If you don't read Das Kapital, you don't understand Marxism but are instead gleaning it from other sources that only partially cover it, generally for the purposes of their own applications. A lot of people do just go with Lenin or Mao and then constantly fuck up because they do not in fact live in conditions where there's a substantial peasantry or a monarchy. Once they realize this, they don't know what to do - how to "update" Marxism, as well as how to criticize it. IMO this is also why Trots and Gonzalites and so on can proliferate so easily. I have yet to see a Trot reading list that includes Das Kapital, but they all call themselves Marxists. A large number that I've interacted with don't even know the basics.
It's also not very dense, it's just tragically German. Once you get used to the writing style and maybe a little Hegel it's a fairly quick read. The real barrier, to the extent that there is one, is just to set aside reading time at all.
If you don't read Das Kapital, you don't understand Marxism but are instead gleaning it from other sources that only partially cover it, generally for the purposes of their own applications. A lot of people do just go with Lenin or Mao and then constantly fuck up because they do not in fact live in conditions where there's a substantial peasantry or a monarchy. Once they realize this, they don't know what to do - how to "update" Marxism, as well as how to criticize it. IMO this is also why Trots and Gonzalites and so on can proliferate so easily. I have yet to see a Trot reading list that includes Das Kapital, but they all call themselves Marxists. A large number that I've interacted with don't even know the basics.
It's also not very dense, it's just tragically German. Once you get used to the writing style and maybe a little Hegel it's a fairly quick read. The real barrier, to the extent that there is one, is just to set aside reading time at all.