-science-teachers-would-teach-creationism-along-with/) [Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) > [We need to say that women have sex, have abortions, are at peace with the decision and move on with their lives. 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Feminism is not about whether women are better than, worse…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/a-feminist-is-a-person-who-answers-yes-to-the-question-are-women/) [Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) > [If you run into trouble doing what's expected, people sympathize with you, while if you try something else and flop everyone says, You see?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/if-you-run-into-trouble-doing-what-s-expected-people-sympathize-with/) [Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) > [ When you consider that God could have commanded anything he wanted--anything!--the Ten \[Commandments\] have got to rank as one of the great missed moral… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/when-you-consider-that-god-could-have-commanded-anything-he-wanted/) [Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) > [While woman sheds the Blood of Life each moon at menstruation, man can only shed the blood of death through warfare and killing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/while-woman-sheds-the-blood-of-life-each-moon-at-menstruation-man-can/) [Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) > [Thanks to feminism, women can now acquire status in two ways: through marriage or their own achievements. Cure cancer or marry the man who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/thanks-to-feminism-women-can-now-acquire-status-in-two-ways-through/) [Katha Pollitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) [Explore all 39 Katha Pollitt quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katha-pollitt/) ## More Daily life quotes > [Daily life is both the subject and environment of the work I am making.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/camille-henrot/daily-life-is-both-the-subject-and-environment-of-the-work-i-am-making/) [Camille Henrot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/camille-henrot/) > [I believe that simple, consistent shifts in our thinking and actions can lead to the miraculous in all aspects of our daily lives, including…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabrielle-bernstein/i-believe-that-simple-consistent-shifts-in-our-thinking-and-actions/) [Gabrielle Bernstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabrielle-bernstein/) > [Who can really be faithful in great things if he has not learned to be faithful in the things of daily life?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dietrich-bonhoeffer/who-can-really-be-faithful-in-great-things-if-he-has-not-learned-to/) [Dietrich Bonhoeffer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dietrich-bonhoeffer/) > [I want to show that drama doesn't lie only in blood and destroyed buildings but in daily life, in ordinary human beings.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jasmila-zbanic/i-want-to-show-that-drama-doesn-t-lie-only-in-blood-and-destroyed/) [Jasmila Zbanic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jasmila-zbanic/) > [“There is no randomness about your life. 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Uchtdorf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dieter-f-uchtdorf/) > [Simplicity of living, if deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life. It means that we are choosing to live our daily lives with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/duane-elgin/simplicity-of-living-if-deliberately-chosen-implies-a-compassionate/) [Duane Elgin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/duane-elgin/) [Browse all 1,299 Daily life quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/daily-life/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I should say that it was only for me that Marxism seemed over. Surely, I would tell G. at least once a week, it had to count for something that every single self-described Marxist state had turned into an economically backward dictatorship. Irrelevant, he would reply. The real Marxists weren’t the Leninists and Stalinists and Maoists—or the Trotskyists either, those bloodthirsty romantics—but libertarian anarchist-socialists, people like Anton Pannekoek, Herman Gorter, Karl Korsch, scholarly believers in true workers’ control who had labored in obscurity for most of the twentieth century, enjoyed a late-afternoon moment in the sun after 1968 when they were discovered by the New Left, and had now once again fallen back into the shadows of history, existing mostly as tiny stars in the vast night sky of the Internet, archived on blogs with names like Diary of a Council Communist and Break Their Haughty Power. They were all men. The group itself was mostly men. This was, as Marxists used to say, no accident. There was something about Marxist theory that just did not appeal to women. G. and I spent a lot of time discussing the possible reasons for this. Was it that women don’t allow themselves to engage in abstract speculation, as he thought? That Marxism is incompatible with feminism, as I sometimes suspected? Or perhaps the problem was not Marxism but Marxists: in its heyday men had kept a lock on it as they did on everything they considered important; now, in its decline, Marxism had become one of those obsessive lonely-guy hobbies, like collecting stamps or 78s. Maybe, like collecting, it was related, through subterranean psychological pathways, to sexual perversions, most of which seemed to be male as well. You never hear about a female foot fetishist, or a woman like the high-school history teacher of a friend of mine who kept dated bottles of his own urine on a closet shelf. Perhaps women’s need for speculation is satisfied by the intense curiosity they bring to daily life, the way their collecting masquerades as fashion and domesticity—instead of old records, shoes and ceramic mixing bowls—and their perversity can be satisfied simply by enacting the highly artificial role of Woman, by becoming, as it were, fetishizers of their own feet.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katha Pollitt" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-that-marxism-seemed-over-surely/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Daily life" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katha-pollitt/i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-that-marxism-seemed-over-surely/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eff/katha-pollitt-16599_daily-life_i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-tha_9437.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eff/katha-pollitt-16599_daily-life_i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-tha_9437.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eff/katha-pollitt-16599_daily-life_i-should-say-that-it-was-only-for-me-tha_9437.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I should say that it was only for me that Marxism seemed over. 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