The heart of a leftist/Last time

[Brad De Long]

>I would answer no, it was not a mistake.  Marx had 2 reasons.  1. He
>believed that people would have to work out the future in the future; that
>only the Utopians left blueprints.  2. Politically, he was trying to hold
>together a disparate group of people.  Any specifics would be sure to
>create splits.

Any split that leaves Pol Pot on the other side sounds like a very good idea...

And recall that the people who "worked out the future in the future" 
created a politics reminiscent of Nero and thought that the key to 
economics was to combine some of the least attractive features of 
serfdom with some of the least attractive features of the German 
World War I economy. They were *desperately* in need of guidance, and 
did not get it.

Just one little Utopian speech laying out a future Communist society 
with--I don't know--a bicameral legislature with chambers elected on 
the basis of industry and of domicile? Immediate potential recall and 
replacement of representatives? Freedom of the press? Rotating 
capital funds offering everyone a chance to plan a new enterprise? 
Selection of high political officials by lot? Anything more specific 
and less mushy than the "Critique of the Gotha Program" might well 
have saved a lot of people.

Brad DeLong