Is There a Consolation Prize to Marxism?

The last 50 years have been a huge defeat for the left on a global scale. I think it's very understandable that people embrace a view now that even if the workers won't be the grave diggers of capitalism, capitalism will continue to undermine itself. There are all these terrible things that are true about capitalism and imagining that they can go on forever is really, really upsetting. We need to avoid consolations of all kinds.