… is from pages xi-xii of Kristian Niemietz’s superb 2019 book, Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies:
Yet while socialists distance themselves from contemporary and historical examples of socialism, they usually struggle to explain what exactly they would do differently. Socialists tend to escape into abstraction, and talk of lofty aspirations rather than tangible institutional characteristics.
DBx: The same escape into abstraction and expressions of aspirations is performed also by all advocates of industrial policy.
Nothing is easier than to express lovely aspirations. Equally easy is simply to suppose that the state possesses the combination of god-like power and god-like goodness necessary to transform these aspirations into reality. Much, much more difficult is the task of describing the institutional details that flesh-and-blood human beings will confront and the actions these individuals will realistically take to acquire the knowledge necessary to achieve outcomes remotely close to the lovely aspirations.
