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!
