Reply #16: Communism was ALWAYS dead

[markses]

"A SPECTRE is HAUNTING Europe, the SPECTRE of communism. All the forces of old Europe - Pope and Czar, metternich and Guizot, French Radicals (Democratic Underground) and German Police (Free Republic) - have joined into a holy alliance to EXORCISE this SPECTRE..."

(Ein Gespenst geht um Europa, das Gespensts des Communismus. Alle machte des alten Europa haben sich zu einer heiligen Hetzjagd gegen dies Gespenst verbündet, der Papst und der Zar, Metternich und Guizot, französische Radikale und deutsche Polizisten.)

Communism is always a ghost, until it's not. It certainly has yet to materialize on this planet (neither, for that matter, has the so-called "liberal democracy"), but it is indeed curious - and this, I think, is the object of Marx's fascination - that no end of energy is expended warding it off, exorcising its spectre...