Reflections from a member of the National Revolution Tour

“Science is not another ‘dogma’... it is the opposite of that”

April 27, 2020 | revcom.us

 

Editors' Note: The following is edited excerpts of a reflection on Tour discussions of BA articles, in particular, “Conspiracy Theories, Fascist ‘Certitude,’ Liberal Paralysis, OR A Scientific Approach To Changing the World.”

The National Revolution Tour has been getting into weekly and bi-weekly phone conference calls on the articles coming out from BA. This has been a very different experience, but it’s been helpful. There is something to listening to someone speak over the phone and paying attention to that. There tends to be a level of appreciation of BA and his consistent and overall method and approach. What I really appreciate is the struggle to go deeper. What does it mean to be scientific? How do we get into what is actual reality, and not proceeding from precepts or definitions?

In the article “Conspiracy Theories, Fascist ‘Certitude,’ Liberal Paralysis, OR A Scientific Approach To Changing the World,” BA writes:

Science is not another “dogma”—another untested and unproved “set of beliefs”—it is the opposite of that. Conclusions based on the application of the scientific method are obviously important, but science is not just some “collection of conclusions,” and still less is it a set of “precepts” which are not drawn from reality and are out of keeping with reality, or which once reflected reality but have become frozen and “ossified” and no longer correspond to a changing reality. Science is above all and most essentially a method.

To which he quotes a number of quotes from Ardea Skybreak on what is science, why you need science, “junk science” versus “good science” to prove it is “bad science,” and what are the interests of to take up the “good science” “if we want to transform the world to uproot oppression and exploitation” (from Skybreak’s Science and Revolution).

This was clarifying and exciting! These articles are also not long pieces and are extremely accessible for people. I can’t say how much it is needed to have these discussions. They happen early as hell, and I’m glad we finally split our teams up versus having everyone on one call, but they really wake me up and have been led well with a good, inviting approach to them. This is what you need to have a growing movement for revolution, as we ourselves are learning. As someone said, “... a communist [is] about [continuously] learning more.” It was helpful learning about how “communism is ‘wrangling-ism.’” These are tools that we can take up to go to work on problems. Right now, there are objective problems with fascism rising around the world at a time of a pandemic. Not to say we want to go back to the old ways of capitalist-imperialist rule. Also, a big problem as I see it is what these conference calls are helping to transform. We, ourselves, need to figure out ways to collectively dive into and wrangle with these articles from BA amongst each other and to help each other (including finding articles). What IS this scientific process, method and approach we keep talking about? What is the substance of our appreciation of BA and scientific leadership? Is it just appreciation?

We need to break out of the superficial appreciation, as important as having appreciation for BA and his method and approach is. I want to say that it is extremely important and precious when people see the difference between BA and everything else out there. But we have to dig deeper and do the work and to find the ways to do the work to emancipate humanity. We can be extremely busy and it’s understandable, but as one person put it, we ourselves should not be subject to what the fascists accuse us, of blindly ignoring the historical experience of socialist revolutions, and in this case it is the historical materialism and the work in The New Communism developed by BA.

At a time like this, what BA has been putting forward with these articles have changed a lot of my thinking and where I have been proceeding. Even the energy and the visceral feeling, you can feel, by reading it. As one article was titled quite frankly, “This Republic—Ridiculous, Outmoded, Criminal.” BA forces (in a compelling way) his reader to confront the actual reality of what this was all founded on and to pursue one’s convictions and understanding to its logical conclusion. In the article, “Revolting Barbarity, Shameless Hypocrisy: For Those Who Cling to the Myth of ‘This Great American Democracy’: Some Simple Questions,” BA puts forward some sharp questions. Reading this was very exhilarating and liberating. Just thinking about the fact that the police have murdered more Black people than the numbers of lynchings that happened is incredible and unbelievable. But it is the reality, and whether or not you like it, you cannot turn away from it, because it makes you uncomfortable. BA takes you there with plenty of evidence to back it up, and he begins with a quote from Frederick Douglass…, “For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.” BA will walk you there with questions and by the end of the article there usually is a bigger question that hits the mark. It's not some formulaic writing style that is structured the same. There are contradictions he is working on, and if you think about what are the contradictions he is working on, you begin to see the difference. What he’s doing is fulfilling a great need right now, not just as a prolific writer, but as he is continually leading a movement toward the emancipation of humanity.

I think we should continue to throw in on how to spread these works. I've heard the social media team is actively coming up with ways to do this and stirring things up. I think we should have some kind of podcast channel on Spotify or something. We had discussed it during our meetings before “Phase 2.” Let's do it. ... Revolution Club members from around the country can create a topic forum and just have a conversation.

• Short Version—The Simple and Basic Truth
• Longer Version—The Truth Elaborated