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The Religious Quality Of Marxism Also Explains A Characteristic Attitude Of The Orthodox Marxist Toward Opponents. To Him, As To Any Believer In A Faith, The Opponent Is Not Merely In Error But In Sin. Dissent Is Disapproved Of Not Only Intellectually But Also Morally. There Cannot Be Any Excuse For It Once The Message Has Been Revealed.

-Joseph A. Schumpeter

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The Religious Quality Of

Joseph A. Schumpeter

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The Religious Quality Of Marxism Also Explains A Characteristic Attitude Of The Orthodox Marxist Toward Opponents. To Him, As To Any Believer In A Faith, The Opponent Is Not Merely In Error But In Sin. Dissent Is Disapproved Of Not Only Intellectually But Also Morally. There Cannot Be Any Excuse For It Once The Message Has Been Revealed.

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This Civilization Is Rapidly Passing Away, However. Let Us Rejoice Or Else Lament The Fact As Much As Everyone Of Us Likes; But Do Not Let Us Shut Our Eyes To It.

Capitalism Stands Its Trial Before Judges Who Have The Sentence Of Death In Their Pockets. They Are Going To Pass It, Whatever The Defense They May Hear; The Only Success Victorious Defense Can Possibly Produce Is A Change In The Indictment.

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The Function Of Entrepreneurs Is To Reform Or Revolutionize The Pattern Of Production By Exploiting An Invention Or, More Generally, An Untried Technological Possibility For Producing A New Commodity Or Producing An Old One In A New Way, By Opening Up A New Source Of Supply Of Materials Or A New Outlet For Products, By Reorganizing An Industry And So On.

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For One Thing, To Predict The Advent Of Big Business Was Considering The Conditions Of Marx's Day An Achievement In Itself.

All We Can Thus Far Say About The Duration Of The Units Of [the Business Cycle] And Each Of [its] Two Phases Is That It Will Depend On The Nature Of The Particular Innovations That Carry A Cycle,... And The Financial Conditions And Habits Prevailing In The Business Community In Each Case.

Lack Of Outlets, Excess Capacity, Complete Deadlock, In The End Regular Recurrence Of National Bankruptcies And Other Disasters-perhaps World Wars From Sheer Capitalist Despair-may Confidently Be Anticipated. History Is As Simple A That.

The Banker, Therefore, Is Not So Much Primarily A Middleman In The Commodity "purchasing Power" As A Producer Of This Commodity. However, Since All Reserve Funds And Savings Today Usually Flow To Him, And The Total Demand For Free Purchasing Power, Whether Existing Or To Be Created, Concentrates On Him, He Has Either Replaced Private Capitalists Or Become Their Agent; He Has Himself Become The Capitalist Par Excellence.

The Success Of Everything Depends On Intuition, The Capacity Of Seeing Things In A Way Which Afterwards Proves To Be True, Even Though It Cannot Be Established At The Moment, And Of Grasping The Essential Fact, Discarding The Unessential, Even Though One Can Give No Account Of The Principles By Which This Is Done.

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The Essential Point To Grasp Is That In Dealing With Capitalism We Are Dealing With An Evolutionary Process

Creative Destruction

Why Should We Stunt Our Ambitions And Impoverish Our Lives In Order To Be Insulted And Looked Down Upon In Our Old Age?

I Set Out To Become The Greatest Lover In Vienna, The Greatest Horseman In Austria, And The Greatest Economist In The World. Alas, For The Illusions Of Youth: As A Horseman, I Was Never Really First-rate.

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In One Important Sense, Marxism Is A Religion. To The Believer It Presents, First, A System Of Ultimate Ends That Embody The Meaning Of Life And Are Absolute Standards By Which To Judge Events And Actions; And, Secondly, A Guide To Those Ends Which Implies A Plan Of Salvation And The Indication Of The Evil From Which Mankind, Or A Chosen Section Of Mankind, Is To Be Saved.

The Typical Citizen Drops Down To A Lower Level Of Mental Performance As Soon As He Enters The Political Field. He Argues And Analyzes In A Way Which He Would Readily Recognize As Infantile Within The Sphere Of His Real Interests. He Becomes Primitive Again.

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The Religious Quality Of Marxism Also Explains A Characteristic Attitude Of The Orthodox Marxist Toward Opponents. To Him, As To Any Believer In A Faith, The Opponent Is Not Merely In Error But In Sin. Dissent Is Disapproved Of Not Only Intellectually But Also Morally. There Cannot Be Any Excuse For It Once The Message Has Been Revealed.

The Modern Mind Dislikes Gold Because It Blurts Out Unpleasant Truths.

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The First Thing A Man Will Do For His Ideals Is Lie.

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