Marx And The Ideal

Marx turned 200 a few days ago. The relationship of us anarchists and Marx is quite complicated; some anarchist thinkers embraced Marx economic analysis of capitalism and rejected his statism; others rejected all of Marx.
With Idealist Anarchism, it is even more extreme: Marx work is a virulent and dangerous form of materialism that leaves not much room for any kind of idealism, and his work influenced and empowered anti-idealist and materialist movements in society often to a high degree.
But there is something to be said about Marx, IN regard of idealism.
Marx' work changed the world in the 19th and 20th century, maybe more than any other person's effort did. He took half the world away from capitalism and half the world followed him.
How did he manage to do this? Not by commandeering an army; not by being a president; or taking up a gun or a bomb or any other form of tangible activity in the real world; but by pickin up a pen and writing a book. This is the effect of doing something rational, intellectual, ideal on the world. The true power of the rational and the idealistic.
It is possible to change the face of the world forever; all you need to do is to sit down and write a book. And we set out to change the world.