A term a professor in my 20th century history class used in a joking matter to denote German philosopher Karl Marx. He used that term to counteract popular belief that Marx was responsible for the corrupt totalitarian nightmare monster that what we today call Communism really is. If Marx were to visit a Communist country today he would not recognize it, because it ain't the classless society or working-class utopia that he envisioned. Marx believed in equality and freedom, but he left no blueprint for this utopian world and he omitted too many possibilities, leaving too many loopholes open and paving the way for egotistical pied pipers like Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung to distort Marx's ideas for their own personal gain and power, killing millions of people in the process. Because of this, Karl Marx has a bad reputation for many people, especially in the West.
Big Bad Marx and his theories have made a tremendously important impact on the science of sociology.
by I Saw U2 Live Twice November 13, 2007