Socialism
Free and Equal
“We are still beguiled by this other fairy tale: that a large group of liberal-minded reformers can take charge of the economy and approximate a free and equal society.” ~Max Eastman
Max Eastman Quotes
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Economics
Social Equilibrium
“Detached idealists of freedom should regard themselves as a mobile force in defense of the social equilibrium. Their aim at all times should be to prevent the domination of society by any one organized idea or power.” ~Max Eastman
Marxism
Lenin’s Methods
“I still regarded Stalin’s totalitarian dictatorship as an enemy, rather than a result, of the policies of Lenin. It took me another two years to arrive at the knowledge that Lenin’s methods—bolshevik Marxism—were to blame.” ~Max Eastman
Religion
Pariah
“When I came home from Europe in 1927 most of my old political friends refused to speak to me on the street. I was a traitor, a renegade, a pariah, a veritable untouchable, so far as the communists were concerned.” ~Max Eastman
Religion
State Religion
“Any state religion, as all the great liberals have pointed out, is death to human freedom.” ~Max Eastman
Socialism
State Prison
“Instead of liberating the mind of man, the Bolshevik Revolution locked it into a state’s prison tighter than ever before.” ~Max Eastman
Socialism
Scientific Experiment?
“It was juvenile of me to imagine that humanity as a whole, especially by splitting itself into two halves, could turn a whole period of history into a scientific experiment.” ~Max Eastman
Socialism
Perfection of Tyranny
“It (socialism) survived long enough to show what was in it: tyranny, namely, and that new perfection of tyranny, the totalitarian state.” ~Max Eastman
Socialism
Thoroughgoing Socialism
“Either phony elections or no elections at all—that is what thoroughgoing socialism will mean, no matter who brings it in—hard-headed Bolsheviks, soft-headed Social Democrats, or genteel liberals.” ~Max Eastman
Tyranny
Phony Elections
“The phony elections in totalitarian countries, the ballots with only one party and one list of candidates, are not the mere tricks of a cynical dictator—they are intrinsic to a state-planned economy.” ~Max Eastman