WI: Decapitated Socialism?

In the summer of 1844, Karl Marx, Freidrich Engels, Mikhail Bakunin, and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon were all in Paris, France. Here in Paris, they forged connections and rivalries with each other that would leave great impressions upon the socialists movement.

What if another cholera epidemic or other ill, as was prone to happen in those days, spread through Paris yet again and slew these four thinkers, Socialists, Marxists, Anarchists?
 
Without Marx there'd still be socialism, he didn't invent it. He was just one of its more popular writers.
Ditto for the other three except to lesser extents.

Anything could really happen...THE socialist writer could turn out to be a absolute pacifist or a blood-thirsty maniac or anywhere in between. So much possibility for new kinds and no name of who would become THE writer stands out in my mind.
 
The question would then be, who gets to fill the positions that these four would have taken?

What other viable directions could socialism have gone?
 
Definately gonna impact future socialist trends, but I doubt it'll kill it. People are still gonna look to remedy the inequalities caused by the Industrial Revolution, as well as tying up the loose ends left over from the Age of Enlightenment.
 
The question would then be, who gets to fill the positions that these four would have taken?

What other viable directions could socialism have gone?
Perhaps Transcendentalism manages to jump the Atlantic? Doubt it would ever be accepted by the mainstream but it could be an influence for whatever else pops up.
 

Hendryk

Banned
In a context of industrialization, ruthless exploitation of the working class, and political upheaval (France alone had six regime changes in the course of the 19th century), the odds are that a theory of revolutionary socialism will come up somehow. What matters is that socialism can be tamed and turned into a legitimate political movement, which would be helped by the development of an analog to Fabian socialism.
 
What about an earlier Christian socialism, similar to the alliance between the political Catholics and socialists in the late 1800's? Could removing the four make socialism more 'friendly' to religion, and friendly to society in general?

Would an idealist socialism be more acceptable than scientific socialism?
 
As far as ideological reactions to the Industrial Revolution, I believe anarchism and Utilitarianism are still floating around, although the latter I think would have to jump the English Channel. But I agree, there's plenty of room for socialism to take any number of different directions.
 
As far as ideological reactions to the Industrial Revolution, I believe anarchism and Utilitarianism are still floating around, although the latter I think would have to jump the English Channel. But I agree, there's plenty of room for socialism to take any number of different directions.

Well, the WI kills off Proudhon and Bakunin, so how about individualist anarchism in the style of Tucker and Lysander Spooner jumping the Atlantic?

If we remove some of the 'Continental' thinkers, we can get more Americans on board.
 
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