>>From a review of Marshall Berman’s “Adventures in Marxism” by Douglas A.
>Sylva, in yesterday’s NY Times Book Review: “But the most striking
>element of this book is what is left unexamined: the dreadful
>history of Communism. Berman never truly considers whether, since so
>many different people in so many different countries have killed in
>Marx's name, there might be some connection between the theory and
>the practice, a seed of violence, perhaps, within Marx's own
>thought. Because of this omission, these essays, though erudite and
>entertaining, seem more like advocacy than argumentation.”
>
>Of course, to state the obvious, precisely the same point could be
>made about the “many different people in so many different countries
>[who] have killed in” the name of Christ or Muhammad.
With Christ and capitalism, mass murder is just an accident or an excess, a rogue element that got away, or growing pains. With Communism, and to a lesser extent Islam, it's an expression of its inner evil essence.
Doug