. One often hears the criticism that
Marxism was from the beginning an extreme modernizing philosophy that
looked with complete disdain on rural existence. Did not Marx himself in
The Communist Manifesto, it is frequently asked, refer to the idiocy of
rural life? Here a misconception has arisen through
in major European languages.
In Draper's translation the phrase the idiocy of rural life in
paragraph
28 of the Manifesto is replaced with the isolation of rural life. His
explanation for this correction is worth quoting at length:
IDIOCY OF RURAL LIFE. This oft-quoted A.ET. [authorized English
