Unrepentant Marxism has, not surprisingly, been on the decline for a while now, even as Marxists try to adjust to current events in order to not appear totally divorced from reality. Such people should read this article (seen via Winds of Change and Stromata Blog) on the ravages Communism has left on the country that used to define the movement: Russia.
Evidently, demographic trends in Russia have converged in a demographic “perfect storm” of sorts. Birth rate declines starting in the late 1980s, combined with a health care collapse which has driven infertility and mortality to levels approaching those of Bangladesh, have resulted in a net loss of population in the last decade even with strong immigration. Such rises in mortality in peacetime are labeled as “counterintuitive,” “highly peculiar,” and “anomalous” by the article, and seem to fly in the face of mortality improvements in the rest of the industrialized world.
No system of government is perfect, and the free market nations have their own share of problems. But which should we prefer? One only needs to compare the fates of Russia and the United States to answer the question. Demographics trends are often interpreted as a subtle vote of confidence (or the lack thereof) in one’s own society; Russia’s margin of defeat in that election suggests that the country has a long reckoning with its past in store. Today’s Marxists should pay attention–especially those looking to follow the same path as Russia.
(This post on demographics, by the same author, is also very interesting, and talks about trends in China, Japan, Russia, Europe, and the USA.)