Marx
Maybe it's unfair to saddle Karl Marx (1818-1883) with one of the year's least-loved months, given that his theories were never applied in their pure form. But we must note one factor that the author of the Communist Manifesto and Capital failed to take into account: As long as the twin ogres of Commerce and Capital tend to improve conditions for most people, most people will rush to the ogres' defense. In the case of the United States, where commerce first took the form of exchanging sugar for people, we were willing to defend our spendthrift ways through several meaningless wars and a 50-year gamble on nuclear winter. That kind of grim determination will stop any workers' revolt in its tracks, which is why we hope tomorrow's great thinkers will find more effective remedies for modernity's ills than Marx's tired potations.