Stalin notwithstanding, Platonov had a deep passion for the Soviet Union. He believed that the socialist system would protect the world from fascist rule, but he was not sure that the human race was ready for such a task. Nonetheless he disagreed with critics of socialism who claimed that technological advances would free workers from poor conditions, countering that efficient tools would do nothing but cause workers to lose sight of what's important in life. "Some naïve people may retort that the contemporary crisis of production overturns this point of view," he wrote. "It does not overturn anything. Imagine the extremely complex technical equipment of the society of contemporary imperialism and fascism, the grinding exhaustion and destruction of the people of these societies — and it will become only too clear at what price this increase in the forces of production has been achieved." He later added in private notebooks, "Not only the technique for the production of material life is being perfected but that of managing people as well. Could the last reach a crisis of overproduction, a crisis of the historical dead-end?"