The socialists had a certain kind of logic on their side: if the collective
sacrifice of all to all is the moral ideal, then they wanted to establish
this ideal in practice, here and on this earth. The arguments that socialism
would not and could not work, did not stop them: neither has altruism ever
worked, but this has not caused men to stop and question it. Only reason can
ask such questions—and reason, they were told on all sides, has nothing to
do with morality, morality lies outside the realm of reason, no rational
morality can ever be defined.
The fallacies and contradictions in the economic theories of socialism were
exposed and refuted time and time again, in the Nineteenth Century as well as
today. This did not and does not stop anyone: it is not an issue of economics,
but of morality. The intellectuals and the so-called idealists were determined
to make socialism work. How? By that magic means of all irrationalists:
somehow.