Stephen Kotkin explains the real reason Marxism keeps attracting intellectuals and young people, even after the body count.
It is not because the theory works. It is because it offers something far more seductive: total, rapid transformation and a special role for the intellectual class.
In a market system, ordinary people make their own decisions. Under Marxism-Leninism, the intellectuals get to make the decisions for everyone. They become the engineers of society. Workers and peasants are treated as people with “false consciousness” who need to be led.
The ideology flatters the people who believe they are smarter than the rest of society. That is why the blood does not put them off. The power is worth the cost.