These proposals, therefore,
are of a purely Utopian character.
The significance of Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism
bears an inverse relation to historical development. In
proportion as the modern class struggle develops and takes
definite shape, this fantastic standing apart from the contest,
these fantastic attacks on it, lose all practical value and all
theoretical justification. Therefore, although the originators
of these systems were, in many respects, revolutionary, their
disciples have, in every case, formed mere reactionary sects.
They hold fast by the original views of their masters, in
opposition to the progressive historical development of the
proletariat. They, therefore, endeavour, and that consistently,
to deaden the class struggle and to reconcile the class
antagonisms. They still dream of experimental realisation of
their social Utopias, of founding isolated "phalansteres," of
establishing "Home Colonies," of setting up a "Little Icaria" --
duodecimo editions of the New Jerusalem -- and to realise all
these castles in the air, they are compelled to appeal to the
feelings and purses of the bourgeois. By degrees they sink into
the category of the reactionary conservative Socialists depicted
above, differing from these only by more systematic pedantry, and
by their fanatical and superstitious belief in the miraculous
effects of their social science.
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