Socialism, Utopian and Scientific

The bourgeoisie revolutions were predicated on noble ideas, yet those ideas never materialized. This failure can solely be attributed to their idealist ethos. The perfect world is to first be constructed in one's head and then projected onto reality. This too was a failing of utopian socialists who theorized about all sorts of possible utopias. While their visions were arguably good, they left us with no practical plan, no guidance for action. Of course, this is because the world bares historical and material facts, and these facts cannot be ignored if we dare attempt to change the world. A process of systemic investigation is required before we know in which direction to take the world and how to do so. This is essentially what Engels means by "scientific". Naturally, Engels' favors a dialectical means of analysis, for the world is not static and everything is connected, and for him, dialectic unfolds on a material plane, therefore he uses historical and dialectical materialism to understand this process. For Engels, the contradictions he finds in capitalism are not ideological in nature, they are facts born out of the analysis. This is why it was his belief that it is only a matter of time before those inherent contradictions that exist under capitalism are synthesized and socialism is established.
Optimistic and way too confident, but still a respectable piece of work. Moreover, a better introduction to socialism than The Communist Manifesto!