These 'comrades' were all wrong.
Marx and Engels, the first two (from the left), did not err in their philosophy, untested during their lifetimes, but were wrong in their 'utopianism': in hindsight, they expected too much from the 'leadership' of the working classes and from collective ownership, and too little from capitalism, which survived and evolved.
Lenin, the one in the middle, had some progressive ideas but ultimately became a dictator and planted the seeds for the following characters.
Stalin and Mao, the last two, were, on both counts -- theory and practice -- utterly wrong; they caused untold horrors through the addition of personality cults, violence, criminality and autocracy to their errors in thought and judgement.
How does the saying go? Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Marx and Engels, the first two (from the left), did not err in their philosophy, untested during their lifetimes, but were wrong in their 'utopianism': in hindsight, they expected too much from the 'leadership' of the working classes and from collective ownership, and too little from capitalism, which survived and evolved.
Lenin, the one in the middle, had some progressive ideas but ultimately became a dictator and planted the seeds for the following characters.
Stalin and Mao, the last two, were, on both counts -- theory and practice -- utterly wrong; they caused untold horrors through the addition of personality cults, violence, criminality and autocracy to their errors in thought and judgement.
How does the saying go? Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
No comments:
Post a Comment