At the 20th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, held in February 1956, Khrushchev first denounced Stalin's misdeeds in a secret speech. A few months later Polish and Hungarian writers were openly demanding freedom of thought. These men were leading Communist intellectuals who were recoiling from the theory that morality, justice, art, and truth itself were to be identified with the interest of the party. Hungarian Communist writers solemnly repudiated the teaching that political expedience can be a criterion of the truth and "after bitter mental struggles" vowed "that in no circumstances will we ever write lies." A few weeks later, the Hungarian people, led by these intellectuals, overthrew the Stalinist regime established by Rakosi.
This revolution, as well as that more recent ill-fated one in Czechoslovakia, was fought to gain recognition for the reality of intangible things: truth and justice and moral and artistic integrity. The Bolshevik attempt to establish an empire that denied this reality, though undertaken for high purposes and in the light of a sophisticated theory, had failed. It had proved unbearable. This passionate recognition of a metaphysical reality, irreducible to material elements, may well mark a turning point: it may serve as an axiom for any future political thought.
Writers in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia have been trying to find a place for the morally responsible individual within the Marxian conception of history. Early manuscripts of Marx, until recently unpublished, offer some substance for this, but the reviving of a few Hegelian ideas in the thought of the young Marx will not take us far. We need a theory of knowledge which shows up the fallacy of positivistic skepticism and supports the possibility of a knowledge of entities governed by higher principles.
Michael Polanyi and Harry Prosch, Meaning
I've seen "policies, not ideals" offered as a concise expression of 'materialism'. But aren't policies attempts to realize ideals? Are there not good or bad reasons (not just intentions!) for trying to implement a policy?