I found myself in a discussion about historical materialism where I ended up saying something along the lines of “scientific progress helps us to build more ethical societies because it enables us to see through the injustices of race, religion, and capitalism.” I was kind of firing from the hip, but I couldn’t think of anything better to say. My conversation partner asked me if I thought you could do a scientific experiment or analysis on a moral problem, and I was frankly stumped.
I know we aren’t supposed to think in moral categories, but I sense every one of us thinks, and correct me if I’m wrong, that capitalism is wrong and communism is right morally speaking. With that in mind, as contradictions are resolved per historical materialism and as different peoples have socialist revolutions within their societies, do these societies become more moral in any sense?
I stray away from moral arguments. They’re generally weak arguments and tend to engage more emotion, which makes it harder for people to think clearly. There is nothing moral about saying that you are a wage slave. You can say morality means you shouldn’t be a slave, but many people don’t even care as long as their lives don’t change much. It can even be a slippery slope.
If you say “your life would benefit because you’d never have to worry about the right to a job or a home or healthcare, no matter how much or little money you make,” that’s more important to people. “Yes, your sick mom will have access to medicine for free, and your boss is your employee and your labor matters.” I think that’s the kind of stuff that perks up the ears.
Try not to get caught up in morality for your own sake. It’s simple, why would you use a stone axe to cut down a giant tree if you have access to a chainsaw or computer from the 90s? For no practical reason. tradition? It’s the same with economics. We have access to better ideological and economic technologies than capitalism. Let’s use them to our well-being.
One final thing is to not think in linear terms of progress. All societies have had moral “advances” and “regressions.” There is no more federal requirement for abortion as of a month ago, for example. I wouldn’t say América is any more moral today than it was in 2003, or 1823. It was a horrible experiment on genocide and slavery that entire time. Thus, societies shift from, monarchy, to capitalism to fascism, to liberal democracy, to dictatorship, back to feudalism, maybe to socialism, maybe back to liberal democracy. Things play out in cycles and defy our ideas of progress and the linearity of such. So, what is progress today was normal yesterday. That’s also why keeping the revolutionary spirit alive is so important. So we can better safeguard the future from reactionary forces and preserve the successes of the proletariat.
Try to let go of ideas ab should or shouldn’t, think about how and who would benefit from the success of communism.