Bill,
I can understand why you'd like this artice from "spiked",( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiked_(magazine). Brendon O'Neill and his comrades, formerly the UK Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist Party, but they have moved a long way to the right in recent years, are of quite a similar position to yourselves. But, not quite; they do seem to have managed to get it right on Iraq, for instance, so at least a little of their earlier socialism may not have been lost.
The easy point to make is that when the Spectator and Australian decide to publish articles with an authorship that claims to be pro-Marx, you do have to wonder if these "Marxists" haven't strayed a little too far from what Marx actually had in mind! Also, I do wonder, when reading his statement "What today's anti-capitalists loathe most is the consumer society, with its incessant advertising and wicked temptation to buy, buy, buy" if Brendon O'Neill has much, if any, parental experience. Has he had the pleasure of trying to explain to a 15 year old that the $300 pair of trainers, indistinguishable from the $75 pair, except for one fewer, or extra, plastic stripe, may not be quite worth the extra money? Today's capitalists have long since learned that their advertising revenue is better spent on trying to wickedly tempt the younger generation which, often, strikes even right wing parents as being sneaky and underhand.
"Marx loved the consumer society". Well did he? In the mid 19th century there wasn't really such a thing. The average income of people in the developed world has increased by a factor of more than 15 fold since then. People used rather than consumed. Even Marx would have had his shoes repaired more often than he bought new ones. What would he have made of the concept of a 'designer label' whcih when sewn on to a pair of jeans magically doubles or trebles their price?
Brendon lovingly refers to "the wonders of modern capitalism - whether it's the four-wheel-drive or digital television" . I'm not sure about 4 wheel drives being their best effort, but we shouldn't forget that these wonders are largely the creation of paid employees. The working class. Remember the Marxist term - 'proletariat'?
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