Revolutionary Worker #1262, December 19, 2004, posted at rwor.org
This issue of the Revolutionary Worker features two articles that are crucially relevant to all those who are agonizing over the nightmarish future represented by Bush and the Christian fascists and who yearn for a different future.
First, "Bob Avakian in a Discussion with Comrades on Epistemology—On Knowing, and Changing, the World" takes us on an eye-opening journey into sweeping philosophical questions that have everything to do with transforming the world on a grand scale. These are notes of remarks made by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, in the course of a recent discussion with comrades on epistemology.
Epistemology refers to a theory of knowledge—having to do with how people acquire knowledge, the nature of truth, and the methods for arriving at the truth. In his theoretical explorations since the early 1980s, Bob Avakian has been grappling deeply with questions of epistemology in the process of studying the revolutions of the past and taking responsibility for charting the course of revolution today.
What is in these notes will challenge many people’s "conventional wisdom" on what communism and communists are "supposed to be like." While basing himself on the tremendous accomplishments of the communist revolutions and thinkers of the past, Chairman Avakian is bringing forward a new synthesis that in important respects is a rupture with what had existed previously.
For example, there has been a notion in the international communist movement that truth has a "class character"—a narrow utilitarian approach that points away from actual truth and reality of the world. In contrast Avakian says in these notes: "We have to rupture more fully with instrumentalism—with notions of making reality an ’instrument’ of our objectives, of distorting reality to try to make it serve our ends, of ’political truth.’ The dynamic of ’truths that make us cringe’ is part of what can be driving us forward. This can help call forth that ferment so that we can understand reality. This is scientific materialist objectivity."
Bob Avakian’s breakthroughs on epistemology are related to and undergird the radical re-envisioning of socialist and communist society and what it will take to get there—a vision that he has brought forward in a series of works, including the recent talk "On Dictatorship and Democracy, and the Socialist Transition to Communism."
At a time when Bush and the Christian fascists are taking lying to new heights, squashing divergent views and the critical spirit, suppressing scientists and scientific truth, Bob Avakian’s approach presents a sharp contrast. He says in the notes: "There is this physicist Brian Greene who has written some books popularizing questions of physics, and he speaks to this big contradiction the physicists can’t yet resolve between relativity and quantum mechanics. So the question they’re facing is: how do you get the next level of synthesis? What do we think of that—is that a big waste of time unless we can use that narrowly?. If we were working in the right way in these spheres we’d be having a lot of good struggle with people around all kinds of questions, including questions arising in their work, but first of all we would be seriously engaging the work they are doing and the questions they are wrestling with. We would do this in a different way than it’s often been done in the history of our movement. Is it important for what we’re trying to accomplish or should be trying to accomplish whether these physicists understand more about the world? Yes."
Think what it would mean if this methodology was taken up by widening circles of people in society—from the those in the projects and workplaces to the artists and intellectuals. It would be a material force against the know- nothingness and religious dogmas now being promoted from the highest levels. And imagine a vibrant socialist society where people everywhere are unleashed to wrangle with and pursue the truth as they transform and revolutionize the world.
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Today, the question of what vision of the future will win out is posed urgently for millions of people. This clash of futures is addressed in the second major feature of this issue of our paper—the statement from the Revolutionary Communist Party, "The Battle for the Future Will Be Fought from Here Forward!"
We are in a historical moment of great danger and turmoil. The re-election of George W. Bush represents a new leap in the power and initiative of the Christian fascist element of the ruling class. These cutthroat theocrats are deadly serious about transforming bourgeois rule and all of U.S. society in their image.
At the same time, broad sections of society are being awakened to and pulled into political life. The battle over the recent election revealed widespread opposition to the lies and crimes of empire, outrage over the Jim Crow-ism that reared its ugly head around the voting, a deep foreboding about the fascist direction of America, and increased questioning over what kind of society we live in and what it means to be human in today’s world.
There is a definite polarization taking shape in this country. The Christian fascists are on the march, increasingly setting terms within the ruling class and shaping key faultlines in society. And this also means intensifying horrors around the globe. The massacre in Fallujah was the Bush team’s post-election statement to the people of the world.
There is an urgent and strategic need to repolarize this dangerous situation—toward a direction favorable to resistance and revolution. And the highly charged, politicized atmosphere of today presents possibilities for such repolarization—but this will not happen on its own. It is in this context that the RCP has issued this clarion statement.
The Party message confronts head-on the reality of the situation in early 21st-century America: "If they [the Christian fascists] get their way—and they are very far along the road to getting it—society will be plunged into a high-tech Dark Ages."
The statement calls for a major leap in resistance, with a powerful society-wide NO! when Bush is inaugurated on January 20: "People everywhere must see that there really ARE ’two Americas,’ squaring off over the future."
The statement sharply contrasts the suffocating program and hypocritical morality of Bush and the Christian fascists with a vision of a liberating socialist society and a communist morality based on reality that opens up whole new vistas for humanity.
The question is posed straight up: "Which vision of the future will prevail: that of George W. Bush? Or of Bob Avakian?"
The Party envisions that this statement can and must get out to millions.The statement needs to resonate in a big way in the superstructure—on the airwaves, through the Internet, and in the press. It must be put in the hands of the people and spread through networks of friends, co-workers, and campuses. It needs to be mass leafleted in cities across the country.
Post the statement in this paper on walls and bulletin boards. Download online versions of the statement at rwor.org to print out and to post on the Internet.
As the Party statement says: "What are YOU gonna do? Are YOU going to be one of thousands who come together now and help create the force that can lead millions against this madness, when millions are ready to be led? Will you bring your ideas, your creativity, your questions and yes, your disagreements to us, and help figure out how we can rise to the occasion? Are YOU ready to make a real difference —to not only spread the word of resistance and revolution, but make that a real alternative in society?"