Much of the history of the past 200 years revolved around
a single idea. It was the vision that life could be lived in peace and brotherhood if only property were shared by all and distributed equally, eliminating the source of greed, envy, poverty and strife. This idea was called "socialism” and it was man’s most ambitious attempt to supplant religion with a doctrine grounded on science rather than revelation. Because its goal proved so elusive, the socialist movement split and split again into diverse, murderously contradictory forms.
