View source for Carl Marx and Rationalism

Marxist societies are centralised and monolithic. Their governments attempt to control all aspects of life. They have centrally planned economies and only one political party possesses any substantial reality. This party controls all educational and cultural activities. Freedom of expression and of access to information are expressly prevented, and the values which are encouraged are those of collective commitment to the centralised rule of the party. Anything which the party does is to be approved and anything which threatens its central role is condemned and suppressed. Marxist societies have clearly tried to organise themselves according to the principles of constructive rationalism. But, as I have argued, such principles are antithetical to the effective functioning of many essential institutions of modern complex societies. So there develops a great gulf between promise and performance in Marxist states. And this gulf persists because of the lack of self-correcting mechanisms in a system based on constructive rationalism.