Even knowing full well that MacColl was a communist I still appreciate the work he and Peggy did preserving and handing down some old Scottish songs including the Jacobite ones - not to mention his collaboration with A.L. Lloyd in the sea shanties and songs.

The big problem with communism, and other forms of humanism as well, as I see it, is that of human nature. They neither recognize the truth about human nature nor do they have the spriritual power to change it to what it would need to be for the economic order of communism to work. Capitalism on the other hand, is capable of functioning (by that I mean providing a decent standard of living to the most people, which is not necessarily the same thing as economic equality) without changing human nature at all. I don't consider either to be the ideal economic/social system but in the world in which we live, capitalism is clearly superior. It's unfortunate that in their youth, most people tend to go to extremes in one direction or the other.