Mind if I butt in a bit into this discussion?  

I have been thinking somewhat along your line of thought about Marxism and
utopianism for some time.  My problem with your remarks is  its blanket
assessment of Marxism as "utopian."  I would suggest a more limited  one:
that Marxism contains within it utopian elements.  For example, I continue to
find the Marxian assessment of history to be scientific and extremely useful
if not applied dogmatically.  For example, it explains essentially why the
USSR collapsed (unable to increase the productivity of labor sufficiently to
sustain its military competition with capitalism and at the same time meet
its peoples' desires).  I would also suggest that elements of the socialist
idea are workable and in fact have been adopted in the mixed economies we all
live under.

What may be utopian is the conception of imposing a commune-like stateless
classless society.  Also, your analogy between small radical sects and
religious sects is apt.  The latest UFO suicide cult should be a warning to
such groups.  So far they are saved from doing bodily harm to their members
primarily by lack of belief in a afterlife!


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