Stephen Kotkin
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
But hey, is imperialist war better than that?
No.
The answer is imperialist war has got to be worse.
But the other reason, which is even deeper than that, is because Marxism-Leninism empowers the intellectual class more.
and the lumpen intellectual class.
You see, in a market system, you get to do what you want.
You want to open up a family business.
You want to take a loan and give it a try.
You can do that.
Nobody can stop you.
Now, it might be that it's hard to get the loan in some neighborhoods.
It might be that the loan interest rate, you got to work much harder than you thought, etc.,
But you get to make the decisions.
You get to decide what to do, when to do.
You can work for somebody else.
You can put out your own shingle.
In these kind of systems,
It's the intellectuals and the lumpen intellectuals who make those decisions.
They use the state as an instrument to overcome the injustices of the existing society.
Again, the injustices are real.