“I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.”
Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?, 1949 [49]
Einstein thought highly of Vladimir Lenin, saying: “I honor Lenin as a man who completely sacrificed himself and devoted all his energy to the realization of social justice. I do not consider his methods practical, but one thing is certain: men of his type are the guardians and restorers of humanity.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Albert_Einstein
No offense but those quotes are damning
I wonder why he thought so highly of Lenin rather than a socialist closer to home named Adolph? Oh, 1949. I guess Adolph’s socialism had died by then.
Funny how people like Einstein can be so smart in some ways, and not learn obvious lessons in other areas.
Perhaps you didn’t know it but Einstein was caught in what I call a “KGB Sandwich”, back in those days an “NKVD Sandwich”.
his personal secretary, Helen Dukas, “was involved in Soviet underground work. p. 278
p. 279. US Army Intelligence quote re information given to the FBI.
“Einstein’s personal secretary turned the coded telegrams over to a special apparat man, whose duty it was to transmit them to Moscow by various means...”
She received coded telegrams from the Far East which were then given to a Soviet operative re the above paragraph.
“The Venona Secrets”, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors”, Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, Regnery, 2000.
There is a lot more on Einstein and the German Communist Party and Willi Munzenberg Soviet fronts.
Later, his personal aide, I believe at Princeton, was Communist Party USA covert member Otto Nathan.
Thus Einstein, who had been sympathetic to the Soviet Union to the point of being either completely fooled or an actual sympathizer, was trapped in the NKVD Sandwich tactic. This continued to some extent into the late forties. Romerstein, pp. 278-279; 382; 397; 398-99.
And he did make/write several really stupid statements in support of Soviet socialsm and Stalin before the 1956 denunciation of Stalin’s crimes by Khruschev. I think Einstein died before they came out.
He could never bring himself to criticize Josef Stalin, though he lived long enough for most of Stalin's crimes to be revealed. He also thought the US should give up nuclear weapons to international control.
He was, like Newton, the kind of physicist who comes along once in a few hundred years. But outside of physics he was little better than a child.
He lived in academia all his life
His political views were wrong and he's entitled to have had wrong opinions - he never pushed those political opinions on others.
Reads like something a high school student would believe.
No one who has ever really witnessed management in a large organization could ever believe central planning would work.
However, it must be noted that just because you worked in a large organization it does not follow that you automatically witnessed any management.