Marx and Marxists are in the news. Again. The New York Times recently ran a forum with leading economists entitled “Was Marx Right?” Books are hastily written on this subject, too. And the work of Marx and Marxists is now available online in a large number of languages through the Marxists Internet Archive (www.marxists.org). And for free. So, why am I neglecting all this in view of my early writings, which still play an important part in my magnum opus? The answer is clear albeit somewhat heartless: I now believe that humans are not capable of socialism, let alone of communism. This is where Marx and Marxists, including myself, have consistently erred. Put differently, the highest stage of human development possible at this stage of human evolution is capitalism. The only hope for socialism is in human evolution, but it may take many hundreds of thousands of years to reach it. That is, quite a number of glaciation cycles, during which the human species will cycle through the stages experienced so far—from hunting and gathering to capitalism, and back again. But how could I be so sure about all this? I experienced socialism first hand, while Marx and most Marxists could only dream of it. And neither Marx nor Marxists could even dream of glaciation cycles, let alone climate change.

Addendum (March 1, 2016)

Having come across this piece in one of my random searches through my writings, I am rather annoyed by its pessimism. The need for community must not be neglected (“The Root of Communism,” August 13, 2008). It will be fulfilled time and again during glaciation periods that lie ahead (“On Primitive Communism,” May 7, 2013). And the tribe will thrive over and over again during protracted cold spells (“The Mother of All Communities,” November 21, 2015). No matter how wrong Marx and Marxists have been in the short run, the future of communism is far from a foregone conclusion. In fact, optimism is in order at this stage of human evolution. For Marx and Marxists are liable to be right in the long run no matter where evolution will ultimately take the human species. And primitive communism beckons just behind the corner…