"There are certain types of people who are political out of a kind of religious reason [...] I think it's fairly common among socialists: They are, in fact, God-seekers, looking for the kingdom of God on earth. A lot of religious reformers have been like that, too. It's the same psychological set, trying to abolish the present in favor of some better future β always taking it for granted that there is a better future. If you don't believe in heaven, then you believe in socialism. When I was in my real Communist phase, I and the people around me really believed β but, of course, this makes us certifiable β that something like 10 years after World War II, the world would be Communist and perfect."
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quoted in Lesley Hazelton "Doris Lessing on Feminism, Communism and Space Fiction", The New York Times Book Review (25 July 1982)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing
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Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing (22 October 1919 β 17 November 2013) was a British writer, born Doris May Tayler. In October 2007, Lessing became the eleventh woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in its 106-year history, and its oldest ever recipient.
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