Who Said That?

"In one important sense, Marxism is a religion.  To the believer it presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life, and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions; and, secondly, a guide to those ends which imply a plan of salvation and the indication of the evil from which mankind, or a chosen section of mankind, is to be saved.  We may specify still further:  Marxist socialism also belongs to that subgroup which promises paradise on this side of the grave."

Please leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please no google searches or cheating.  Answer to follow next week, Lord willing.

Update on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 02:09PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This is from the opening section of Joseph Schumpter's influential book, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942), 5.

An interesting insight from a non-Christian (or a nominal Christian) economist.

Comments

["lee n. field"]

Ohhh. I think I've read this.

The comment about "paradise this side of the grave" makes me think this is not a postmillenialist.

[CVanDyke]

I remember reading something like this as a college student at UCLA in the Poli Sci department. I'm not sure who wrote this quote, but it sounds like what IShumpeter famously argued when he analyzed Marxism as an alternative religion in a book he wrote after WWII. It was must reading for poli sci students. My professor was stridently anti-Marxist and pro-capitalist, and he argued that Marxism was the secular religion for those who have no religion. His point was that all humanity was religious, and for secularists, the need for religious transcendance and meaning comes out in Marxism. He rather astutely analyzed contempoary liberalism as inheriting the "relgious' fervor of Marxismk even though they may not explicitly embarce, it because their categories and thought world was thoroughly Marxist. I don't know if this prof is still alive, but I'm sure he would feel vindicated in his thesis by the current administration and Congress.

[Ryan Thompson]

Rand Paul

[LEW]

Gary North

[acroamaticus]

No-one writes sentences like that in English! I suspect it's been translated from the German, so it's probably either Max Weber or Joseph Schumpeter, either of whom would have known enough about religion and Marxism to be the original authors of what is now a commonly held view of Marxism.

[TW]

Erich Hoeffer?