Marxism is not simply a "Worldview"

From Žižek's Tarrying with the Negative:

"[...] the proletariat becomes an actual revolutionary subject by way of integrating the knowledge of its historical role: historical materialism is not a neutral 'objective knowledge' of historical development, since it is an act of self-knowledge of a historical subject; as such, it implies the proletarian subjective position. In other words, the 'knowledge' proper to historical materialism is self-referential, it changes its 'object.' It is only via the act of knowledge that the object becomes what it truly 'is.' So, the rise of 'class consciousness' produces the effect in the existence of its 'object' (proletariat) by way of changing it into an actual revolutionary subject."

(TWTN, p. 144-145)

I would just like to add to Žižek's (and Lacan's) insight here by means of a reference to the question as to why the left in the USA is so divided. In American corporate academia, our new sophists (all of the capitalist flunkies, including the all-too-many pseudoleftists who pose as revolutionary "Beautiful Souls") are incapable of becoming true leftists because they simply are not in the proletarian subjective position. In short, the truth of an entire situation is only disclosed through the subjective position of the abject, excluded other. Only by occupying THIS position will American so-called "intellectuals" grasp the truth of Žižek's politics. --V.M.