The conceptual errors of historical materialism

The conceptual errors of historical materialism

Cacildo Marques – Sao Paulo

    With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the saga of historical materialism, begun in 1848, fulfilled its cycle. People struggling for the improvement of democracy and the guarantee of social rights are now turning to more current and more advanced theories, in the midst of some late "dreamers" imagining the implantation of "communism" and, on the opposite side, "crazies" organizing an anachronistic hunt for "communists".

    There are seven major theoretical misconceptions of historical materialism since the nineteenth century.

    1) Antimalthusian. Being anti-Malthusian, believing in the infinity of natural resources.

    2) Manichean. Classifying the set of opponents of the cause as "the reaction" (twisted Newton).

    3) Dictatorial. Refusing to revise the proposal of "dictatorship", even after the Parliamentary Republic of 1871.

    4) Refractory. Rejecting Psychology, even after Wilhelm Wundt's laboratory in 1879.

    5) Romantic. In an unconscious return to natural selection, law of the strongest, embracing, with the romantics, the fight against healthy competition.

    6) Confused. Interpreting the millenarian Asian cooperativism as "primitive communism", previous to Christianity.

    7) Scornful. Treating with disdain the previous ("utopian") attempts to improve society.

    It should be noted that both the "communist" and the "anticommunist" dreamers of the twenty-first century bear the same seven defects: They are anti-Malthusian, Manichaean, dictatorial, refractory, romantic, confused, and scornful.

    The vitrine of the so-called "proletarian" dictatorships of the twentieth century, which was the zeal for universal "free" official teaching, did not come from the proposition of historical materialism, but from the incorporation of the education politics from Pombal (1772) and Condorcet (1792).

    The very correctness of the philosophy of historical materialism has been diluted in the inevitable flaws of the model. These include: (a) the idea that politics should not be a game, (b) the abstraction of the religious question, according to the plan of separation of religion and State of the French Revolution, (c) Economy in the organization of society, although not as primeval social fact, (d) the transformation of all wage earners into political agents and (e) the propagation of the conception that the emancipation of wage earners is a world cause.

    All citizens who are struggling for the consolidation of effective democracy, which should not be understood as the regime in which the poor are called to the polls to choose periodically the foremen, but the system that, by periodic and popular choice of representatives, turns its energies towards guaranteeing the continuous improvement of people's living conditions in the areas of Freedom, Environmentalism, Education, Health, Employment, Transport, Security, Supply and Opportunities, all these citizens should study the foundations and trajectory of the life cycle of historical materialism, in order to equip the democratic regime with the necessary fire doors that will prevent new tragic experiences, either for oligarchic purposes or for the so-called magic keys of quick resolution of problems of ordinary citizens.

    No miracle proposal should merit respect if it seeks to undermine the three pillars of democracy, which are (a) the universal periodic vote, (b) the rule of law and (c) the non-longevity of the ruler's term.