Saturday, January 6, 2007

Ludwig von Mises on Marxian ideology

Wow, this must be the most direct criticism of Marxism and its focus on the "proletarian class" I have seen in a long time. Let me quote the closing paragraph of the chapter:

> The essence of Marxian philosophy is this: We are right because we are
the spokesmen of the rising proletarian class. Discursive reasoning cannot
invalidate our teachings, for they are inspired by the supreme power that
determines the destiny of mankind. Our adversaries are wrong because they
lack the intuition that guides our minds. It is, of course, not their fault that
on account of their class affiliation they are not equipped with the genuine
proletarian logic and are blinded by ideologies. The unfathomable decrees
of history that have elected us have doomed them. The future is ours.

You can read the rest in
Human Action
(a [3MB PDF](http://www.mises.org/humanaction/pdf/humanaction.pdf) is available), pages 76--82.