I’m particularly weak in this area, so I might ask a lot of very simple or even strange questions. Although I know you would definitely be happy to answer me, it really is a bother!
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- Does the theory of productive forces deny the contradiction between productive forces and social relations?
- Heraclitus said: The world is an entirety that includes everything; it is not created by any god or any person. It has been burning and extinguishing according to laws, an eternal living fire. Why do I feel this is also a kind of repetitive statement, more metaphysical than dialectical?
- What are some specific forms of democracy under class rule? I often find the confusion of “universal democracy” in revisionism perplexing.
- Is internationalism mainly focused on the relationship between states and nations, while communism further provides a more comprehensive explanation in social structure and internal social politics and economics? Can it be said that the former is a part of the latter?
- How can the connection and distinction between the struggles for production, survival, and class be more clearly understood? What I understand is that the主体 of the struggle for production is humanity, focusing on promoting the development of productive forces, a struggle to meet material and cultural needs, but without emphasizing class nature. The struggle for survival exists among all individuals and species in nature, with the purpose of competition. Among humans, it is more reflected in economic and political aspects, but all for individuals or small groups. Class struggle is the opposition and conflict of ideological, political, and economic interests between different classes, embodying the fundamental social contradictions in class society. Therefore, we should uphold class struggle and combine it with the struggle for production. Natural struggles for survival, such as among animals and plants, should be acknowledged, but should we reject the struggle between humans?
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Generally speaking, proponents of the monism of productivity do not deny the existence of the contradiction between productive forces and relations of production, but they distort the theory of the basic social contradiction, exaggerate the decisive role of productive forces on relations of production, and deny the反作用 (reaction) of relations of production on productive forces, as well as the反作用 (reaction) of the superstructure on the economic base.
Especially, the proponents of the monism of productivity exaggerate the role of productive forces and deny the反作用 (reaction) of relations of production, which inevitably leads to avoiding issues of relations of production and social systems, that is, avoiding the question of how the broad masses of laboring people organize production (whether they control the means of production themselves or others do, whether they decide the mode of labor or are subject to others, how social wealth produced by labor is distributed).
Therefore, a major flaw of the monism of productivity is the negation of human role, reducing productive forces to scientific and technological factors, without recognizing that science and technology are also human capabilities and come from the practice of the laboring people, which is a typical idealism.
This is not a repetitive statement. The main differences between dialectics and metaphysics are threefold: dialectics views the world with a perspective of development, connection, and contradiction; metaphysics views the world with a perspective of static, isolated, and one-sided (non-contradictory).
From Heraclitus’s words, it is clear that his dialectical thinking can be seen. He said “the world is an all-inclusive whole,” reflecting the view of connection; he said “it is not created by any god or any person, it has been burning and extinguishing according to laws, eternally alive fire,” which links “past, present, and future” and embodies the development perspective, and emphasizes that the source of matter is “eternal fire,” indicating that the objective world is in absolute motion, which is also a developmental view.
Talking about the state, we need to discuss the state system and the political system. The state system refers to which class rules, and the political system refers to the form of governance under class rule. Since it is all class rule, there is no so-called universal democracy. Democracy and dictatorship are a contradiction, a dialectical unity. The ruling class’s democracy is dictatorship over the ruled class; how can there be universal democracy?
The forms of democracy under class rule can roughly be divided into bourgeois democracy and proletarian democracy. Bourgeois representative democracy has many forms, such as constitutional monarchy, democratic republic, and specifically presidential system, responsible cabinet system, presidential-cabinet system—all are largely similar. The bourgeois periodically replace a batch of people to rule the people. Moreover, representative bodies are merely tools for the bourgeois to buy off officials, provide fat positions, and serve as venues for debate and quarrels; the real policies are decided in military and government departments’ meetings.
True democracy is under proletarian dictatorship. Because bourgeois democracy aims to dictatorship over the broad masses of people, it relies on a large number of bureaucrats, police, and military to monitor, control, and suppress the people. Proletarian dictatorship, centered on the proletariat and the majority of working people, does not require a large bureaucratic apparatus, police, or military, because its target is a small handful of bourgeoisie and their agents and lackeys.
There is no super-class universal democracy; only democracy corresponding to a particular class dictatorship. It is clear that proletarian dictatorship is the most universal democracy, as it only rules over a small group of social pests and allows them to labor and reform themselves, becoming citizens of a self-reliant and unselfish new society.
Internationalism emphasizes proletarian revolutionary solidarity. In the class struggle, only by achieving unity transcending states and nations can the proletariat attain victory. Communism is the most complete and advanced ideological system and social system of human society. From the ideological perspective, it indeed includes the spirit of internationalism.
Struggle is the conflict between opposing sides of a contradiction. Understanding it from the主体 (subject) of the contradiction makes it clearer.
Productive struggle is the contradiction between human labor and natural forces; it emphasizes the process of organizing society to transform nature, and productive forces are the human capacity to transform nature. Survival struggle is the struggle of living organisms’ survival ability against natural forces; it does not occur within human society. During the evolution from apes to humans, such survival struggles against natural forces also existed.
Class struggle is the conflict between opposing classes in a class society; it involves fundamental class opposition and non-fundamental class opposition. The opposition of the fundamental classes forms the basis of the social mode of production, while the relationship between non-fundamental and other classes is more complex.
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I suggest you take a look at this book, which has various entries in the table of contents, helping you understand various basic concepts.
Philosophy Small Dictionary (Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism section).pdf (20.3 MB)
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