In the case of the US, I think the term might more accurately refer to those who have enough leisure time to become auto-didacts on the many topics that are covered under the terms 'Marx and Marxism'. That might include people at the universities (it's a pretty big chunk of the political economy of the US by the way, though most there are not tenured professors) or people with university educations who managed to get jobs with the necessary leisure time. An epiphenomena of the ilk then is the (mostly unedited) outpouring on lists and on weblogs of the erudition.
A follow up thought would be just how little Marx and Marxism you could get with a 4-8 year 'education' at an American university. Most exposure would again have to be self-taught (but people who have lived in humanities and liberal studies know that is the attraction of these 'fields'--the opportunities to do self-study--which is why the best way to become learned in Marx and Marxist economics is to avoid being an economics major at an American university). The most exposure to Marx and Marxism I ever got in my education in the US was a World Cultures and Civics teacher who insisted on using dialectics and historical materialism as the basis for his approach to his teaching and our learning history. The administration at this provincial public school were so oblivious to Hegelian and post-Hegelian philosophy and philosophy of history that they never noticed the guy would be called a 'Stalinist' on marxo-liberal lists like A List or Marxmal.org. I think the biggest result of this wonderful teacher's influence, though, was our senior class slogan: 'Today we are but an ember; tomorrow we will ignite the world.'. It might better have been: 'Today we are pot smokers; tomorrow we will vote for Reagan.' CJ _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
