[ApertureHour]

>>>>> the Communist Party, having starved itself of every rational input, would finally give up the ghost.

That statement really gets me thinking. Without wading down into full-blown social Darwinism, it wouldn't surprise me if human organizations are subject to a kind of memetic fitness. Maybe a trade off between ideological rigity or purity, and actual, objective inputs about their environment. When the Soviet state exiled, executed or imprisoned just about anyone who contradicted party doctrine, they systemically starved themselves of opportunities to make evidence-based decisions.

It reminded me of the Stephen Hawking quote; "Science wins because it works".