When I was young, the Marxist explanation of how my society works came as an exciting revelation. Marx was a genius. He reminded me of Bach, in the complexity of his thinking. And whether they realize it or not, even those who hate Marx have been influenced by him, just as we have been influenced by Newton, Darwin, Freud, and the other great minds that shaped our understanding of the world. After Marx, it was no longer possible to approach technology in the same way. It was no longer possible to see history as a continuum. 

It was no longer possible to see politics and economics as separate, hermetically sealed categories. To ignore Marx in today's world is like being illiterate. Half of the world's population treats his words as holy scripture. However, Marx himself was an expression of a classical Second Wave society, an industrial society, an expression shaped by certain elements - and many of these elements no longer apply.