The fundamental delusion of the Marxists

Marxists see the world though an ideological lens that doesn’t correspond to reality. At the core of their ideology:
. There’s an agency of social change that could cohere into a powerful, majoritarian force.
. It’s in their interest to do so.
. They need to be educated and guided to do so.
. It won’t happen spontaneously because the power elites keep them atomized, distracted, divided.

The “they” that the Marxists have in mind is “the workers” or “the masses” or “the working class.”

Letter from Engels in 1886: “The first great step of importance for every country newly entering into our movement is always the organization of the workers as an independent political party — no matter how, so long as it is a distinct labor party. That the first program of this party might be confused and highly deficient, these are inevitable evils but also only transitory ones. The masses must have time and opportunity to develop and they can only have the opportunity when they have their own movement in which they are driven further by their own mistakes and learn wisdom for themselves.”

Engels wrote that 134 years ago. That’s more than five generations ago. In all that time . . . anyone notice the working class cohering or absorbing the Marxist wisdom?

Who is it who needs to learn? Perhaps the Marxists? But they need to take off those rose-colored glasses.