When the quarantine against the unwalled capitalists literally crumbled in 1989 and the walled-in workers fled their paradise in droves, Western analysts were confounded. Wasn’t history supposed to move leftward? Some resorted to the “it wasn’t real socialism” escape clause, others applauded. Most, if not all, were reluctant to abandon seductive determinist theories of history that offered such comforts akin to religion. Whether neo-Marxist or postmodern scientistic, the millenarian narrative is hard to resist. And everyone hopes for progress.
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