Imagine Marxism

It is interesting to see Paul Brownsey defending theoretical Marxism in his letters. More often Mr Brownsey is to be read in your pages defending what many might see as a relatively militant strain of secularism.

The trouble with Marxism is that its theory is the only aspect of it which can be defended. Its apologists always dismiss the Stalinist dictatorships of Eastern Europe in 1917-89 as aberrations but are unable to point us to any examples of successful states which follow Marxism – or would Mr Brownsey put Cuba or North Korea into that successful category?

In fact, as AJ Polan wrote 30 years ago, the Marxist model of government demands a situation devoid of all political conflicts, of all economic problems, of all social contradictions, of all inadequate, selfish or simply human emotions and motivations, of all singularity, of all negativity etc in order to function properly.

John Lennon said something similar to Marx in his song Imagine. Marxism in practice has enslaved millions, probably billions, of people.

Marx opined that religion was the opium of the people but in fact it had and has none of the virtues of Christianity or of its teachings, which speak to the human condition in a way that Marx was never able to conceive.

Gus Logan

York Road

North Berwick