“The last ten years have proved that the most backward totalitarian form of Socialism is superior to the decadent type of Capitalism we have in the Western World.”

—  Richard Crossman

Letter to The Guardian (1 December 1961), quoted in Bryan Magee, The New Radicalism (1963), p. 102, n.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The last ten years have proved that the most backward totalitarian form of Socialism is superior to the decadent type o…" by Richard Crossman?
Richard Crossman photo
Richard Crossman6
British Member of Parliament 1907–1974

Related quotes

“For tens, and perhaps hundreds, of thousands of years, people regarded language as a holy instrument that let them look out upon the world… Only in the last few decades have people suspected that their window on the world has a glass that gives a distorted view.”

Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer

Word Play (1974)

Ludwig von Mises photo

“If we were to regard the Soviet regime as an experiment, we would have to say that the experiment has clearly demonstrated the superiority of capitalism and the inferiority of socialism.”

Ludwig von Mises book Socialism

Socialism (1922), Epilogue (1947)
Context: The only certain fact about Russian affairs under the Soviet regime with regard to which all people agree is: that the standard of living of the Russian masses is much lower than... the paragon of capitalism, the United States of America. If we were to regard the Soviet regime as an experiment, we would have to say that the experiment has clearly demonstrated the superiority of capitalism and the inferiority of socialism.

Jean-François Lyotard photo

“Already in the last few decades, economic powers have reached the point of imperiling the stability of the state through new forms of the circulation of capital that go by the generic name of multinational corporations.”

Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) French philosopher

Source: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1977), p. 5

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo

“… some parties think that only the rules laid down by their doctrines are the right ones. Our strength resides in the fact that our revolution does not desire the triumph of one class or of one ideology over another…. Ours is a White Revolution: we adopt no slogan but we embrace everything which seems good to us, whether it be labelled communism, socialism or capitalism….
My final aim is to bring Iran, within twenty years, to the same level of civilization and progress as will be enjoyed by the most highly developed countries. During the last ten years the degree of our backwardness has been halved, but it is this remaining backwardness which will be the most difficult to combat.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980) Shah of Iran

January 27, 1963, as quoted in The Shah's Story, page 76
Speeches, 1963

Mikhail Gorbachev photo

“The most puzzling development in politics during the last decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Ulysses S. Grant photo

“We have taken our last backwards step.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

North and South, Book II https://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=vopVVBiC80g#General_Grant_s_Strategies (1986). <br class="br">In fiction, &lt;span class=&quot;plainlinks&quot;&gt; North and South, Book II http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090490/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast (1986)&lt;/span&gt;

Vincent Martella photo

“Ten years is a long time to be a part of anything and to have a group of people in your life for any reason, let alone one that really was a part of my most formative years.”

Vincent Martella (1992) American actor

Source: Batman: Death in the Family&#x27;s Vincent Martella Talks Reprising Jason Todd Role https://www.cbr.com/batman-death-in-the-family-jason-todd-interview/ (October 9, 2020)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn photo

“In different places over the years I have had to prove that socialism, which to many western thinkers is a sort of kingdom of justice, was in fact full of coercion, of bureaucratic greed and corruption and avarice, and consistent within itself that socialism cannot be implemented without the aid of coercion.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Interview with Joseph Pearce, Sr. (2003)
Context: In different places over the years I have had to prove that socialism, which to many western thinkers is a sort of kingdom of justice, was in fact full of coercion, of bureaucratic greed and corruption and avarice, and consistent within itself that socialism cannot be implemented without the aid of coercion. Communist propaganda would sometimes include statements such as "we include almost all the commandments of the Gospel in our ideology". The difference is that the Gospel asks all this to be achieved through love, through self-limitation, but socialism only uses coercion. This is one point.
Untouched by the breath of God, unrestricted by human conscience, both capitalism and socialism are repulsive.

“Harry Harlow and his colleagues go on torturing their nonhuman primates decade after decade, invariably proving what we all knew in advance: that social creatures can be destroyed by destroying their social ties.”

Harry Harlow (1905–1981) American psychologist

Wayne C. Booth, Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent, Volume 5, of University of Notre Dame, Ward-Phillips lectures in English language and literature, University of Chicago Press, 1974, p. 114.

“At the beginning of a decade it is tempting to look ahead for the next ten years.”

Lawrence Klein (1920–2013) American economist

"Some Economic Scenarios for the 1980's," 1980

Related topics