Overwhelmingly, the attraction of left theory in general (or of marxist theory in particular) is that it appears first to a person as a way of making sense of activity in which they find themselves caught up. One backs into left theory as it were rather than walks into it straightforwardly from "study."
You're probably right Carrol, but the study route is also possible. In my case it was a combination of having lived in a quasi-socialist country (Romania in the sixties), having parents who were communists, reading Marx (and discovering the first sensible explanation of what was going on), and working. As a teacher, I remember once teaching Marx's little essay on money to a Shakespeare class (along with Timon). At the end of the class, a student remained, sitting stunned in his seat and shaking his head. I asked him what was the matter and he explained that he had taken a class on Marx the previous semester, but that this was the first time he had actually read anything by Marx. He couldn't believe how "easy" it was. Apparently, in the Marx class, they had not ready anything by Marx.
Real experience matters a lot, but I think, especially in the U.S. where there's so much anti-socialist propaganda, education matters too.
Joanna
