I think knowledge is evolving informed conclusions.

I find it interesting that most people do not look beyond the results to the real causes. Marxism and Milton Freidman's Moneterist polices are the same in this regard. They are both Utopias and Utopias do not translate into the human community. They do not take into account the foibles of human nature especially the lust for power and control, and the lust to accrue bucket loads of money. The revolution in Russia was inevitable because of the huge suffering inflicted on the people by the "ruling classes" especially after the the repeal of serfdom in 1864, after which the landed classes made rent for land to former serfs for farming was so high the people could simply not afford to be self employed. This approach spread to all manufacturing enterprises and only exacerbated the unrest at such poor treatment , which had, in fact, started with the Decembrists revolt of December 5 (I believe) 1805. But the communists did not learn either, and while communism did provide gender equality, health care, pensions etc. paranoia, betrayal and greed also proliferated. Many politicians, Generals etc. had Swiss bank accounts, Dachas, big houses.apartments and so on. Milton Freidman's moneterism believes in privaterization, de-regulation and goverment so small you can't see it. He believed that the only thing government should be involved is is the military. This is what he sold to Ronnie Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They embraced it with glee. Remember RR's statement "The problem is not the market, it's the government." or words to that effect. They both put these policies into effect with great vigour, no responsibility and no accountability. The corporate boys were given a free reign and off they went, ending up where we are now. And still these boys are not held accountable. That is the tragedy of Obama. He promised such hope and has not delivered at all. Nor will he. China owns America lock, stock and barrel. China too, is heading for disaster. In fact we all are. Sarah Palin and the Tea Perty offer nothing. They peddle hate of all institutions with no suggested remedies. And if we really wish to be brutally honest, 10% of the people want things to change, 10% do not want things to change and 80% do not care enough to get involved. That is the perplexing tragedy of being human. But, when everything collapses we all will go on a senseless, meaningless, brutal rampage. There is a really good analysis of all these things in Chris Hedges' book "Death of the Liberal Class." So many people uses the terms socialism, liberalism and the like without knowing the first thing about any of them. I think we the people need to take responsibilty and read alot more about history, economics, socialism, liberalism etc. To me, being a decent human being means we don't have people living on the street, everyone earns a reasonable living wage, we tolerate others just we want to be tolerated, we have real justice not a manipulation of the law to meet the requests of the priviledged, that we simply care about others because we are all human beings. We are all born naked and we all die.